LESSON 9 Grammar: Formal Language

WRITING AN ACADEMIC Writing: Introduction to Project

PAPER Proposal

Learning Outcome
1. Identify the rules and conventions of an academic paper.
2. Distinguish different academic paper genres.
3. Demonstrate the use of appropriate registers in composing and presenting a
project proposal.

PREPARATION

• Review the use of formal register.

• Review the guidelines on writing effective sentences and paragraphs.

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Academic writing
Academic writing is generally quite formal, objective (impersonal) and technical. It is formal by
avoiding casual or conversational language, such as contractions or informal vocabulary. It is
impersonal and objective by avoiding direct reference to people or feelings, and instead
emphasizing objects, facts and ideas. It is technical by using vocabulary specific to the
discipline.

Different disciplines also have different styles and structures of writing. For example, some
disciplines, such as in the humanities, expect longer paragraphs, which include topic sentences
to show how your argument is structured. Other disciplines, for example in the sciences, expect
short paragraphs, with no topic sentences, which are denser in factual information.

To be a good academic writer, you will need to learn the specific styles and structures for your
discipline, as well as for each individual writing task. Some ways to do this are to:
• ask for more information from your lecturer/supervisor/tutor
• study the writing style of the academic articles in the most prestigious journals in your
discipline
• look at some successful writing by other students in your subject area.

Formal language

You can make your writing more formal through the vocabulary that you use. For academic
writing:
• choose formal instead of informal vocabulary. For example, ‘somewhat’ is more
formal than ‘a bit’, ‘insufficient’ is more formal than ‘not enough’.
• avoid contractions. For example, use ‘did not’ rather than ‘didn’t’.
• avoid emotional language. For example, instead of strong words such as ‘wonderful’
or ‘terrible’, use more moderate words such as ‘helpful’ or ‘problematic’.
• instead of using absolute positives and negatives, such as ‘proof’ or ‘wrong’, use more
cautious evaluations, such as ‘strong evidence’ or ‘less convincing’.

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Objective language
Although academic writing usually requires you to be objective and impersonal (not mentioning
personal feelings), often you may still have to present your opinion. For example, you may need
to:
• interpret findings
• evaluate a theory
• develop an argument
• critique the work of others.
To express your point of view and still write in an objective style, you can use the following
strategies.
• Move information around in the sentence to emphasize things and ideas, instead of
people and feelings. For example, instead of writing ‘I believe the model is valid, based
on these findings’, write ‘These findings indicate that the model is valid’.
• Avoid evaluative words that are based on non-technical judgements and feelings. For
example, use ‘valid’ or ‘did not demonstrate’ instead of ‘amazing’ or ‘disappointment’.
• Avoid intense or emotional evaluative language. For example, instead of writing
‘Parents who smoke are obviously abusing their children’, write ‘Secondhand smoke
has some harmful effects on children’s health’.
• Use modality to show caution about your views, or to allow room for others to
disagree. For example, instead of writing ‘I think secondhand smoke causes cancer’,
write ‘There is evidence to support the possibility that secondhand smoke increases
the risk of cancer’.
• Find authoritative sources, such as authors, researchers and theorists in books or
articles, who support your point of view, and refer to them in your writing. For
example, instead of writing ‘Language is, in my view, clearly something social’, write
‘As Halliday (1973) argues, language is intrinsically social’.
Different disciplines often have quite different expectations about how objective or subjective
your writing can be. For example, in some fields it is fine to use first person, such as 'my view is
that...', while in other fields this is not acceptable. You should look at the convention used in
published articles in your discipline area, and check with your lecturer/professor.

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Technical language

As well as using formal language, you also need to write technically. This means that you need
to develop a large vocabulary for the concepts specific to the discipline or specialization you’re
writing for. To do this, take note of terminology used by your lecturer and tutor, as well as in
your readings.

Be careful about the meaning of technical terms. Often the same word has a different meaning
in another discipline. For example, ‘discourse’ is a technical term used in multiple disciplines
with different meanings.

Make sure you also understand and use the key categories and relationships in your discipline,
that is, the way information and ideas are organized into groups. For example, in the discipline
of Law, law is separated into two types: common law and statute law. Knowing these
distinctions will help you structure your writing and make it more technical and analytical.

Types of academic writing

The four main types of academic writing are descriptive, analytical, persuasive and critical. Each
of these types of writing has specific language features and purposes.

