Features of Academic Writing

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Features of Academic Writing Complexity Written language is much more complex than spoken language. Written texts are/have • Longer, more complex words and phrases (terminological density) • grammatical complexity: more subordinate clauses, more passives, more nominalizations (gerunds), more noun based phrases • proportionately more lexical words than grammatical words. Formality Avoid colloquial words and expressions especially in written academic texts Objectivity Main emphasis should be on the information you want to give and the arguments you want to make (including your own scientific opinion). Explicitness How the various parts of the text are related. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling words (however, nevertheless). 15 Hedging = “cautious language” 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 … e.g. It is important to develop … e.g. It is useful to study … Coherence Certain items of language in English refer to something mentioned before without having a meaning of their own ( ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘that’, ‘these’
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