Language Used in Academic Text from Various

Disciplines
Writing is one of the Four Macro Skills that a
student should possess. It is one of the media of
communication in order for us to pass
information to people. One of these writings that
a student should know is Academic Writing. In
this module you as astudent will learn Academic
Writing and the language that should be used in
writing academic text.
• Let us define key terms you will meet in this
discussion.

Academic Writing - is a kind of writing that can

be used in academia or school

1. Subject - pertains to the topic of the text.

• 2. Tone - pertains to the attitude of the writer about
the text. It can be distinguished through the words
used by the author.
• 3. Purpose - is information that an author wants to
imply to the reader.
• 4. Language - are the words used by the author in
writing an academic text. Academic writing requires
formal language
• 5. Audience -pertains to the reader in writing.
• 6. Point of View - refers to how the writer tells
the information in the reading text.

An academic text is always in the third person

point of view
• 7. Style - refers to how the author arranges his or
her writing.
• 8. Knowledge - is the amount of information that
an author knows about his or her topic. The
reader is the one who can distinguish how much
knowledge an author has in the topic he or she is
writing.

• 9. Explicit - means that the information should

be precise and clear.
• Academic Writing

Academic Writing is a kind of writing that can be used in

academia or school. It has a process that starts with posing a
question, conceptualizing a problem evaluating an opinion
and ends in answering a question posed, clarifying a problem
or arguing for a stand. The specific purposes of academic
writing are to inform, to persuade and to argue that address
specific audience or the teacher. To inform means
supplementing a lot of information about the topic. To
persuade means having the credibility to make your
audience or readers believe in you. To argue means making
your readers or audience respond on the information you are
telling them
• Academic writing also requires formal language or
word that does not contain colloquial or jargon words. It
usually uses layman's term or the term that is easy to
understand. It avoids the use of hifalutin words or words
that have deep meaning. Academic writing is all about
thinking:
• It follows certain rules and standards.
• Language to be used in writing academic text should be
formal.
• Audience should be first taken into consideration.
All the information included in this kind of text should
be backed up by valid evidences.
• Four Features of Language

1. Formality reflects your dignified stance in writing as a

member of an academic community. This means that in your
writing, you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.

The language use requires precision to make it a legitimate

piece of writing.

Formality can be achieved through the following ways:

Choosing expanded modal forms over contracted forms, such

as using cannot
• instead of can't, do not instead of don't.
• Choosing one verb form over two-word verbs,
such as damage instead of mess up.
• Choosing expanded terms over their
abbreviated equivalents, such as as soon as
possible instead of ASAP.
• Avoiding colloquial/idiomatic expressions, such
as kind of like, as a matter of fact, sort of.
• Other examples of one verb over two-word verbs:
Calculate - James added up the number of attendees in his
party.

Purchase (someone's assets) - The large company bought

out the smaller ones.

Cancel - The teacher was to call off the noisy students

immediately.

Continue - The meeting will carry on even without your

presence.

Discover - The purpose of this meeting is to find out what

would be your idea about our new project.
• 2. Objectivity means that the focus of the information is
on the topic rather on the writer itself. Written language
should not be personal but rather in general objective.

It can be achieved by:

a. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as you, I,
my, and we.

Poor example: You need to follow instructions.

Improved version: The researchers need to follow

instructions.
• b. Avoiding rhetorical questions because
academic writing should not assume that the
readers know the answer in the statement and
the author should express the information
strongly and clearly.

Poor example: How can these problems be

solved?

Improved version: Certain procedures must be

discovered to solve problems.
• Avoiding emotive language that shows biases.
Giving an overly favorable opinion of someone
can eliminate objectivity.

Poor example: The police investigators were

shocked to see the outcome of the tests.

Improved version: The police investigators did not

expect the results
• 3. Explicitness in academic writing demands the use
of signposts that allow readers to trace the
relationships in the parts of the study. If you intend
to show a change in your line of argument, make it
clear by using however.
• Example:
It is apparent that the school institutions hope to
provide quality education to the learners. However,
having this COVID-19 pandemic requires a lot of
effort to reach out students.
• The following phrases may be useful in making ideas explicit:
1. This is due to the..

A number of MERALCO consumers trooped to the City Hall to

claim a P500 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 below
100kw/hr.

2. 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
• Types of Writing Styles

There are four main types of writing: expository,

descriptive, persuasive and narrative.

Each of these writing styles is used for a specific

purpose. A single text may include more than one
writing styles.
• Expository
This means that the author is trying to explain a concept,
imparting information to the audience. It is not subjective but
rather focuses on facts that are supported by evidence.

Examples of Expository Writing:

• textbooks
• articles
• recipes
• news stories (not editorials or op-eds)
• business, technical or scientific writing
• Descriptive Writing

Descriptive style means painting a picture of

a person, place, or thing through words. It is
often found in fiction, though it can make an
appearance to non-fiction as well Memoirs, first-
hand accounts, and events or travel guides are
examples of descriptive writing. The author
might employ metaphor or other literary de
vices in order to describe the author’s
impressions using their five senses.
• Persuasive Writing
It is the main style of writing you will use in academic
papers. When an author writes in a persuasive style,
he/she is trying to convince the audience of a position or
belief. Persuasive writing contains the author's opinions
and biases, as well as justifications or rea sons given by
the author as evidence of the correctness of their position.
Any "argumentative" essay you write in school should be
in the persuasive style of writing. The examples of
persuasive writing include cover letters, op-eds and
editorial newspaper articles, reviews of items, letters of
complaint, advertisements, and letters of
recommendation.
• Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is used in almost every
longer piece of writing, whether fiction or non-
fiction. When an author writes in a narrative
style, he/she is not just trying to convey
information, rather tries to construct and
communicate a story, complete with characters,
conflict and settings. The examples of narrative
writing include oral histories, novels/novellas,
poetry (specifically, epic sagas or poems), short
stories, and anecdotes.
Independent Activity 3

• Directions: From the given scenario below, write a sample of

academic text that best suit to the scene. Following the given
rubrics, write your answer on the space provided for.