In many academic texts you will need to use more than one type. For example, in an empirical
thesis:
• you will use critical writing in the literature review to show where there is a gap or
opportunity in the existing research
• the methods section will be mostly descriptive to summarize the methods used to
collect and analyze information
• the results section will be mostly descriptive and analytical as you report on the data
you collected
• the discussion section is more analytical, as you relate your findings back to your
research questions, and also persuasive, as you propose your interpretations of the
findings.

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Descriptive

The simplest type of academic writing is descriptive. Its purpose is to provide facts or
information. An example would be a summary of an article or a report of the results of an
experiment.

The kinds of instructions for a purely descriptive assignment include: 'identify', 'report', 'record',
'summarize' and 'define'.

Analytical

It’s rare for a university-level text to be purely descriptive. Most academic writing is also
analytical. Analytical writing includes descriptive writing, but also requires you to re-organize
the facts and information you describe into categories, groups, parts, types or relationships.

Sometimes, these categories or relationships are already part of the discipline, while in other
cases you will create them specifically for your text. If you’re comparing two theories, you
might break your comparison into several parts, for example: how each theory deals with social
context, how each theory deals with language learning, and how each theory can be used in
practice.
The kinds of instructions for an analytical assignment include: 'analyze', 'compare', 'contrast',
'relate', and 'examine'.

To make your writing more analytical:

• spend plenty of time planning. Brainstorm the facts and ideas, and try different ways
of grouping them, according to patterns, parts, similarities and differences. You could
use color-coding, flow charts, tree diagrams or tables.
• create a name for the relationships and categories you find. For example, advantages
and disadvantages.
• build each section and paragraph around one of the analytical categories.
• make the structure of your paper clear to your reader, by using topic sentences and a
clear introduction.

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Persuasive

In most academic writing, you are required to go at least one step further than analytical
writing, to persuasive writing. Persuasive writing has all the features of analytical writing (that
is, information plus re-organizing the information), with the addition of your own point of view.
Most essays are persuasive, and there is a persuasive element in at least the discussion and
conclusion of a research article.

Points of view in academic writing can include an argument, recommendation, interpretation of

findings or evaluation of the work of others. In persuasive writing, each claim you make needs
to be supported by some evidence, for example a reference to research findings or published
sources.

The kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: 'argue', 'evaluate', 'discuss', and
'take a position'.

To develop your argument:

• list the different reasons for your point of view

• think about the different types and sources of evidence which you can use to support
your point of view
• consider different ways that your point of view is similar to, and different from, the
points of view of other researchers
• look for various ways to break your point of view into parts. For example, cost
effectiveness, environmental sustainability, scope of real-world application.
To present your argument, make sure:
• your text develops a coherent argument where all the individual claims work together
to support your overall point of view
• your reasoning for each claim is clear to the reader
• your assumptions are valid
• you have evidence for every claim you make
• you use evidence that is convincing and directly relevant.

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Critical

Critical writing is common for research, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate writing. It
has all the features of persuasive writing, with the added feature of at least one other point of
view. While persuasive writing requires you to have your own point of view on an issue or topic,
critical writing requires you to consider at least two points of view, including your own.

For example, you may explain a researcher's interpretation or argument and then evaluate the
merits of the argument, or give your own alternative interpretation.

Examples of critical writing assignments include a critique of a journal article, or a literature

review that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of existing research. The kinds of
instructions for critical writing include: 'critique', 'debate', 'disagree' and 'evaluate'.

You need to:

• accurately summarize all or part of the work. This could include identifying the main
interpretations, assumptions or methodology.

• have an opinion about the work. Appropriate types of opinion could include pointing
out some problems with it, proposing an alternative approach that would be better,
and/or defending the work against the critiques of others.

• provide evidence for your point of view. Depending on the specific assignment and
the discipline, different types of evidence may be appropriate, such as logical
reasoning, reference to authoritative sources and/or research data.

Critical writing requires strong writing skills. You need to thoroughly understand the topic and
the issues. You need to develop an essay structure and paragraph structure that allows you to
analyze different interpretations and develop your own argument, supported by evidence.

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Structuring written work

Some assignments have a standard format, such as lab reports or case studies, and these will
normally be explained in your course materials. For other assignments, you will have to come
up with your own structure.
Your structure might be guided by:
• the assignment question. For example, it may list topics or use wording such as
‘compare and contrast’
• the subject matter itself, which may suggest a structure based on chronology, process
or location
• your interpretation of the subject matter. For example, problem/solution, argument/
counter-argument or sub-topics in order of importance
• the structure of other texts you’ve read in your discipline. Look at how the information
is organized and sequenced. Make sure you modify the structure to suit your purpose
to avoid plagiarism.

