THEORY academic writing

Written texts are lexically dense compared to spoken language - they have proportionately more lexical words than grammatical words.. The following features are common in academic writte

I, Complexity

Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language (Biber, 1988; Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999; Chafe, 1982; Cook, 1997; Halliday,1989) Written language has longer words, it is lexically more dense and it has a more varied vocabulary It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives

Written texts are lexically dense compared to spoken language - they have proportionately more lexical words than grammatical words Written texts are shorter and have longer, more complex words and phrases They have more noun-based phrases, more nominalizations, and more lexical variation

Written language is grammatically more complex than spoken language It has more subordinate clauses, more "that/to" complement clauses, more long sequences of prepositional phrases, more attributive adjectives and more passives than spoken language

The following features are common in academic written texts:

Noun-based phrases, Subordinate clauses/embedding, Complement clauses, Sequences of prepositional phrases, Participles, Passive verbs, Lexical density, Lexical complexity, Nominalization, Attributive adjectives

1 Noun-based phrases

Formal written English uses nouns more than verbs

Like all other forms of life, we human beings are the product of evolution

Like all other forms of life, we human beings are the product of how we have evolved

 The noun "evolution" is preferred to the verb "evolve" and the "wh" clause

Another example is:

Premack used a set of plastic chips to teach a chimpanzee named Sarah the meaning of a set of

adjective the constitutional aspects

ed-participle a balanced budget, from the confused events of 19-24 August, the

noun - market forces, cabinet appointments

noun + post modifier

relative clause students who have no previous experience

to-clauses the solution to the problem of inflation, the question to be debated

ing-clauses a brake consisting of a drum divided into twelve compartments

ed-clauses canoes preserved by a hard plaster, a brake consisting of a drum

divided into twelve compartments, the curve shown

prepositional phrase we need to bring to the box a special tool with a ready-compressed

spring

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adverb (phrase) the road back, the people outside

adjective (phrase) varieties common in India, the festival proper, something different

2 Subordinate clauses/embedding

There are several factors which help to prolong this period to perhaps three or four times that in

the male

The other way in which the economic aspects of military expenditure were presented was in the

form of the public expenditure costs

The family establishes a variety of bases for refuges which seem to be used at different times of

the year

3 Complement clauses

that-clauses This conforms conveniently with Maslow's (1970) claim that human

motivation is related to a hieracrchy of human needs

It follows that if the Labour Government is to secure acceptance of its

economic package, it has to secure the support of MPs from either the Liberal or the Conservative party

to-clauses Britain's apparent ability to rally Commonwealth support at Chicago seemed

to the Americans to be evidence of Britain's continued world power

of+ ing-clauses: The possibility of increasing dollar receipts was coupled with a belief that

Africa could be a strategic centre for British power

4 Sequences of prepositional phrases

Sequences of prepositional phrases are common in academic English

This article analyses the constitutional aspects behind the formation of the first and second National Governments, examining in particular the role of the king in the formation of the two

governments

5 Participles

Formal written English uses verbs less than spoken English -ed and -ing participles allow verbs

to be used nominally or adjectively

Similar temptations overcame philosophers concerned with establishing a secure base for

individual responsibility

The Egyptians regarded time as a succession of recurring phases

Doubts as to the proper division of property at death, as well as rights between partners living

together, were resolved by having legal rules prescribing a formula

It was only to be tolerated in a controlled and formalized context

A frequent change found in proper names is syllable loss

6 Passive verbs

In spoken English we often use a subject such as "people", "somebody", "they", "we", or "you" even when we do not know who the agent is In formal English, particularly writing, we often prefer to use a passive

Compare:

They're installing the new computer system next month

The new computer system is being installed next month (more formal)

7 Lexical density

Written English generally has a much denser pattern of words, it is more lexically dense If we define lexical density as the number of content words in a clause, then written English has a higher lexical density than spoken English (Halliday, 1996, p 347)

For example, the written text:

Obviously, the government is frightened of union reaction to its move to impose proper behavior on unions

is more lexically dense than the spoken version:

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Obviously, the government is frightened how the unions will react if it tries to make them behave properly

