Academic Writing: Characteristics of Academic Language

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Academic Writing

Characteristics of Academic Language

Academic language has a unique set of rules: it should be explicit, formal and factual as well as objective and
analytical in nature. Students often think that academic language should sound complex and be difficult to
write and understand but that is not necessarily the case. Instead, academic writing should be clear and
concise in order to communicate its contents in the best way.

Formal
Formal writing requires considerable effort to construct meaningful sentences, paragraphs, and arguments that
make the text easy to comprehend. In general this means that conversational English should be avoided and
facts and figures should be presented in a clear manner. Academic texts should be factual, concise and accurate.
Choose words precisely and carefully so that the reader can accurately understand the concepts within the text.

It is important to remember that academic texts are written with an academic audience in mind and your
writing style needs to conform to the conventions of the field you are studying.

Analytical
In academic writing, the complexity of the subject matter is acknowledged through critical analysis. This can be
done through asking questions and examining and evaluating evidence. Through critical analysis we are able to
add a new perspective to a subject instead of just rewriting what has already been written.

Treating your topic and your material in an analytical manner should seep through in your language. Part of
being analytical in your writing is to compare and contrast, evaluate and consider both sides of an issue. It also
means that you explain, give reasons, draw conclusions, make suggestions and recommendations and support
this with evidence.

Objective
Academic writing is based on research and not on the writer’s own opinion about a given topic. When you write
objectively you are concerned about facts and not influenced by personal feelings or biases. When presenting
an argument to the reader, try to show both sides if you can and avoid making value judgments.

At the same time you will probably have to do an analysis or a discussion and in that manner express an
attitude. In order to convey attitude without using for example “I think”, you may use words such as apparently,
arguably, ideally, strangely and unexpectedly. Note that the attitude you are expressing should not be based on
personal preferences but rather on the evidence that you are presenting.

Explicit
Academic writing is explicit in several ways. First and foremost, it means that there is a clear presentation of
ideas in the paper. The text should have a well-organized structure and be easy for the reader to follow. One
way to accomplish clarity and structure in your text is through the use of signposts. Signposts are words and
phrases that you can use in your text in order to guide the reader along. Signposting can be divided into two
different categories: major signposting and linking words and phrases.
Language is the fundamental resource or tool with which teachers and children work together in schools.
—Frances Christie, 2005, p. 2

Language is at the center of the learning process; humans learn through language. Language is a way of seeing,
understanding, and communicating about the world. Learning in schools and classrooms is largely
accomplished through language.

Language serves many purposes in schools. In addition to being a place for social networking and for
socializing students into ways of “doing school,” school is one context for learning. In school, students use
language to make sense of the world that surrounds them, and, in the process, they are (1) learning language,
(2) learning through language, and (3) learning about language (Halliday, 1993).

Academic language is a complex concept that can be defined differently by researchers espousing distinct
philosophical and methodological perspectives. Although often referred to as a list of ten important words for a
unit of study, academic language is much more than vocabulary. Academic language or academic English is a
register, that is, a variety of a language used for a specific purpose and audience in a particular context. Imagine
a young doctor talking with a friend at a soccer game as his team scores the winning goal. Now picture this
same doctor speaking at a medical conference on the results of his double-blind study. The distinct purpose,
audience, and context of the communication result in clear differences in terms of language use in the selection
of words, degree of formality, sentence construction, and discourse patterns.

Broadly, academic language refers to the language used in school to acquire new or deeper understanding of
the content and to communicate that understanding to others (Bailey & Heritage, 2008; Gottlieb, Katz, & Ernst-
Slavit, 2009; Schleppegrell, 2004). In other words, academic language is characterized by the specific linguistic
features associated with academic disciplines, including discourse features, grammatical constructions, and
vocabulary across different language domains or modalities (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and content
areas (language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies/history, among others).

Academic language operates within a sociocultural context that lends meaning to oral or written
communication. The sociocultural context of academic language learning encompasses the interaction between
the student and the learning environment, including the topic or theme of the task or situation, the genre or
text type, and the participants’ identities (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment [WIDA], 2012).
While there are individual facets of academic language, they weave together to form a tapestry of oral and
written communication.

Complexity: The language is relatively more complex and has longer words with a more varied vocabulary and
a grammatical complexity.
Formality: Academic writing is relatively formal. It does not include colloquial expression that we consider
natural in daily dialogues we have with friend or colleagues.
Precision: Academic writing is precise. Factual information, figures or charts, should all be provided and
nothing written there should leave room to interpretation.
Accuracy: An accurate use of vocabulary is a must in a text that wants to be academic. Extra attention should be
paid when using words with a specific meaning.
Objectivity: Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It has fewer words that refer to the
writer or the reader. The main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and
the arguments you want to make, rather than the writer getting involved in a personal manner.
Responsibility: Academic writing should be treated with responsibility. Everything stated should be
accompanied by proofs and justifications and no assumptions are allowed. Sources should also be
mentioned.
Explicitness: The author of an academic writing is responsible for make it explicit and for making clear how
different parts of the text are connected between them and why are they relevant for the central
theme. There are certain words that can be used in order to emphasis this connection and they are
called transitional words.
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 summarise the methods used to collect and analyse
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.

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, summarise 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 you also re-organise the facts and information you describe into
categories, groups, parts, types or relationships.

Sometimes, these categories or relationships are already part of the discipline, sometimes you will create them
specifically for your text. For example, 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: analyse, compare, contrast, relate, 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 colour-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.

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-organising 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, a 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, take a position.
To help reach your own point of view on the facts or ideas:

 read some other researchers' points of view on the topic. Who do you feel is the most convincing?
 look for patterns in the data or references. Where is the evidence strongest?
 list several different interpretations. What are the real-life implications of each one? Which ones are
likely to be most useful or beneficial? Which ones have some problems?
 discuss the facts and ideas with someone else. Do you agree with their point of view?
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.

