Higher Education Language & Presentation Support

Writing in
Academic Style
HELPS (Higher Education Language & Presentation Support)
•Location: CB01.03.08
•Telephone: 9514 9733
•Email: [email protected]
•Website: ssu.uts.edu.au/helps

•Check out our self-help study resources on our website

•Join our facebook site facebook.com/UTSHelps

Contact us
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• Understand and better your academic writing
style
• Use of grammar for academic purposes
• Develop better unity and cohesion in your
writing
• Importance of structure & planning!
• Effective editing techniques / meet criteria

Workshop program
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Exercise
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• Q1: How do you rate your academic writing
skills and abilities?

• Q2: How confident are you about your

knowledge of academic style, grammar,
punctuation and spelling in your written work?

• Q3: How do you currently edit or proof your

work?

Warm- Up Questions
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• Developing academic style + formality
• Having good structure in writing
• Developing appropriate vocabulary
• Importance of editing
• Polishing your presentation

Our checklist today

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Developing Academic
Style

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• Q: What are some of the features of academic
register/ writing?

Features of Academic
writing
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Features of Academic Writing
• It has few personal pronouns, such as ‘I’, ‘we’ or ‘they’.

• It is highly structured & has a very formal style.

• It is impersonal and non emotional -usually fact based.

• Its grammar makes greater use of the passive tense.

• It is often research based and not opinion based writing. It uses

references and quotes to show this.

• It features no jargon or slang words.

• It has no colloquialisms. e.g. The kids in school nowadays.

• No grammatical contractions e.g. ‘can’t, won’t, doesn’t etc.

• Demonstrates high levels of critical thinking and critical analysis.

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Bad
example

It is imperative that students at university gain adequate study skills as well as

Better effective study habits. There are several ways that this can be achieved. Some
example useful techniques that should be acquired are mind-mapping and effective note-
taking methods. Furthermore, building effective communication skills are an
essential element to university life which are also transferred later in life into the
working environment. Therefore, it can be stated that learning, building and
maintaining a range of study skills will enhance students’ learning, participation
rates and success whilst undertaking tertiary education.

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Exercise
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 What’s wrong?
• Please find at least 5 problems with this piece of text.

• In my essay I will describe the great benifits

we can all get by coming to university.
University is a great place to expand your
mind and learn new concepts and theories
(Smith J.D 2008). I’ll explore and examine 3
different elements in my essay.
• Let’s make it more academic! We’ll re-write it

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What are some of the most common mistakes university
students make?

Native speakers =
• Poor overall structure
• Poor academic style – too casual
• Informal use of vocabulary
• Writing in the 1st person ‘I’

Non-native speakers (the above… plus) =

• Subject verb agreement – They has a lecture.
• Use of articles (a, an, the)
• Preposition errors (in, for, at)
• Countable/uncountable / sing/pl nouns (evidences)
• Verb tense
• punctuation

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 • Answers the set question in a logical structure/argument
• Develops logical arguments which draw conclusions
• Matches the marking criteria
• Demonstrates critical thinking and critical analysis
• Uses reliable academic sources to validate and underpin
arguments made
• Appropriate academic style with good standards of
grammar, punctuation, spelling and presentation
• Work that shows thought, reflection & complexity of ideas

What are Lecturer’s looking for?

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 Developing Grammar

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• Like anything –you need to practice!

Also….
• Read what you want to write.
• Write often in the style required.
• Use grammar books to self-teach.
• Get friends/peers to check/tutor

How to improve your knowledge of

grammar.
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• Passive voice
• Increased nominalisation
• Neutral –non-emotive

Essential elements
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Exercise
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• What is the passive voice?
• Why do we use it in academic writing?

Passive Voice / 3 rd

person
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• Increased use of the Passive Tense –more formal,
less emotional and more authoritative.

• Practise:

• A. The lecturer presented the SWOT analysis marketing

theory.

• B. I will analyse the key factors related to monetary policy

in Australia.

• C. I will present the findings of the questionnaire and

survey relating to the rise and fall in domestic interest rates
over the past decade.