8 Lexical complexity

Adding affixes to existing words (the base) to form new words is common in academic English

Prefixes are added to the front of the base (like dislike), whereas suffixes are added to the end

of the base (active activate) Prefixes usually do not change the class of the base word, but

suffixes usually do change the class of the word

The most common prefixes used to form new verbs in academic English are: re-, dis-, over-, un-,

mis-, out- The most common suffixes are: -ise, -en, -ate, -(i)fy By far the most common affix in

academic English is -ise

EXAMPLES:

a, VERBS

 verbs + prefix verb

re- again or back restructure, revisit, reappear, rebuild, refinance

dis- reverses the meaning of the verb disappear, disallow, disarm, disconnect, discontinue

over- too much overbook, oversleep, overwork

un- reverses the meaning of the verb unbend, uncouple, unfasten

mis- badly or wrongly mislead, misinform, misidentify

out- more or better than others outperform, outbid

be- make or cause befriend, belittle

co- together co-exist, co-operate, co-own

de- do the opposite of devalue, deselect

fore- earlier, before foreclose, foresee

inter- between interact, intermix, interface

pre- before pre-expose, prejudge, pretest

sub- under/below subcontract, subdivide

trans- across, over transform, transcribe, transplant

under- not enough underfund, undersell, undervalue, underdevelop

 Suffix used to form verbs with the meaning "cause to be"

Suffix Example

-ise stabilise, characterise, symbolise, visualise, specialise

-ate differentiate, liquidate, pollinate, duplicate, fabricate

-fy classify, exemplify, simplify, justify

-en awaken, fasten, shorten, moisten

b, NOUNS:

The most common prefixes used to form new nouns in academic English are: co- and sub- The most common suffixes are: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment, -ant, -ship, -age, -ery By far the most common noun affix in academic English is -tion

 noun+ prefix noun

anti- against anticlimax, antidote, antithesis

auto- self autobiography, automobile

bi- two bilingualism, biculturalism, bi-metalism

co- joint co-founder, co-owner, co-descendant

counter- against counter-argument, counter-example, counter-proposal

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dis- the converse of discomfort, dislike

ex- former ex-chairman, ex-hunter

hyper- extreme hyperinflation, hypersurface

in- the converse of inattention, incoherence, incompatibility

in- inside inpatient,

inter- between interaction, inter-change, interference

kilo- thousand kilobyte

mal- bad malfunction, maltreatment, malnutrition

mega- million megabyte

mis- wrong misconduct, misdeed, mismanagement

mini- small mini-publication, mini-theory

mono- one monosyllable, monograph, monogamy

neo- new neo-colonialism, neo-impressionism

out- separate outbuilding,

poly- many polysyllable

pseudo- false pseudo-expert

re- again re-organisation, re-assessment, re-examination

semi- half semicircle, semi-darkness

sub- below subset, subdivision

super- more than, above superset, superimposition, superpowers

sur- over and above surtax

tele- distant telecommunications,

tri- three tripartism

ultra- beyond ultrasound

under- below, too little underpayment, under-development, undergraduate

vice- deputy vice-president

 Suffix added to a verb (V), noun (N) or adjective (A) noun

-tion action/instance of V-ing alteration, demonstration

-ity state or quality of being A ability, similarity, responsibility

-er

person who V-s

something used for V-ing

person concerned with N

astronomer, geographer

-ness state or quality of being A darkness, preparedness, consciousness

-ism doctrine of N Marxism, Maoism, Thatcherism

-ment action/instance of V-ing development, punishment, unemployment

-ant/-ent person who V-s assistant, consultant, student

-ship state of being N friendship, citizenship, leadership

-age collection of N

action/result of V

breakage, wastage, package

-ery/-ry action/instance of V-ing

The most common suffixes are -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less

 Suffix added to verbs or nouns adjective

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-al central, political, national, optional, professional