Essays
Essays are a very common form of academic writing. Like most of the texts you write at
university, all essays have the same basic three-part structure: introduction, main body and
conclusion. However, the main body can be structured in many different ways.
To write a good essay:
• know if you’re expected to write an analytical, persuasive or critical essay
• clearly structure your main body and paragraphs
• use appropriate referencing
• use academic language.

Reports
Reports generally have the same basic structure as essays, with an introduction, body and
conclusion. However, the main body structure can vary widely, as the term ‘report’ is used for
many types of texts and purposes in different disciplines.
Find out as much as possible about what type of report is expected.

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Making the structure clear

Your writing will be clear and logical to read if it’s easy to see the structure and how it fits
together. You can achieve this in several ways.
• Use the end of the introduction to show the reader what structure to expect.
• Use headings and sub-headings to clearly mark the sections (if these are acceptable
for your discipline and assignment type).
• Use topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph, to show the reader what the
main idea is, and to link back to the introduction and/or headings and sub-headings.
• Show the connections between sentences. The beginning of each sentence should
link back to the main idea of the paragraph or a previous sentence.
• Use conjunctions and linking words to show the structure of relationships between
ideas. Examples of conjunctions include: however, similarly, in contrast, for this
reason, as a result and moreover.

Introductions
Most of the types of texts you write for university need to have an introduction. Its purpose is to
clearly tell the reader the topic, purpose and structure of the paper.
As a rough guide, an introduction might be between 10 and 20 percent of the length of the
whole paper and has three main parts.
1. The most general information, such as background and/or definitions.
2. The core of the introduction, where you show the overall topic, purpose, your point of
view, hypotheses and/or research questions (depending on what kind of paper it is).
3. The most specific information, describing the scope and structure of your paper.
If the main body of your paper follows a predictable template, such as the method, results and
discussion stages of a report in the sciences, you generally don’t need to include a guide to the
structure in your introduction.
You should write your introduction after you know both your overall point of view (if it is a
persuasive paper) and the whole structure of your paper. You should then revise the
introduction when you have completed the main body.

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Paragraphs
Most academic writing is structured into paragraphs. It is helpful to think about each paragraph
as a mini essay with a three-part structure:
• topic sentence
• body of the paragraph
• concluding sentence (necessary for long paragraphs but otherwise optional).
You don’t have to write all your paragraphs using this structure. For example, there are
paragraphs with no topic sentence, or the topic is mentioned near the end of the paragraph.
However, this is a clear and common structure that makes it easy for the reader to follow.

Conclusions
The conclusion is closely related to the introduction and is often described as its ‘mirror image’.
This means that if the introduction begins with general information and ends with specific
information, the conclusion moves in the opposite direction.
The conclusion usually:
• begins by briefly summarizing the main scope or structure of the paper
• confirms the topic that was given in the introduction. This may take the form of the
aims of the paper, a thesis statement (point of view) or a research question/hypothesis
and its answer/outcome.
• ends with a more general statement about how this topic relates to its context. This
may take the form of an evaluation of the importance of the topic, implications for
future research or a recommendation about theory or practice.

Editing and proofreading

Depending on the type of assignment and your process of writing, editing may involve:
• removing or adding text to meet the word limit
• making your sentences clearer and more concise
• restructuring paragraphs or sections
• making sure your ideas flow logically
• making sure you’ve provided enough background information

• adding in subheadings or sentences to clearly signpost the structure.

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Using evidence

Many types of university assignments are persuasive or critical. In these types of texts, you
need to provide evidence to support your claims.

Different disciplines use different types of evidence. For example, in arts disciplines, published
sources are the main evidence, while science disciplines often use various types of empirical
data (such as statistics or other experimental results) as the main evidence.
In addition to finding the right kind of evidence you need to evaluate the quality of evidence -
not all pieces of evidence will be equally valuable for you to use. You should consider:
• whether the evidence directly demonstrates support for a claim you are making. For
example, does it show that another scholar agrees with your argument, or that results
confirm your interpretation?
• the reliability of the evidence. Is it published in a peer-reviewed journal or a book by a
reputable publisher? Is the author someone who has expertise and status in the field?
Has the data been obtained through a rigorous methodology, using an appropriate
sample?
• if it meets the standards for good evidence in your discipline. For example, in some
disciplines, such as information technology, sources need to be quite recent, as
publications that are two years old may already be out of date. In other disciplines,
like philosophy, sources that are more than 200 years old may still be authoritative
and relevant.
If you’re not sure what type of evidence you should use, or what is good-quality evidence in
your discipline, you could start by:
• checking the assignment instructions and any rubrics/marking guide/grade
descriptors provided
• asking your lecturer/tutor for more information
• discussing it with other students
• looking at the type of evidence used in the readings for that unit of study.

