Academic Style - UniHub · There are five elements to Academic Style. With a partner, discuss what...

Academic Style

Learner Enhancement Team

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© Middlesex University

Variety is the Spice of Life!

Different Schools… ….Different Rules – Can you use ‘I’ in an academic text? – Should an essay have section headings? – How long is a report? – Do you use primary or secondary research? – Footnotes, endnotes or no notes? – Harvard style referencing or MLA? What about APA?

Which school are you in? What is acceptable and what is unacceptable in your field?

Always check in your module handbooks or with your tutor if you are concerned about appropriacy

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Academic Style Aims

— To look at what is meant by Academic Style

— To consider the elements of Academic Style

— To practice Academic Style

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Task

Which of these words do you think describe Academic Style?

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It should be complicated

Lots of long sentences

Scientific

Only facts – no opinions

Repetitive

Difficult


Academic Writing Style There a number of things to bear in mind about Academic style:

— Academic style is not ‘better’ • … just an academic ‘lingua franca’… a ‘code’

— Needs to be universally understood • Conversation is about interaction & relationships; academic writing also

contains elements of these, but is more about clear articulation of ‘information’ and thought. It uses different features.

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Five Elements

There are five elements to Academic Style. With a partner, discuss what you think these elements refer to:

— Concise

— Precise

— Academic, fact-based criticality — Formal — Serious

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Five Elements, Six Steps

There are six steps to being concise, precise, critical, formal & serious:

1. Precise Language

2. Remove redundancy

3. Love nouns 4. De-personalise 5. Clarity

6. Caution and distance

We will look at each of these steps in turn

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Task

ONE: Why are there so many jams on the roads these days? One thing is that public transport like trains, buses etc is so dear. A long time ago cars cost a lot but now, unfortunately they’ve got much cheaper. Another thing is that driving is a lot nicer than waiting for a bus. The trouble is that if everyone buys a car the roads get packed.

TWO: The increased frequency in road congestion may be due to the high costs of public transport (Lee & Smith, 2011), and the lower costs and convenience of car ownership (Green, 2012).

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Which of these texts seems more ‘academic’? How do you know this?

Notice: TWO is much shorter than ONE. In fact, it is quite

simple!


Step One – Precise Language

ONE: Why are there so many jams on the roads these days? One thing is that public transport like trains, buses etc is so dear. A long time ago cars cost a lot but now, unfortunately they’ve got much cheaper. Another thing is that driving is a lot nicer than waiting for a bus. The trouble is that if everyone buys a car the roads get packed. (66 words)

TWO: The increased frequency in road congestion may be due to the high costs of public transport (Lee & Smith, 2011), and the lower costs and convenience of car ownership (Green, 2012). (31 words)

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What is the effect of using these informal phrases on text one?



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With a partner, complete the gaps:

Anglo-Saxon Latin-French go after pursue go on continue build construct make

fortunately need

desire make up with

advantage / benefit get better

satisfactory



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With a partner, complete the gaps:

Anglo-Saxon Latin-French go after pursue go on continue build construct make create?

luckily? fortunately need require?

Want to? desire make up with reconcile?

good thing? advantage / benefit get better improve?

OK / alright? satisfactory

Be careful! Clarity is king in

academic writing


What does ‘redundant’ mean?

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Step Two – Remove Redundancy

1. Postpone system changeover to a later date

2. Downtime data is absolutely perfect

3. The company will revert back to the previous MIS

4. It was really impossible

5. It is so important to make it safe and secure to pay on the internet

1. Postpone system changeover

2. Downtime data is perfect

3. Will revert to the previous MIS

4. It was impossible

5. Online payment security is crucial

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‘Redundancy’ means saying more than you need to. Look at these sentences – where is the redundancy?


Step Two – Remove Redundancy

What has changed in this sentence, once we remove the redundant word(s)? How does this affect the style of the sentence?

— It is so important to make it safe and secure to pay on the internet

— Online payment security is crucial

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Step Three – Love Nouns

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Another way to remove redundancy is to consider your verbs. Verbs are ‘doing’ words, like run, write or sing. Look at this example:

They will consider the issue during the user training

We will change the verb, consider, into the noun, consideration:

Consideration will be given during the user training


Task

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With a partner, decide how you can transform the underlined verbs into nouns:

1. They eventually permitted us to include a shopping cart. • Permission was given for the inclusion of a shopping cart?

2. They have transferred the money to the bank account. • The money transfer went ahead?

3. They will present the website awards after the speeches. • The award presentation is after the speeches?

4. They will not announce the findings until next week. • The announcement will be next week?

5. They demolished the building in only two days. • The demolition took only two days?

6. They will produce the new software by outsourcing. • Outsourcing will account for software production.


Changing focus…

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By changing the verbs into nouns, you also had to change the structure of the sentence:

—They eventually permitted us to include a shopping cart.

