Writing week two

What is academic writing?

How grammar affects style

Discussion

How would you describe 'academic writing'?
What does it look like, and how do you know if a piece of writing is academic?

Task 1

Read the two texts below. Which one sounds more academic, and why?

Text A

People usually use a different style of language, or register, depending on whether they're speaking or writing, who they're communicating with, and what they're talking about. When we speak, we tend to discuss people and things, whereas our writing might talk more about ideas and concepts: things we can't see or touch. Who you're talking to also has a big impact. You wouldn't talk to a potential employer at a job interview in the same way you speak to your friends. Finally, what people are talking about will affect the 'feel' of the language. If they're discussing something technical, there's probably going to be a lot of jargon. Everyday conversations on the other hand tend to only use a handful of core words. We call these three aspects of register mode, tenor and field.

Text B

Style of language, or register, often varies depending on whether it's spoken or written, who the audience is and the topic under discussion. Spoken communication tends to be framed around people and things, whereas the written form may focus on more intangible concepts and ideas. Audience also plays a significant role. The language used to address a potential employer at an interview is likely to differ from that used in a social situation. Finally, the subject matter will affect the 'texture' of the language. Technical discussions utilise a certain amount of jargon. Everyday conversations on the other hand tend to only use a handful of core words. These aspects of register are known as mode, tenor and field.

Task 2

Take a look at the following sentence. How can you change it to contain more noun phrases and fewer people? (Keep the meaning the same!)

People choose different words depending on who they're talking to.

The boy kicked the ball. The role of the west impacts global trade.

Noun phrases and controlling nouns

We tend to use more noun phrases and fewer pronouns when writing essays.
This helps to depersonalise the writing and make it more concise.

A noun phrase is simply a group of words that act together as a noun, and they're useful to get more information into a single subject or object.

So, the boy kicked the ball and the role of the West in the Middle East impacts global trade both have exactly the same grammatical structure, but the second one uses heavier noun phrases and therefore sounds a lot more 'academic'. (in other words, complicated!)

However, there will always be one ‘head’ or ‘controlling’ noun.

Week two - building noun phrases

The head noun in these phrases is the one that should match the verb. For example: The smallest of the three shiny redback spiders spinning their webs in the corner likes reggae.

Importantly, none of the examples on the left are complete sentences. They could keep getting infinitely bigger, but until they're followed by a main verb they will still only be in the subject position of the sentence.

Task 3

Come up with captions for the photos by putting as much information into noun phrases as possible. E.g. The _________ hot air balloon _________ in ________ over _______

Task 4

Let's look at a more academic sentence. We're going to 'unpack' The role of the West in the Middle East impacts global trade. Work in pairs and identify:

The main verb
The noun phrases
The head noun in each phrase

Task 5

Look at the following examples from text B. Identify the noun phrase and head noun in each:

Style of language often varies.
Spoken communication tends to be framed around people and things.
The written form may focus on more intangible concepts and ideas.
The language used to address a potential employer at an interview is likely to differ from that used in a social situation.
The subject matter will affect the 'texture' of the language.
Technical discussions utilise a certain amount of jargon.
Everyday conversations on the other hand tend to only use a handful of core words.
These aspects of register are known as mode, tenor and field.

Language analysis: nominalisation

Creating nouns from verbs and adjectives is called nominalisation, and this is one way we can depersonalise our writing. We do this because usually the activity or idea is more important than the person/people who do it. You can also see that the nominalised sentence is more concise. This is very important with academic writing, as we're always trying to be efficient with language and say more with fewer words. The example below shows how the main verb becomes the subject:

People communicate differently depending on the context.

Communication differs depending on context.

The table below shows the process in more detail:

Task 6

Change the following clauses into noun phrases:

America invaded Iraq. → American invasion of Iraq
Particles behave differently. →
Businesses engage with corporate social responsibility. →
It is possible that climate change can be avoided. →
The manager decided to ignore what other people said. →
The transport system is not as effective as it used to be. →

Language analysis: using the passive voice

The passive voice is a grammatical structure which focuses on objects of actions, rather than who actually did the action.

Dave broke the photocopier. (Active)

The photocopier was broken. (Passive)

Many people claim that the sky is blue.

The sky is often claimed to be blue.

Lots of scientists have researched this topic.

This topic has been heavily researched.

As with nominalisation, the meaning is mostly the same in the paired examples, but they focus the reader's attention on different things. In the first example, Dave takes priority whereas the photocopier's more important in the second.

Another useful aspect of the passive voice is that it is a way of adding variation to our sentence structures. Without options of variation, it can be tempting to start every clause with people do/get/think etc.

Task 7

Use the passive voice to restructure the following sentences:

Culture affects language.
People influence politics with money.
Mr Watson has called for an unambiguously pro-Remain stance.
The team analysed data on about 1.4 million teenagers in the US.
The UN brokered a complex ceasefire in the city.

Summary

We have looked at one of the characteristics of academic writing, which is that it is impersonal. It talks less about people and social situations and more about abstract ideas.

Academic writing can be intimidating to read because it's so dense (there's so much information packed closely together), but learning to identify the main verb in a clause and the head noun in a phrase can really help you understand the text more clearly because these are the key words. Everything else just modifies them.

Discussion

To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

Sounding 'academic' is just like wearing a suit to work. Nobody will respect you if you don't look and sound like everyone else.
Learning to write in an academic style allows me to express myself more clearly.
Everyone should just write the way they speak. Life would be much easier.

Task 8

Look back at your diagnostic essay that you wrote last week and work with a partner to edit each other's work and provide advice. Does it sound like an essay or like someone speaking? Is there anywhere you can depersonalise the language, or make it more concise?

Teacher's notes

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