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Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using someone else’s work as if it were your own. It is a type of academic
dishonesty.
Make sure you’re familiar with what is considered plagiarism and what the consequences are.

Avoiding plagiarism
To avoid plagiarism, you need to be aware of what it is, and have good writing skills and
referencing knowledge. You need to be able to:
• paraphrase and summarize
• know when to quote a source and when to paraphrase it
• link information from sources with your own ideas
• correctly use referencing conventions.
When you quote a source, you use an extract exactly as it was used in/by the source. You
indicate a quote by using quotation marks or indenting the text for long quotes.
When you paraphrase or summarize, you put the author’s ideas in your own words. However,
you still need to attribute the idea to the author by including a reference.
It’s usually better to paraphrase than quote, as it shows a higher level of thinking,
understanding and writing skills. To rephrase ideas, you need a large vocabulary of formal and
technical words for the subject matter, as well as grammatical flexibility.
If you have a language background other than English, you can also work on these skills by
spending as many hours per day as possible in English conversation. You can also study the
vocabulary and grammar patterns used in the books and articles you’re reading for your course.

Referencing
In order to avoid plagiarism, you need to acknowledge your sources through referencing.
There are several different referencing conventions, also called citation styles, such as Harvard,
American Psychological Association and MLA. The referencing convention you use depends on
your discipline. If you’re not sure which system to use, ask your lecturer.

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Writing a Research Proposal

Most, if not all, degree programs require students to write a thesis as a final requirement for
graduation. Before the final thesis however, students should write a proposal. The proposal
provides an overview of a student’s proposed plan of work, including the general scope of the
project, basic research questions or objectives, research methodology and the overall
significance of the study. Proposals are designed to:
• Justify and plan for a research project
• Show how a project contributes to existing research
• Demonstrate an understanding of how to conduct discipline-specific research
within an acceptable time-frame.

Parts of a Research Proposal

Despite their wide differences, proposals across programs generally include at least some form
of the following sections : Title, Introduction/Rational/Background of the Study, Research
Questions/Objectives, Significance of the Study, Review of Literature, and Methodology .

Title
At this early stage, you need only provide a working title. You can decide on the exact
wording for your title when you are nearer to completing your dissertation. Nevertheless,
even at the start, aim to create a title that conveys the idea of your investigation.
Normally, a title beginning “A study in . . .” is too vague; decide whether you want to
compare, collate, assess, etc. Also, don’t worry if you compose a long title. You are
preparing to write an academic document, not to devise a snappy headline for a tabloid
newspaper.
A good title should:
• orient your readers to the topic you will research
• indicate the type of study you will conduct
Examples:
• Role of Hydrologic Cycle in Vegetation Response to Climate Change: An
Analysis Using VEMAP Phase 2 Model Experiments
• Defining Identities: A Survey of Ethnic Identification Switch Among Children
of Mixed Marriages in Central Mindanao

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Writing a Research Proposal

Introduction/Background
The introduction helps put your project in conversation with other projects on similar
topics. Generally, the introduction provides necessary background information to your
study and provides readers with some sense of your overall research interest. A good
introduction should:
• Establish the general territory (real world or research) in which the research is
placed.
• Describe the broad foundations of your study, including some references to
existing literature and/or empirically observable situations. In other words, the
introduction needs to provide sufficient background for readers to understand
where your study is coming from.
• Indicate the general scope of your project, but do not go into so much detail
that later sections (purpose/literature review) become irrelevant.
• Provide an overview of the sections that will appear in your proposal
(optional).
For a more detailed discussion on how to write an Introduction, see Appendix B.
Statement of the Problem/Objectives/Research Questions
Most proposals include a clear statement of the research objectives, including a
description of the questions the research seeks to answer or the hypotheses the research
advances. This may be included as part of the introduction, or it may be a separate
section.
Examples:
• Examine the effects of historic shifts in climate on the interactions of carbon
and water cycles as simulated by the constituent models of VEMAP Phase 2.
• Under what conditions do children of mixed marriages invoke a specific ethnic
identity?