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, evaluate.

You need to:

 accurately summarise 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 analyse
different interpretations and develop your own argument, supported by evidence.
Three Rhetorical Moves in "Introduction"

There are three key moves in "Introduction" according to Swales (1990; 2004). Each move has its own
rhetorical function. The steps a writer can take to fulfill each move are listed below.

Learning Objectives & Strategies:


Understand the concept of the 3 rhetorical moves.
1. Pay attention to the steps each move does. Imagine what
you XXmight do applying these steps.
2. When ready, look at examples by following the link for
each XXmove.

(1) Move 1: Establish a territory [citations required] VIA

XXXStep 1. Topic generalizations of increasing specificity

XXXXWhere: Usually in the first few paragraphs in an introduction

(2) Move 2: Establish a niche VIA

XXXStep 1A. Indicating a gap OR

XXXXStep 1B. Adding to what is known;

XXXXStep 2. [optional] Presenting positive justification

XXXWhere: Usually in the middle paragraphs in an introduction

(3) Move 3: Present the present work [citations possible] VIA

XXXStep 1. Aannouncing present research descriptively and/or purposively

XXXXStep 2. [optional] presenting RQs or hypotheses

XXXXStep 3. [optional] definitional clarifications

XXXXStep 4. [optional] summarizing methods

XXXXStep 5. [optional] announcing principal outcomes

XXXXStep 6. [optional] stating the value of the present research

XXXXS7. [optional] outlining the structure of the paper

XXXXWhere: Usually in the final few paragraphs in an introduction


What are the typical ‘ingredients’ of an essay introduction?

Trzeciak and Mackay (1994) have identified a number of ‘ingredients’ of an introduction. It will not always be
necessary or desirable to include all of them, but they will generally be used in some combination or other, in
order to introduce an academic argument.

 a statement of the importance of the subject


 mention of previous work on the subject
 a justification for dealing with the subject
 a statement of your objectives
 a statement of the limitations of the work
 a mention of some of the differing viewpoints on the subject
 a definition of the topic being discussed

Swales and Feak (2004), meanwhile, focus on the research paper in particular. They attempt to place
introduction ingredients into a sequence. They identify the following series of ‘moves’ in a typical introduction
to a research paper:

Move 1: Establishing a research territory

 by showing that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, etc. (optional)
 by introducing and reviewing items of previous research in the area (obligatory)

Move 2: Establishing a niche

by indicating a gap in the previous research or by extending previous knowledge in some way (obligatory)

Move 3: Occupying the niche

 by outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research (obligatory)


 by listing research questions of hypotheses
 by announcing principal findings
 by stating the value of the previous research
 by indicating the structure of the research paper

Move 1: Establishing a Territory [the situation]


This is generally accomplished in two ways: by demonstrating that a general area of research is important,
critical, interesting, problematic, relevant, or otherwise worthy of investigation and by introducing and
reviewing key sources of prior research in that area to show where gaps exist or where prior research has been
inadequate in addressing the research problem.

The steps taken to achieve this would be:

Step 1 -- Claiming importance of, and/or [writing action = describing the research problem and providing
evidence to support why the topic is important to study]
Step 2 -- Making topic generalizations, and/or [writing action = providing statements about the current state of
knowledge, consensus, practice or description of phenomena]
Step 3 -- Reviewing items of previous research [writing action = synthesize prior research that further
supports the need to study the research problem; this is not a literature review but more a reflection of key
studies that have touched upon but perhaps not fully addressed the topic]

Move 2: Establishing a Niche [the problem]


This action refers to making a clear and cogent argument that your particular piece of research is important
and possesses value. This can be done by indicating a specific gap in previous research, by challenging a
broadly accepted assumption, by raising a question, a hypothesis, or need, or by extending previous knowledge
in some way.

The steps taken to achieve this would be:

Step 1a -- Counter-claiming, or [writing action = introduce an opposing viewpoint or perspective or identify a


gap in prior research that you believe has weakened or undermined the prevailing argument]
Step 1b -- Indicating a gap, or [writing action = develop the research problem around a gap or understudied
area of the literature]
Step 1c -- Question-raising, or [writing action = similar to gap identification, this involves presenting key
questions about the consequences of gaps in prior research that will be addressed by your study. For example,
one could state, “Despite prior observations of voter behavior in local elections in urban Detroit, it remains
unclear why do some single mothers choose to avoid....”]
Step 1d -- Continuing a tradition [writing action = extend prior research to expand upon or clarify a research
problem. This is often signaled with logical connecting terminology, such as, “hence,” “therefore,”
“consequently,” “thus” or language that indicates a need. For example, one could state, “Consequently, these
factors need to examined in more detail....” or “Evidence suggests an interesting correlation, therefore, it is
desirable to survey different respondents....”]

Move 3: Occupying the Niche [the solution]


The final "move" is to announce the means by which your study will contribute new knowledge or new
understanding in contrast to prior research on the topic. This is also where you describe the remaining
organizational structure of the paper.

The steps taken to achieve this would be:

Step 1a -- Outlining purposes, or [writing action = answering the “So What?” question. Explain in clear language
the objectives of your study]
Step 1b -- Announcing present research [writing action = describe the purpose of your study in terms of what
the research is going to do or accomplish. In the social sciences, the “So What?” question still needs to
addressed]
Step 2 -- Announcing principle findings [writing action = present a brief, general summary of key findings
written, such as, “The findings indicate a need for...,” or “The research suggests four approaches to....”]
Step 3 -- Indicating article structure [writing action = state how the remainder of your paper is organized]

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