Academic Grammar
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• Nominalisation is the process of turning verbs
(and adjectives) into their respective noun
forms
• Makes the ideas more abstract and sound
more formal/academic.

Q: Which is the nominalised version?

• A) Researchers examined evidence relating to
modern building design which showed that...
• B) An examination of evidence relating to
modern building design showed that…

Nominalisation
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# Nominalisation Verb Form Adjective form
Analysis Analyse ?
? Believe n/a
? Compare comparable
? Conclude concluding
? suggest suggested
difficulty [To be] difficult ?

Exercise / word forms

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Developing Your Style

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• Smooth flowing
• Logically linked ideas
• Logically linked text
• Order of importance
• Relevant ideas

Developing cohesion
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Developing Unity:

• Having paragraphs all related to the main topic

sentence ensures unity in the writing.
• Keep to your controlling idea (topic sentence)

Developing Unity &

Cohesion
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 Cohesive Devices

• Cohesive devices are words and phrases that

connect sentences and paragraphs together, to
create a smooth flow of ideas. Cohesive devices
are words such as transitions, pronoun references
and the repetition of key supporting ideas.

Developing Cohesion
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• There are many transition words and phrases in English
that are used in academic writing to connect sentences
together or relate ideas to one another. Here is a table of
some of the common examples.

Effective Use of
Transitions:
Source: Oshima & Hogue, 2007 27
Exercise
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• Add transitions to this passage to make it smoother:

Computer games have been popular for several decades now and many
households have at least one such game on either a mobile phone device or
personal computer. It can be said that playing such games causes social,
educational and personal problems of several kinds both to youngsters and
society. Youngsters who spend a great deal of time in front of a computer monitor
can be said to be ‘missing out on life’ and not fully and actively engaging with the
world around them (Herfson 2014) . The skills which they need in order to interact
with others and succeed in the real world are not being nurtured and developed.
Studies have shown that the recent generation of young males is physically
growing less than previous generations due to lack of exercise (Clarke 2009 &
Johnson & Higgins 2007). They are more likely to be overweight and less healthy,
so more prone to diseases such as diabetes. The overuse of computer games by
teenagers can be seen as having a significant effect upon society in a
detrimental manner.
(Source: Jeffs 2014)

Exercise
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• In academic writing, to develop unity in paragraph writing, it is
essential that the pronoun use is consistent and relates to the same
idea, person, thing being described.

Example: Climate Change is affecting most nations on the

planet. It is affecting the way people are living on Planet Earth as it
is not able to adapt quickly enough to the changes in the climate
system nor are the human beings living on it. They simply cannot
escape the affects of climate change if governments take no
action. (source: climatechange.org)

• Q: What do the underlined pronouns refer to in the above text?

Effective Pronoun Usage

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• Unity and cohesion are vital elements in your writing.
They ensure that your writing is logical, well
connected, relevant to your topic sentences.

Importance of Unity and Cohesion

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Effective
Vocabulary

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Exercise
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# Informal Formal/ Academic
1 kids ?
2 University is great ?
3 There are many ideas ?
4 Students get knowledge ?
5 In discussing the good ?
things
6 And, this essay will look ?
into

Use of Vocabulary
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• Need to avoid generalisations & broad
sweeping statements

• e.g. People living in hotter climates are happier

than people in colder ones.
• e.g. Small sized businesses are not as profitable
as larger ones.
• e.g. Poor education leads to crime.

Being Cautious
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• Developing a cautious style is necessary in
many areas of academic writing e.g.

• People living in hotter climates tend to be

happier than ones living in colder countries.
• Studies suggest that smaller companies may
not be as profitable as larger ones.
• Poor levels of education may be a resulting
factor in higher crime rates in some instances.

Developing caution
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Putting it all
together

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• Let’s see at how the grammar, vocabulary and structure
work together.

• Let’s also identify the VOICE in academic writing.