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Writing a Research Proposal

Review of Literature
The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant to the
work that you are carrying out. Obviously, at this point you are not likely to have read
everything related to your research questions, but you should still be able to identify the
key texts with which you will be in conversation as you write your dissertation. Literature
reviews often include both the theoretical approaches to your topic and research
(empirical or analytical) on your topic.
Writing the literature review allows you to understand:
• How other scholars have written about your topic (in addition to what they
have written).
• The range of theories scholars use to analyze their primary materials or data
How other scholars connect their specific research topics to larger issues,
questions, or practices within the field.
• The best methodologies and research techniques for your particular topic.
The literature review has four major functions or rhetorical goals that you should keep in
mind as you write:
• It situates the current study within a wider disciplinary conversation.
• It illustrates the uniqueness, importance of and need for your particular
project by explaining how your research questions and approach are different
from those of other scholars.
• It justifies methodological choices.
• It demonstrates your familiarity with the topic and appropriate approaches to
studying it.
Effective literature reviews should: Flesh out the Introduction’s brief description of the
background of your study.
• Critically assess important research trends or areas of interest relevant to your
study.
• Identify potential gaps in knowledge.
• Establish a need for current and/or future research projects.

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Writing a Research Proposal

Tips on drafting your Literature Review:
• Categorize the literature into recognizable topic clusters and begin each with
a sub-heading. Look for trends and themes and then synthesize related
information. You want to 1) stake out the various positions that are relevant
to your project, 2) build on conclusions that lead to your project, or 3)
demonstrate the places where the literature is lacking, whether due to a
methodology you think is incomplete or to assumptions you think are flawed.
• Avoid “Smith says X, Jones says Y” literature reviews. You should be tying the
literature you review to specific facets of your problem, not to review for the
sake of reviewing.
• Avoid including all the studies on the subject or the vast array of scholarship
that brought you to the subject. As tempting as it might be to throw in
everything you know, the literature review is not the place for such
demonstration. Stick to those pieces of the literature directly relevant to your
narrowed subject (question or statement of a problem).
• Avoid polemics, praise, and blame. You should fight the temptation to
strongly express your opinions about the previous literature. Your task is to
justify your project given the known scholarship, so polemics, praise, and
blame are unnecessary and possibly distracting.
Example:

Increasingly, the research community is turning to coupled land-surface-

atmosphere-ocean models with dynamic modules to achieve the realism neces-
sary for climate studies. Most of the studies to date have incorporated equilibrium
vegetation models into climate change simulations (e.g., Neilson and Marks 1994,
VEMAP Members 1995 . . . ; but see Foley et al. 1998 for an example of climate
simulations with a DGVM). It is recognized that the next stage is to include dy-
namic representations of the terrestrial biosphere. In this context, VEMAP Phase 2
model experiments will provide a unique opportunity to assess the effects of cli-
mate change on the hydrologic cycle and the water balance of regions on a conti-
nental scale, and how vegetation dynamics mediate those responses.

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Writing a Research Proposal

Methodology
This section is essential to most good research proposals. How you study a problem is
often as important as the results you collect. This section includes a description of the
general means through which the goals of the study will be achieved: methods, materials,
procedures, tasks, etc.
An effective methodology section should:
• Introduce the overall methodological approach for each problem or question. Is
your study qualitative or quantitative? Are you going to take a special approach,
such as action research, or use case studies?
• Indicate how the approach fits the overall research design. Your methods should
have a clear connection with your research questions and/or hypotheses. In other
words, make sure that your methods will actually answer your questions—Don
Thackrey notes that the most common reason for the rejection of professional
proposals is that “the proposed tests, or methods, or scientific procedures are
unsuited to the stated objective.”
• Describe the specific methods of data collection you are going to use—e.g. surveys,
interviews, questionnaires, observation, archival or traditional library research.
• Explain how you intend to analyze and interpret your results. Will you use statistical
analysis? Will you use specific theoretical perspectives to help you analyze a text or
explain observed behaviors?
• If necessary, provide background and rationale for methodologies that are
unfamiliar for your readers. (Typically, the social sciences and humanities require
more explanation/rationale of methods than the hard sciences). o If applicable, you
may also need to provide a rationale for subject selection (particularly if you have
not already provided one). For instance, if you propose to conduct interviews and
use questionnaires, how do you intend to select the sample population? If you are
analyzing literary texts, which texts have you chosen, and why?
• Address potential limitations. Are there any practical limitations that could affect
your data collection? How will you attempt to control for potential confounding
variables and errors?

