Academic Style (Academic Writing)

Summary

In this informative video by Academic English UK, viewers delve into the intricacies of academic style in writing. The presenter outlines the essential do's and don'ts, emphasizing the need for precise vocabulary, avoidance of informal language, and the incorporation of academic conventions like referencing systems and passive structures. The video also offers practical exercises to help viewers rewrite sentences in a more academic style, using tools like thesaurus.com for synonym checks. Overall, this video serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to enhance their academic writing skills.

Highlights

• Learn the do's and don'ts of academic writing style 🎓
• Understand why informal language isn't suitable for academic papers 🚫
• Discover tools like thesaurus.com to enhance your vocabulary 🛠️
• Gain tips on using passive structures and precise vocabulary for better writing 🖋️
• Engage in exercises that help practice rewriting sentences academically 📝

Key Takeaways

• Avoid informal language such as idioms and personal pronouns to maintain an academic tone.
• Favour passive structures and nominalization to achieve a formal writing style.
• Use specific and precise vocabulary to convey your message accurately.
• Incorporate referencing systems and hedging language to enhance credibility.
• Practice rewriting sentences to transform informal expressions into academic language.

Overview

Academic writing demands a certain level of formality and precision that differs significantly from everyday language. In this video, Academic English UK breaks down the characteristics of academic style, providing viewers with a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts. You'll learn why informal elements like idioms, personal pronouns, and contractions should be avoided to maintain an appropriate academic tone.

The video highlights the importance of using passive voice and nominalization to achieve the formal tone necessary for academic papers. You'll also discover the benefits of employing specific vocabulary and referencing systems to bolster the credibility of your work. Hedging language, which introduces a level of caution to your assertions, is another essential element discussed in this tutorial.

With practical exercises included, the video doesn't just tell you about academic style; it actively engages you in the process of mastering it. By rewriting sentences using academic conventions and tools like thesaurus.com, you'll gain hands-on experience in transforming informal language into the polished prose required for high-level academic writing.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Academic Style The chapter titled "Introduction to Academic Style" introduces the conventions often associated with academic writing. It refers to additional resources available through links or on the website of Academic English UK for those seeking more detailed information.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Dos and Don'ts of Academic Writing The chapter explores the agreed-upon elements of academic writing style among English teachers. It emphasizes the significance of understanding the dos and don'ts in academic writing.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Examples of Academic Writing Principles The chapter discusses the principles of academic writing, emphasizing the importance of avoiding idiomatic or colloquial language and using academic vocabulary. It suggests using resources like the academic word list and advises against the use of phrasal verbs, which are considered informal. The chapter encourages students to identify additional examples of what to avoid (No's) and what to include (Yes's) in academic writing.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Practice Exercise Introduction The chapter emphasizes the formal guidelines for writing academic essays. It highlights the importance of minimizing the use of prepositions and personal pronouns such as 'I' and 'we', as these create informal structures unsuitable for academic contexts. Additionally, it notes that some universities and departments strictly prohibit the use of 'I' in written essays, and contractions like 'it's' should also be avoided to maintain formality.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Using Synonyms for Better Academic Writing The chapter emphasizes the importance of precise language in academic writing.
• 06:00 - 09:00: Practice Exercises The chapter emphasizes the importance of avoiding vague language in academic writing and encourages the use of specific terms instead of expressions like 'and so on' or 'etc.' It also advises against repetition, suggesting that constantly repeating the same words indicates a limited vocabulary and inability to utilize synonyms. Additionally, the chapter stresses that basic spoken language is unsuitable for academic writing and provides examples of common spoken phrases that should be avoided.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Conclusion and Resources The chapter discusses the importance of using passive structures in formal writing to enhance sophistication and formality.