Text Analysis
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Exercise
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 In commenting on professional nursing practice in large scale medical
institutions, Klein & Smith (2009) state that effective nursing skills
include excellent communication traits, ability to communicate at
every level within the medical environment and also the ability to
effectively delegate to other staff members. However, these are
common observations that apply to most medical and nursing
professionals of course. These also link with the notion put forward by
Brown (2012) who states that being able to empathise with patients is
a critically important skill for nursing professionals around the world.
These are interesting comments which demonstrate the skill sets that
are needed for nursing professionals in large scale health
organisations. However, it can also be argued that further skills and
attributes are needed, which might include……

Let’s Analyse this text

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 Whose voice is here? In red? / In green?

In commenting on professional nursing practice in large scale medical

institutions, Klein & Smith (2009) state that effective nursing skills
include excellent communication traits, ability to communicate at
every level within the medical environment and also the ability to
effectively delegate to other staff members. However, these are
common observations that apply to most medical and nursing
professionals of course. These also link with the notion put forward by
Brown (2012) who states that being able to empathise with patients is
a critically important skill for nursing professionals around the world.
These are interesting comments which demonstrate the skill sets that
are needed for nursing professionals in large scale health
organisations. However, it can also be argued that further skills and
attributes are needed, which might include……

Let’s Analyse this text

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 What are the phrases in red doing?

In commenting on professional nursing practice in large scale medical

institutions, Klein & Smith (2009) state that effective nursing skills
include excellent communication traits, ability to communicate at
every level within the medical environment and also the ability to
effectively delegate to other staff members. However, these are
common observations that apply to most medical and nursing
professionals of course. These also link with the notion put forward
by Brown (2012) who states that being able to empathise with patients
is a critically important skill for nursing professionals around the world.
These are interesting comments which demonstrate the skill sets
that are needed for nursing professionals in large scale health
organisations. However, it can also be argued that further skills and
attributes are needed, which might include……

Let’s Analyse this text

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 What are the phrases in blue doing?

In commenting on professional nursing practice in large scale medical

institutions, Klein & Smith (2009) state that effective nursing skills
include excellent communication traits, ability to communicate at
every level within the medical environment and also the ability to
effectively delegate to other staff members. However, these are
common observations that apply to most medical and nursing
professionals of course. These also link with the notion put forward by
Brown (2012) who states that being able to empathise with patients
is a critically important skill for nursing professionals around the world.
These are interesting comments which demonstrate the skill sets that
are needed for nursing professionals in large scale health
organisations. However, it can also be argued that further skills and
attributes are needed, which might include……

Let’s Analyse this text

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• Q: How many drafts of your assignment do you
do before you hand-in your work?

• Q: What are the minimum number of drafts you

should do, before hand-in?

Editing and Proofing

Academic Writing
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1. Proof and edit for clarity of meaning.

2. Proof and edit for style and grammar.

3. Proof and edit for presentation/typos / refs.

Edit X 3 rule
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• When proofing and editing your academic
work, look out for the common mistakes that
native and non-native university students make
that were outlined before.

• Also- get someone to read your work for you.

Editing
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• Formal register / NOT chatty!
• Not written in the 1st person/ no ‘me’, ‘I’ or ‘my’
• No contractions (isn’t, can’t, won’t)
• Highly structured
• Avoids vague imprecise language
• Research based
• Impersonal & emotionally neutral
• Not opinion based writing usually
• Shows range of academic vocabulary
• Lack of personal pronouns
• Good levels of accurate grammar, spelling and
punctuation needed

Academic writing Summary

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• HELPS Centre / self help resources /sample assignments
• Lecturer/ Faculty staff
• Internet searches
• Books / Bookshop – Co-Op/Abbeys/Bridge
• Your Classmates/Friends/Peers
• https://www.facebook.com/UTSHELPS

Further resources /
help
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Useful Further
Resources
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Do you have any questions about today’s
workshop?

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• Good luck with your academic writing.

Slides written by & prepared by Jonny Wells / UTS HELPS

© UTS HELPS 2015

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 UTS:HELPS
ssu.uts.edu.au/helps

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