—Permission was given for the inclusion of a shopping cart.

Often students write phrases such as ‘many studies have shown…’ or ‘many researchers believe’….

This is problematic for academic writing. Why?


Step Four – De-personalise

What’s the difference between these sentences?

— “I broke your iPod.”

— “While you were away your iPod was broken.”

— “I made a mistake.”

— “Mistakes were made.”

— Brown (2011) suggests using air filtration systems on trains to… — Air filtration systems could be used on trains to… (Brown 2011).

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Step Four – De-personalise

Many students struggle with the concept of plagiarism, not least because often universities have unclear guidance on the subject. Not only that, but I have found that in some cases lecturers do not follow these guidelines or are even unaware they exist. In order to counter this issue, I propose that…

Many students struggle with the concept of plagiarism, not least because often universities have unclear guidance on the subject. Not only that, but in some cases lecturers do not follow these guidelines or are even unaware they exist. In order to counter this issue, it is proposed that…

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Academic writing should appear objective. One of the ways to achieve this sense of objectivity is to de-personalise your writing. Look at these examples:

Notice that option two is

shorter! Why?


Task

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What is the difference between a basketball net and a fishing net?

Ideally, your writing will be like a fishing net, capturing all the ideas and arguments, not letting anything ‘slip through’. Gappy writing, like a basketball net, allows rigour, research and critically to escape. We need to close the net!


Step Five - Clarity

What’s wrong with this?

A lot of people think that the weather is getting worse. I think that they are quite right. Research tells us that we now get storms etc all the time.

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Step Five - Clarity

What’s wrong with this?

A lot of people think that the weather is getting worse. I think that they are quite right. Research tells us that we now get storms etc all the time.

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The AWL Open Workshop Critical Thinking and How To Write Effective Paragraphs may help your clarity.

Who? Your gran??

Worse? Worse than what? What does this mean,

really?

Good for you. Yawn.

What research? Who is ‘us’? Am

I you? Whaaaat? Etc?

Rains of

frogs? Oh yeah, every ten minutes…


Step Six – Caution & Distance What is wrong with the following?

Men and women are different. Men like money and power but women like relationships and emotional concerns. Males take turns in speech whereas females speak at once. Females touch and care for people while males only do so by providing for them with things they can buy. Women focus on the journey or process but men think only about the destinations or results.

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Step Six – Caution & Distance — Men like money and power

— Women like relationships and emotional concerns

— Males take turns in speech

— Females speak at once

— Females touch and care for people

— Males only do so by providing for them with things they can buy

— Women focus on the journey or process

— Men think only about the destinations or results

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This is extremely generalised. It reads more like a ‘coffee shop’ argument than an academic argument. One way to improve this would

be to add references – however, even with references a number of readers would take issue with the generalised tone of this piece. How

might a writer deal with generalisations?


Step Six – Caution & Distance

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Task

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Modal verbs can help to show distance and caution. What is the difference(s?) between these sentences?: — It might be argued that …

— It has been argued that …

— It could be argued that … — It can be argued that … — It should be argued that…

— It must be argued that…


Step Six – Caution & Distance

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Here are some ways to show caution and distance in your work: — De-personalisation removes ‘you’

— Modal verbs and caution

— Academic writing means using sources: • Experts, scholars …. • Direct/indirect references • Argument and counter-argument • The voices of many! How they relate to each other


Polishing Your Argument

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— Paragraphing clear? (helps reader)

— Academic (not spoken) style? • Concise, uses abstract nouns, verb clauses collapsed to noun groups • Precise and formal (‘higher’) words • De-personalised, distanced to sound neutral

(as needed) • Is cautious, thus accurate • Some emphasis

— Accurate: grammar (check a friend’s)

— No plagiarism?

The AWL Open Workshop How To Proofread Effectively could also help you to polish your work.


Final Task

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Look at the text handout and discuss with a partner ways it could be improved, based on the content of this session.


Where now? — Need more detailed assistance? Book a tutorial!

— Want feedback on a specific section? Drop in to Getting Your Assignment Ready!

— Want somewhere quiet to write, and get on the spot assistance? Try The Writing Space!

— Got a few quick questions? AWL Office Hours at [The Study Hub] are for you!

— AWL Open Workshops can be booked here! • Suggestions:

– Critical Thinking – How To Write Effective Paragraphs – How To Proofread Effectively – Book a tutorial

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http://wgfp-prrw02.mdx.ac.uk:8001/Appointment/WebsiteStudentAppointment.aspx?yTwr47KDJFY=

http://wgfp-prrw02.mdx.ac.uk:8001/Appointment/WebsiteStudentAppointment.aspx?mnZfsGtbzaZfuDllyuWgLA==




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Academic Style

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Academic Style - UniHub · There are five elements to Academic Style. With a partner, discuss what...

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