ENGLISH FOR

ACADEMIC AND
PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES
WRITING PROCESS
THE ACADEMIC
WRITING STYLE
 FACTORS THAT
SHAPED WRITING AS A
FORM OF
COMMUNICATION
TOPIC

WHAT I S THE TEXT ABOUT? WHAT DETAILS

AM I IMPARTING TO THE READERS?

ROLE
WHO AM I AS A WRITER?
PURPOSE

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

AUDIENCE

WHO IS READING THIS PIECE? WHAT

KNOWLEDGE DOES HE/SHE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND IN MY WRITING?
AUDIENCE TYPES
TYPE DEFINITION

EXPERT HAS SUBSTANTIAL PREVIOUS

KNOWLEDGE OF THE TOPIC
LAYPERSON HAS LITTLE OR NO PREVIOUS
KNOWEDGE ABOUT THE TOPIC
EXECUTIVE HAS DECISION MAKING POWER

TECHNICIAN A HANDS-ON OPERATOR OF

EQUIPMENT OR ONE INVOLVED IN
THE EXECUTION OF A TECHNICAL
PROCESS.
COMPLEX A COMBINATION OF AN EXPERT
AND AN EXECUTIVE.
 CONVERSATIONAL STYLE
VS.
TECHNICAL LANGUAGE USED

CONVERSATIONAL STYLE IS USED WHEN YOU ARE

TRYING TO APPEAL TO YOUR AUDIENCE. IT USES THE
FIRST AND SECOND PERSON.

TECHNICAL LANGUAGE USE IS USED TO COMMUNICATE

SPECIFICS TO A PARTICULAR CONCEPT OR INDUSTRY.
What is Academic Writing?

It is the style of writing that

investigates the state of an issue and
presents your position based on the
evidence of your research.
 Five Features of Academic Writing
1. Formality
2. Objectivity
3. Explicitness
4. Caution
5. Structure
Formality
It reflects your dignified stance in your writing
as a member of the academic community.
This means that since your audience are
fellow members of the academic community,
the language you use requires precision to
make it a “legitimate” piece of academic
writing.
Formality
Formality can be achieved through the following
ways:
1. Choosing expanded modal forms over
contracted forms, such as using CANNOT
instead CAN’T, DO NOT instead of DON’T.
2. Choosing one verb form over tw0-word verbs,
such as a damage instead of mess up.
Formality
Formality can be achieved through the following
ways:.
3. Expanded terms over their abbreviated
equivalents, such as SOON AS POSSIBLE
instead ASAP.
4. Avoiding colloquial/trite/idiomatic expression,
such as kind of like, as matter of fact, I need to
go to the John.
Objectivity
Academic writing requires special
knowledge and use of more complex
language and objectivity. This means
that the writing must be impersonal and
maintain a certain level of social
distance.
Objectivity
It can be achieved through:
1. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as
you, I and we.
Poor Example: You need to conduct the
experiment.
Improved Version: The researchers need to
conduct the experiments.
2. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it marks
“closeness” with the reader, and constantly
seeks his/her attention.
Poor Example: How can these problems be
solved?
Improved Version: Certain measures must be
discovered to solve the problems.
3. Avoiding emotive language that shows
biases and lessens objectivity.
Poor Example: The investigators were
very shocked to see the outcome of the
tests.
Improved Version: The investigators did
not expect the results.
Explicitness
Academic writing demands the use of
signpost that allows readers to trace
the relationship in the parts of the
study.
If you intend to show a change in your
line of argument, make it clear by
using however.
Explicitness
Example: It is apparent that the
government hopes to provide assistance
to the poor. However, giving dole outs to
the “poorest of the poor” does not work
in a long term.
*However, this is due to the, similarly, in
addition and for example
Explicitness
This is due to …
A number of MERALCO consumers trooped
to the City Hall to claim a PHP 500.00 cash
incentive. This is due to the Supreme Court
ruling that overcharges must be returned
to the end users whose electric
consumption for the April-May period was
bellow 100kw/hr.
Explicitness
This resulted in…
With the Supreme Court ordering
MERALCO to return overcharges to the
end users, government offices have been
tapped to operate as claim centers. This
resulted in a number of MERALCO
consumers trooping to the City Hall to
claim the PHP 500.oo cash incentives.
Explicitness

When two ideas seem

the same, express each
one clearly.
Explicitness
The study showed that eighty percent of
the 200 participants involved in the study
were dissatisfied with the operations of
MERALCO. Similarly, the data revealed
that majority of the participants were not
aware of the charges imposed on them
by MERALCO.
Explicitness