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Writing a Research Proposal

Tips on drafting your methodology section:
• Break down your methodology into easily digestible subsections. o In the
physical sciences, these sections may include subjects, design, apparatus,
instrumentation, process, analysis, etc.
A. In the social sciences, these sections may include selection of
participants, interview process, profiles, interpretive and analytic
framework, methods of qualitative analysis, etc.
B. In the humanities, these sections may include scholarly research,
archival research, theoretical orientation, etc.
• Remember that your methods section may also require supporting literature.
• Anticipate and pre-empt the audience’s methodological concerns.
A. If the audience might have a problem with a facet of the methodology,
admit this difficulty and justify your approach.
B. If your methodology may lead to problems you can anticipate (including
timeframe problems), state this openly and show why pursuing the
methodology outweighs the risk of these problems cropping up.
Key Point: If you have demonstrated that you have considered even the downside of your
methods, their advantages will seem more carefully developed.
Example:

The research plan will proceed in two phases. During the first phase, the
researcher will select a 60-household purposive sample, create and test interview
protocols and choose key informants. The first phase will lay the groundwork for
the second, so that the researcher will be prepared to create a baseline
assessment of exchange and social interaction before the dry season begins in
May. During the second phase, the researcher will conduct in-depth interviews
with key informants and four ethnographic interviews with each household in the
sample. At the end of the second phase, the researcher will conduct a series of
experimental games to determine the norms of identity switches among the
participants.

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Writing a Research Proposal

Timeline/Plan of Work Many proposals also include a schedule with anticipated
completion dates for specific parts of the dissertation. This timeline helps your committee
determine if your project is realistic given available methods and institutional
requirements (such as deadlines for submission, etc.). Setting a schedule can also help
you manage your time more effectively by setting specific goals for yourself.
Some suggestions to keep in mind while drafting a timeline:
• Consult your adviser as you develop your plan of work.
• Once you have identified a specific time for submitting your thesis, work backwards
and estimate how long each stage will take.
• Do not be overly ambitious; most stages seem to take longer than originally
planned.
• Remember that this is a proposed timeline. What is perhaps most important is that
you demonstrate your awareness of the various elements of the study (IRB
approval, travel; design, testing, and length of experiments; negotiation of entry
into the study site; purchase of necessary equipment; drafting; redrafting; etc.).

Style and Language

A. Length
Most thesis proposals are roughly 20 pages. Conciseness is usually at a premium. The
tight focus you have developed on your research problem should, in turn, focus the
amount of time and space you spend reviewing relevant literature and discussing
methods.
B. Style Considerations
• Tone refers to the writer’s attitude toward his or her writing, usually expressed
most clearly in vocabulary choices and “hedging” considerations. Try to strike
a consistently confident tone and avoid an apologetic or arrogant tone.
• Coherence reflects the extent to which sentences and paragraphs ‘flow’
together. It allows your readers to follow your writing.

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Style and Language

B. Style Considerations
Writers best achieve coherence by:
1. Moving from “old” (familiar) information to “new” information.
2. Putting the most important information at the end of the sentence
(stress position). Keep the subject and verb together.
3. Starting sentences with short, easily understood phrases.
4. Using “stock” transitional phrases (“however,” “therefore,” “in addition,”
“on the other hand”) that signal to readers a shift in topic or emphasis.
(See earlier lesson on Transitions).
5. Using pronouns to refer back to previously introduced information (e.g.
this + noun) and/or the use of recycling, or the repetition of key words or
phrases.
Example:

When rocks erode, they break down into sediment—smaller pieces of rock
and minerals. These sediments may eventually travel in water to new sites
such as the sea or river beds. The water deposits the sediments in layers that
become buried and compacted. In time, the sediment particles are cemented
together to form new rocks, known as sedimentary rocks. The layers of sedi-
ment in these rocks are often visible without microscopes. (Lay et al., 2000)

C. Voice refers to your “presence” as a grammatical subject in your sentences. Be

conscious of the difference between “active” and “passive” voice.
Active: I will conduct the bulk of the research during the six-month fieldwork period.
Passive: The bulk of the research will be conducted during fieldwork.
English teachers are fond of telling writers to avoid the passive voice. However, there are
two rhetorically strategic reasons for using the passive voice construction:
1. Your field may prefer its use, especially in describing research design and
experimental activities.
2. You need to preserve coherence from sentence to sentence.

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