-ent different, dependent, excellent

-ive attractive, effective, imaginative, repetitive

-ous continuous, dangerous, famous

-ful beautiful, peaceful, careful

-less endless, homeless, careless, thoughtless

-able drinkable, countable, avoidable,

 adjective + negative adjective

Prefix Examples

un- unfortunate, uncomfortable, unjust

im-/in-/ir-/il- immature, impatient, improbable, inconvenient, irreplaceable, illegal

non- non-fiction, non-political, non-neutral

dis- disloyal, dissimilar, dishonest

 base with both prefix and suffix

-able -tion -tive -ment -ar

in- irreplaceable incoordination

inattention

inactive

dis- disconnection disappointment

semi- semiconductive semi-circular

9 Nominalization

Formal written English uses nouns more than verbs For example, "judgment" rather than

"judge", "development" rather than "develop", "admiration" rather than "admire"

Examples

Instead of:

This information enables us to formulate precise questions

we would write:

This information enables the formulation of precise questions

More examples are:

There appeared to be evidence of differential treatment of children

This is reflected in our admiration for people who have made something of their lives, sometimes against great odds, and in our somewhat disappointed judgment of those who merely

drift through life

All airfields in the country would be nationalized, and the government would continue with the

development of new aircraft as recommended by the Brabazon Committee

Read the following text:

Reproduction with variation is a major characteristic of life Without reproduction, life would quickly come to an end The earliest single-celled organisms reproduced by duplicating their genetic material and then dividing in two The two resulting daughter cells were identical to each

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other and to the parent cell, except for mutations that occurred during the process of gene duplication Such errors, although rare, provided the raw material for biological evolution The combination of reproduction and errors in the duplication of genetic material results in biological evolution, a change in the genetic composition of a population of organisms over time

W K Purves, D Sadava, G H Orians & H C Heller, Life: The science of biology, W H

Freeman, 2004

and compare it to:

All organisms reproduce and sometimes when they reproduce, the children vary This is an important characteristic of life If organisms did nor reproduce, life would quickly come to an end How did the earliest single-celled organisms reproduce? They duplicated their genetic material and then they divided in two Two daughter cells resulted from this process; they were identical to each other and to the parent cell But sometimes as the genes duplicated, they changed or mutated These errors are not very common but they provide the basic material for life to evolve So when the genetic material duplicates, they reproduce and they make errors As

a result, there is a change in what the genes are composed of When these processes combine, life evolves

The first text is more academic The second text is longer It has shorter sentences It asks question and answers them All these features are typical of spoken language

10 Attributive adjectives

Adjectives can be used either attributively (e.g the big house) or predicatively (e.g the house is

big) Attributive adjectives are common in academic English

With economic specialization and the development of external economic linkages, division of labor intensifies, a merchant class is added to the political elite, and selective migration streams add to the social and ethnic complexities of cities

II, Formality

Academic writing is relatively formal In general, this means that in an essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions

 colloquial words and expressions; ""stuff", "a lot of", "thing", "sort of",

 abbreviated forms: "can't", "doesn't", "shouldn't"

 two word verbs: "put off", "bring up"

 sub-headings, numbering and bullet-points in formal essays - but use them in reports

 asking questions

III, Precision

In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely

In academic writing, you need to be precise when you use information, dates or figures Do not use "a lot of people" when you can say "50 million people"

For example:

Chemists had attempted to synthesize quinine for the previous hundred years but all they had achieved was to discover the extreme complexity of the problem

The volatile oily liquid beta-chloro-beta-ethyl sulphide was first synthesized in 1854, and in

1887 it was reported to produce blisters if it touched the skin It was called mustard gas and was used at Ypres in 19I7, when it caused many thousands of casualties

It is approximately eight inches in length and runs from the urinary bladder, through the prostate gland, under the front of the pelvis, and, passing through the corpus spongiosum, it ends at the

tip of the glans penis in an opening called the urethral meatus

IV, Objectivity

Written language is in general objective rather than personal It therefore has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you For that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns (and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs)

This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you This is related to the basic nature of academic study and academic writing, in particular Nobody really wants to know what you "think" or

"believe" They want to know what you have studied and learned and how this has led you to

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your various conclusions The thoughts and beliefs should be based on your lectures, reading, discussion and research and it is important to make this clear

In general, avoid words like "I", "me", "myself"

A reader will normally assume that any idea not referenced is your own It is therefore unnecessary to make this explicit

Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very interesting study."