If you tend to give extra

information in your sentence,
make it clear by adding or
writing “In addition …”
Explicitness
MERALCO has been operating as a
business conglomerate involving
foreign stakeholders and
independent power producers or IPP.
In addition, MERALCO owns major
IPPs operating in the region.
Explicitness

If you are giving examples,

do so explicitly by writing
“For example…”
Explicitness
The MERALCO issue has led to disputes
between opposition and administration
senators. For example, those who have
been labeled as against the president
considered the issue as the
administration’s way of avoiding the
NBN-ZTE scandal.
Caution
Academic writing requires care since knowledge is
build from the proven theories and concepts.
Therefore, caution is needed to avoid sweeping
generalizations.
Example: Government officials are corrupt.
*The statement is not completely true and the rhetorical
impact of the statement may be misleading. The statement
can be improved through the use of devices such as modals,
verbs, adverbs .
Government officials are corrupt.

Improved Version
1. Some government officials may be corrupt.
(modal verb)
2.Corruption is commonly linked to some key
government officials. (adverb)
3. A number of government officials tend to
be linked with cases of corruption. (verb)
Caution
In academic writing, caution needs to be observed in
the following parts of your paper:
1. When hypothesis needs to be tested.
2. Drawing conclusions or predictions from your
findings that may generalize certain matters or
may not be conclusive.
3. Referencing others’ work to build on your paper.
Caution

VERBS indicating caution:

Tends, suggests, appear/s to
be, think, doubt, indicate … .
Caution
 Since academic writing draws on
previous writings done related to your
topic (in the case of research writing),
it is important that creating knowledge
is expressed through means that do
not lead to sweeping generalizations
that may directly attack other writers’
point of view.
Caution
If your results show something different
from another author’s ideas, there are
possible ways in writing these points
1. The results contradict Meyer’s
findings …
2. The results appear to be different
from Meyer’s findings …
Structure
Aside from language, sentences
need to be constructed in such a
way that they show a level of
complexity that reflects the
sophistication of an academic
writer.
Structure
In combining ideas effectively,
you will need to avoid
redundancy and at the same
time, make sure that ideas are
packed effectively.
Structure
Consider the following examples:
The earthquake caused loss of life.
The earthquake caused massive
property damage.
The earthquake changed the
landscape of the village.
Structure
Improved construction:
The earthquake was a disaster that
caused loss of life, property
damage, and permanent changes in
the landscape.
Structure
Combining ideas effectively,
nominalization and
passivization are some ways
to achieve structure fit for
academic writing.
Structure
In nominalization, the verbs are
made central as they denote
action. Transforming verbs into
nouns helps readers focus on the
action and not on the doer of the
action.
Structure
Example:
The president announced a three-day
holiday this September.
Improved Sentence:
The president’s announcement of a three-
day holiday for September was released.
Words ending with the following suffixes are
nouns.
-ity, popularity, sanctity, enmity

-ence, pestilence, abstinence, conference

-ness, fairness, ugliness, hoarseness
-ment, allotment, firmament, deportment
-er (or), actor, teacher, preacher
-ship, friendship, courtship, trusteeship
-tion, caution, demotion, motion
-ism, truism, communism, fascism
-hood, childhood, girlhood, manhood
Structure
Example:
The company created software to
manage the transactions successfully.
Improved Sentence:
The creation of software to manage
transactions was a success.
Structure
Example:
The mall distributed several free items to
consumer in the hope to boost sales.
Improved Sentence:
Distribution of free items for consumer
was done in the hope to boost sales.
Structure
In passive construction, the results of
actions are highlighted. In academic
writing, since the writer of the paper is
presumed to have done the collection
and analysis of the data, it is understood
that all results of the action are a product
of the writer’s work.
Voices of Verb
Active voice, the subject of sentence
performs the action.
Passive voice the subject receives the action.
Example:
Active:The dog bit the man.
Passive:The man was bitten by the dog.
Structure
Example:
The researcher conducted experiments
to validate the hypothesis.
Improved Sentence:
Experiments were conducted to validate
the hypothesis.
Structure
Example:
An engineer built a saltwater lamp to
help communities with no electricity.
Improved Sentence:
Saltwater lamp was built to help
communities with no electricity.
Structure
Example:
Several scientists conducted experiment
to examine the effects of algae on
biodiversity.
Improved Sentence:
An experiment was conducted to examine
the effects of algae on biodiversity.
LET’s APPLY this
Direction:
Combine the sentences to make their structure complex and
better fit for academic writing.
The government’s deal with the public transportation
company was not successful.
The government’s deal with the public transportation
company will cause delays in projects.
The government’s deal with the public transport
company will result in unsatisfied citizens.