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EL2510: Session 1

Introduction to Academic Style

What is Academic Style?

Producing written work as part of a university exam, essay, dissertation or another form of
assignment requires an approach to organization, structure, voice, and use of language that differs
from other forms of writing and communication.

Academic style is a broad term which encompasses both linguistic and non-linguistic features
displayed in writing (may also be in speech) for an academic community. The term ‘linguistic’ refers
to the language used while the term ‘non-linguistic features’ includes organization, formatting, tone,
and point-of view of a piece of writing. This is the style used in academic communities such as
universities, colleges, and schools; publications such as textbooks, study guides, and research papers;
and pieces of wring such as assignments, reports, and dissertations. Academic style, thereby, is a skill
every student should achieve fluency in.

Academic writing is the style of writing that no one is born with but can be mastered. Understanding
more about the conventions of your discipline and the specific features and conventions of academic
writing can help you develop confidence and make improvements to your written work. Academic
writing is part of a complex process of finding, analyzing and evaluating information, planning,
structuring, editing and proofreading your work, and reflecting on feedback that underpins written
assessment at university.

Undergraduates usually presume that their writing is judged primarily on its grammatical correctness.
Ideas, evidence, and arguments matter more than the mechanics of grammar and punctuation;
however, many of the rules of formal writing exist to promote clarity and precision which writers
much achieve in order to effectively convey ideas, evidence, and arguments.

Activity 1.1.

Think of some examples of different genres of writing that you are required to produce at university
as opposed to genres of general writing that are out there in your everyday society. Compare and
contrast the former and the latter.
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Activity 1.2.

Watch this video on an introduction to academic writing by the Writing Centre, National University
of Science and Technology, MISIS. The video is structured in four parts: What is academic English?
What is academic writing? What are the characteristics of academic writing? and Why is academic
writing important?

Watch the video and a) take notes under the same four areas and b) note down any academic
writing keywords, so that you will be ready for the subsequent steps of this lesson (Tip: Keywords
are the terms that capture the essence of a subject topic).

Activity 1.3.

Discuss why the six considerations given in the figure 1.1 are
important in academic writing.

(These will be discussed in detail in the upcoming sessions).

Fig 1.1 Considerations in Academic Writing (Swales & Feak, 2004)

Features of Academic Writing

Extracted from Swales and Feak, 2004

 Structured

Academic writing should have a clear structure. The structure will often derive from the genre of
writing. For example, a report will have an introduction (including the aim or aims), a method section,
a discussion section and so on, while an essay will have an introduction (including a thesis statement),
clear body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion. The writing should be coherent, with
logical progression throughout, and cohesive, with the different parts of the writing, clearly
connected. Careful planning before writing is essential to ensure that the final product will be well
structured, with a clear focus and logical progression of ideas.

 Evidenced

Opinions and arguments in academic writing should be supported by evidence. Often the writing will
be based on information from experts in the field, and as such, it will be important to reference the
information appropriately, for example via the use of in-text citations and a reference section.

 Balanced

Academic writing should be balanced. This means giving consideration to all sides of the issue and
avoiding bias. As noted above, all research, evidence and arguments can be challenged, and it is
important for the academic writer to show their stance on a particular topic, in other words, how
strong their claims are. This can be done using hedges, for example, phrases such as the evidence
suggest... or this could be caused by..., or boosters, that is, phrases such as clearly or the research
indicates.
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 Precise

Academic writing should use clear and precise language to ensure the reader understands the
meaning. This includes the use of technical (i.e., subject-specific) vocabulary, which should be used
when it conveys the meaning more precisely than a similar non-technical term. Sometimes such
technical vocabulary may need defining, though only if the term is not commonly used by others in
the same discipline and will therefore not be readily understood by the reader.

 Objective

Academic writing is objective. In other words, the emphasis is placed on the arguments and
information, rather than on the writer. As a result, academic writing tends to use nouns and noun
phrases more than verbs and adverbs. It also tends to use more passive structures, rather than active
voice, for example, The water was heated rather than I heated the water.

 Formal

Academic writing is more formal than everyday writing. It tends to use longer words and more
complex sentences while avoiding contractions and colloquial or informal words or expressions that
might be common in spoken English. There are words and collocations which are used in academic
writing more frequently than in non-academic writing, and researchers have developed lists of these
words and phrases to help students of academic English, such as the Academic Word List, the
Academic Vocabulary List, and the Academic Collocation List.

 Critical

Finally, academic writing does more than just a description. As an academic writer, you should not
simply accept everything you read as fact. You need to analyse and evaluate the information you are
writing about, in other words, make judgments about it before you decide whether and how to
integrate it into your own writing. This is known as critical writing. Critical writing requires a great
deal of research in order for the writer to develop an in-depth understanding of the topic to be truly
critical about it.

Activity 1.4. Group Discussion

In groups, discuss the following terms that are associated with academic writing and then contribute
to a whole-class discussion.