Academic Style (Academic Writing) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello and welcome to academic English UK today's video is on academic style in academic writing all the links are below but if you want further information then go to our website slw writing okay we're going to start with a definition of academic style so academic style is the conventions often associated with academic writing
• 00:30 - 01:00 now although there is much debate over what exactly academic style is generally there is an agreement among most academic English teachers to the key elements that should or should not be included the following is a list of the dos and the don'ts so before we begin I'd like you to think about what you should not do in academic writing and what you should do considering academic writing style so to
• 01:00 - 01:30 give you an example no idiomatic or colloquial language should be used and a yes would be academic vocabulary should be used such as the academic word list pause this slide and see if you can think of four or five Nos and four and five yeses okay so the NOS no phrasal verbs phrasal verbs are seen as in formal these are verbs plus
• 01:30 - 02:00 prepositions and their use should be limited and alternative should be found personal pronouns I we in my opinion again these are seen as informal they create informal structures and their use should be limited some universities and departments do not accept I in written academic essays contractions it's should be
• 02:00 - 02:30 written in full form for example questions it's not common to use questions forms in academic essays and positive statements should be written personal adverbs again personalizing language creates a more narrative feel so words like surprising unfortunately should be emitted numbering and bullet points in paragraphing is not common
• 02:30 - 03:00 vague language such as and so on Etc is also not normally accepted and we should be more specific repetition repeating the same words constantly is seen as lack of vocabulary and an inability to use synonyms finally basic language that we use in spoken English should be avoided in academic writing here are some examples with possible
• 03:00 - 03:30 Alternatives okay the yeses yes we should be using more passive structures so for example language like we analyze the data could be changed into a more formal structure the data was analyzed we can also take this one step further and make it more complex by using nominalization or noun structures by taking the verb analyzed and using it as a noun an analysis of the dat
• 03:30 - 04:00 showed we should be using referencing systems we should be using cautious or tentative hedging language these kind of words these adverbs and verbs are used just to show that we are not 100% certain of the facts that we State we should be accurate in our vocabulary and show the differences between keywords and we should be precise and show the exact specific specific figures so being specific is a
• 04:00 - 04:30 key part of academic writing right if you would like to test yourself here is the same slide with the words emitted please pause this and see if you can name some of the Nos and the yeses okay academic style practice so see if you can rewrite this sentence so it's more academic another thing to think about is is the chance of crime getting worse so
• 04:30 - 05:00 pause this slide and see if you can rewrite it please answer so the first thing you should do really is look at the sentence and see if you can highlight the informal or non-academic words so here we have thing think about phrasal verb chance and getting are informal words from here you should perhaps go to the Internet something like thesaurus.com is
• 05:00 - 05:30 a good website to go to to check synonyms so if I put in thing thesaurus.com highlights the keywords um that are specific to that one word and the brighter orange are the key more frequent words and the lighter orange are the less frequent words connected to that that word you can also
• 05:30 - 06:00 use Google and Google you can put in thing plus sin and this will highlight a whole list too and you can pick words that you feel are appropriate to the word in context so through that I come up with a list so I could use thing area aspect feature point or think about I could change to consider note understand acknowledge
• 06:00 - 06:30 chance possibility probability situation and getting the the most common similar word to this is becoming I then choose which word I would like to use or which is the most appropriate so here I'm choosing aspect consider possibility becoming and then I rewrite the sentence so another aspect to consider is the possibility of crime becoming worse I can take this to a further step which is by nominal anzing it so here uh I'm
• 06:30 - 07:00 changing the main verb into a noun form so I take consider and I turn it into the noun of consideration consideration with of preposition and it's done and it's more academic so I would like you to do these exercises your first one please pause this slide and see if you can rewrite this using some of the information
• 07:00 - 07:30 you've learned from today answer currently the rate of unemployment is at an unprecedented level C pause this slide see if you can rewrite it answer it has been proposed that by 17 a
• 07:30 - 08:00 vaccine for malaria will have possibly been discovered notice hedging cautious language next pause this slide answer after 2013 the Japanese property market inhouse value fa dramatically or since 2013 the price of
• 08:00 - 08:30 property fell dramatically in Japan for all of these exercises there are a variety of answers and these are just some of the possible answers you could use if you want more then please go here academic English uk/ academic style where there's a worksheet and everything I've talked about today you can download unfortunately it will cost you 50 but it's a good
• 08:30 - 09:00 investment and there's lots more on our website a lot of what I've done today has been taken from this book academic writing a handbook for international students this is Steven Bailey 2014 um it costs about 25 and here's the link here connected to the publisher thank you for watching my video today if you would like more information on academic style or academic writing please go to our website for SL writing thank you