Write: "This is a very interesting study."

Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general

Don't write: "You can easily forget how different life was 50 years ago."

Write: "It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago."

3 Examples

Clearly this was far less true of France than

This is where the disagreements and controversies begin

The data indicates that

This is not a view shared by everyone; Jones, for example, claims that

very few people would claim

It is worthwhile at this stage to consider

Of course, more concrete evidence is needed before

Several possibilities emerge

A common solution is

V, Explicitness

Academic writing is explicit about the relationships into he text Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling words

Academic writing is explicit in several ways

1 It is explicit in its signposting of the organization of the ideas in the text (Bibber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finnegan, 1999, pp 880-882) As a writer of academic English, it is your responsibility to make it clear to your reader how various parts of the text are related These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling words

For example, if you want to tell your reader that your line of argument is going to change, make

it clear

The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic non-stop It was also to be the largest aircraft ever built in Britain However, even by the end of the war, the design had run into serious difficulties

If you think that one sentence gives reasons for something in another sentence, make it explicit

While an earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of the period, it was not until the recent work of Cairncross that the significance of this outflow was realized Partly this was because the current account deficit appears much smaller in current (1980s) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries

If you think two ideas are almost the same, say so

Marx referred throughout his work to other systems than the capitalist system, especially those which he knew from the history of Europe to have preceded capitalism; systems such as feudalism, where the relation of production was characterized by the personal relation of the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of subordination which came from the lord's control of the land Similarly, Marx was interested in slavery and in the classical Indian and Chinese social systems, or in those systems where the ties of local community are all important

If you intend your sentence to give extra information, make it clear

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He is born into a family, he marries into a family, and he becomes the husband and father of his own family In addition, he has a definite place of origin and more relatives than he knows what

to do with, and he receives a rudimentary education at the Canadian Mission School

If you are giving examples, do it explicitly

This has sometimes led to disputes between religious and secular clergy, between orders and bishops For example, in the Northern context, the previous bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Philbin, refused for most of his period of leadership in Belfast to have Jesuits visiting or residing

in his diocese

2 It is explicit in its acknowledgment of the sources of the ideas in the text If you know the source of the ideas you are presenting, acknowledge it

McGreil (1977: 363-408) has shown that

though Dubliners find the English more

acceptable than the Northern Irish, Dubliners

still seek a solution to the Northern problem

within an all-Ireland state

Although Dubliners find the English more acceptable than the Northern Irish, Dubliners still seek a solution to the Northern problem within an all-Ireland state

Or

Researchers have shown that though Dubliners find the English more acceptable than the Northern Irish, Dubliners still seek a solution

to the Northern problem within an all-Ireland state

VI, Accuracy

Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not

In academic writing, you need to be accurate in your use of vocabulary Do not confuse, for example, "phonetics" and "phonology" or "grammar" with "syntax"

Choose the correct word, for example, "meeting", "assembly”, "gathering" or "conference"

Or from: "money", "cash", "currency", "capital" or "funds"

VII, Hedging

In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways

A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by linguists as a ‘hedge’

It is often believed that academic writing, particularly scientific writing, is factual, simply to convey facts and information However it is now recognized that an important feature of academic writing is the concept of cautious language, often called "hedging" or "vague language" In other words, it is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways

Language used in hedging:

Introductory verbs: e.g seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think, believe, doubt, be

sure, indicate, suggest Certain lexical verbs e.g believe, assume, suggest

Certain modal verbs: e.g will, must, would, may, might, could

Adverbs of frequency e.g often, sometimes, usually

Modal adverbs e.g certainly, definitely, clearly, probably, possibly, perhaps,

conceivably, Modal adjectives e.g certain, definite, clear, probable, possible

Modal nouns e.g assumption, possibility, probability

That clauses e.g It could be the case that

e.g It might be suggested that

e.g There is every hope that To-clause + adjective e.g It may be possible to obtain