 Academic sources  Literature

 Academic integrity  Critical thinking / Critical reading / Critical

writing
 Plagiarism
 Academic googling
 Citing and referencing (or, Citations and
references)  Bibliography

 Quoting  Annotated Bibliography

 Style guides (i.e., APA, IEEE, Harvard, etc.)  Figures / Tables / Graphs
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The Academic Writing Process

Adapted from Marshall, 2017

Academic writing is best thought of as a process. While this process may not be identical in every
academic context, it is adopted worldwide. The following are the six stages that many academic
writers go through to produce effective academic papers:

Stage 1: Understand your audience, genre, and purpose

Before you start organizing your ideas for a writing task, you need to consider your audience, genre,
and purpose. If you consider these three factors, it will help you engage critically with your topic and
write in an appropriate style.
Audience:
Your audience is the person or people who will read your writing. At university, this includes
your lecturers who have expert knowledge of your subject and who expect you to write in a
certain way. The first step of stage 1 is to ask yourself two questions:
- Who is my audience?
- What are the expectations of my audience?
Genre:
Genre refers to different text types, for example, a summary, a lab report, a reflective
report, or a structured essay. Each type of text follows different genre conventions or
rules about the organization and style of writing. Before writing, you need to ask yourself the
following questions:
- What kind of text am I writing?
- What are the genre conventions of this text type?
Purpose:
The purpose is your reason for writing. Are you taking lecture notes? Is the essay a
first draft? Are you writing an assignment for a grade? In each case, you need to think
about the following questions:
- Why am I writing?
- Should I take risks or play safe?
Stage 2: Understand your topic, focus, and task
There are two common types of writing assignments: open assignments, in which you can choose
your own question to write on, and closed questions that are assigned by a lecturer. In either case,
you need to keep your writing in focus and on task. You can do this by breaking questions down into
these three components:
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Topic:
The topic is the general subject that you are writing about. You should not write too
much about the general topic; simply mention it briefly in the introduction of your
writing product.
Focus: The focus is the specified aspect, or aspects, of the topic that you will write about.
Most of what you write in the paper should be about the specific focus.
Task:
The task is what you have to do, for example, analyze, compare, or summarize. Again,
most of what you write in the paper should follow the specific task.

Stage 3: Gather information and ideas

The next stage is to begin the process of gathering information. This is usually done in one of two
ways: (a) searching for information online or in books and then adding your own ideas or (b) gathering
ideas from your existing knowledge and then searching for information online or in books.
A) Searching for information online:
Do a keyword search in a general or academic search engine using the following
strategies.
I) Use combinations of keywords from the assignment question:
Ex: EMI students, academic writing, English, difficulties, support
II) Use combinations of synonyms of the keywords:
Ex: EMI / English as a Medium of Instruction, university writing, academic
essays, problems, solutions
III) Use quotation marks to narrow the focus:
Ex: "academic writing support"; "academic writing support for EMI students"
IV. Assess the reliability of the sources:
Make sure the information you select is from recognized academic journals or other
reliable sources.
B) Gathering ideas from existing knowledge:
You can gather ideas from your existing knowledge before, during, or after your search for
sources. Three strategies for gathering ideas are free-writing, concept maps, and linear
notes.
I) Free-writing:
Write as many ideas as you can about the question. You can do this in any
form or style. The main aim is to generate ideas.
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II) Concept maps:

Gather ideas with a concept map, fill bubbles with different ideas, link the bubble
with arrows, or lines, add more bubbles as needed, and describe the relationship
between each group of ideas.
III) Linear notes:
Gather ideas with notes written in a line-by-line format, list categories, and take
notes under headings and subheadings.
Stage 4: Form an outline
The fourth stage is to organize your information and ideas into a coherent outline ordered logically.
Different types of written answers or papers require different structures, for example, the way you
compare two elements is different from writing about a problem and a solution. You can then keep
your outline as a focus to guide your writing.

Stage 5: Write the paper sections

This is the stage to start writing your paper. Most written work requires an introduction, several main
body paragraphs (based on the outline), and a conclusion; include a reference list if you have brought
others' ideas into your work. Consider your writing as "drafts" through a series of which you will
finalize your writing. As you write, remember to keep your writing in focus and on task.

Stage 6: Review and edit your work

Remember to edit your work as you write and after you have finished writing. You should edit for the
following: content (did you answer the question?); accuracy of grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation;
and appropriate style for the genre of writing (this includes formatting).

Activity 1.5. - Individual Task

Reflect on your current

approach to writing by
completing the table.

(Extracted from Bottomley,

2010).
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Activity 1.6.

Given below are different types of academic text types. Match the types to their meanings.

Notes A piece of research ., either individual or group work, with the topic
chosen by the students.
Report The longest piece of writing (20,000+) normally done by a student,
often for a higher degree, on a topic chosen by the student.
Project A written record of the main points of a text or lecture, for a
student’s personal use.
Essay A general term for any academic essay, report, presentation or
article.
Thesis A description of something a student has done.
Paper The most common type of written work, with the title given by the
teacher, normally 1000-5000 words.
Activity 1.7.

A) Choose three texts that you may have been given in the form of assignments or recommended
reading in your own disciplinary context, and find out their audience, genres, generic features in
terms of organization and language, and purpose (Cross reference to Stage 1 of the Academic Writing Process).

Texts Genres Features of Features of Audience Purpose

Organization Language

B) In pairs, reflect on two writing assignments you were given/have been given in any of your
content lectures. Go to Step 2 of the Academic Writing Process to analyse and identify the topic,
focus, and the task of the assignment. Produce your work using Google Jamboard and share your
work on Moodle in the space provided.

***

References:

Bottomley, J. (2015). Academic writing for international students of science. UK/US: Routledge.
Marshall, S. (2017). Advance in academic writing 1. UK/US: Pearson.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Arbor, Michigan:
University of Michigan Press.