Week 2

Writing: Academic Style: To do before Wk 3 Wed 9-11

Read the features of academic writing.

1. Avoid contractions.
For example, instead of using its, write it is.

2. Use more appropriate negative forms (notany->no)

There are no is more formal than There arent any; and (very) few/little is more formal than Not
many/much.

3. Avoid using and so on or etc

If necessary, you can give general examples using such as or including, but it is even better to give
specific detail rather than generalised examples

4. Dont use I , you, we..

Be specific in terms of the people involved in a situation. Make use of the passive voice where
appropriate.

5. No direct questions
Questions are a convenient way to introduce a new topic, but you need to rewrite these question
as topic sentences.

6. Nominalisation
Nouns and noun phrases sound more formal than verb phrases; and dont use a gerund (verb+ing)
if a noun form is possible.

7. Dont use phrasal verbs or get

Instead of get, use obtain, receive or another suitable verb. All phrasal verbs have an informal
equivalent. Use a thesaurus to find suitable alternatives.

8. Use formal vocabulary

Some common informal words to avoid:

a bit slightly; a lot / considerably / a considerable number/amount of; all the time
continually; big large; good advantageous / beneficial; bad detrimental

9. Dont start sentences with And, But and So

Week 2

Week 2
TASK: Identify why these sentences are not academic in style and rewrite them.

1. Export figures wont improve until the economy is stronger.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. The analysis didnt yield any new results.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. What can be done to lower costs?

_______________________________________________________________________

4. The government didnt allocate much funding for the programme

_______________________________________________________________________

5. The fast growing of population in developing countries causes considerable problems.

_______________________________________________________________________

6. These semiconductors can be used in robots, CD players, etc.

_______________________________________________________________________

7. You can see the results in Table 1.

_______________________________________________________________________

8. The problem was sorted out by reversing the direction of the gas flow.

_______________________________________________________________________

9. The researcher got several anomalous results.

_______________________________________________________________________

10. Big cars use a lot of petrol and therefore have a bad effect on the environment.

_______________________________________________________________

ANSWERS WILL BE PROVIDED IN THE LESSON ON WEDNESDAY