While you are waiting… Go to this link on your mobile/tablet/laptop: todaysmeet.com/dlscompsci Type your name and click join. Read the questions there, discuss with your partner and add your own ideas.

Academic Reading and Writing Explain the focus for today, a few things to do first Lesson Two: Academic Style

Goals for today… By the end of the class you’ll be able to…. Identify the key qualities of academic style Remove unnecessary text from your writing Use key common academic phrases in your writing Use Microsoft Word or browser extension to quickly add common expressions to your writing. Explain the goals for today, go through briefly

What is academic Style? Talk to your partner and discuss what you think academic style is. Compare these two texts to help you decide: Text Message: Hiya..how’s it going? Saw you in class 2day. Wot’s wrong? U not well? Gotta go now, bw David  Academic Text: It is difficult to offer a comprehensive explanation for the growing trend of marital breakdown; and it is even more difficult to find solutions that might ameliorate the problems created by it. Clearly though, as I have argued in this essay, the most useful answers are to be found not within a narrow legal framework, but within a broader socio-economic one.

How is the style of academic writing different from, say, writing a text message or writing an email to a friend? Longer sentences, choice of vocabulary different, complete sentences, no contractions, paragraphing, objective, precise, not personal, uses hedging (it’s difficult to offer…), no emoticons.

Unnecessary words… A. One problem that both native and non-native speakers have when writing academic English is using unnecessary words. To see how this works, look at the text below and decide which words/phrases could be removed/replaced to make the text shorter but to keep the meaning the same:

'Thus, with regard to introductions, the general consensus of opinions is that a number of factors have to be included. Questions still remain, however, as to what the appropriate length of an introduction should be. Yet, taking all this into account, despite the fact that students are often able to use language well, until such a point as they are able to avoid using an excessive number of words, they will in no way be able to write good introductions.'  (adapted from Sowton, C. 50 Steps to Improve Your Academic Writing)

'Thus, with regard to regarding introductions, the general consensus of opinions is that a number of several factors have to be included. Questions still remain, however, as to what the appropriate length how long an introduction should be. Yet, taking all this into account, despite the fact that although students are often able to use language well, until such a point as they are able to avoid using an excessive number of they can use fewer words, they will in no way not be able to write good introductions.'

ahead of schedule almost all at all times conduct a review of give consideration to in advance of in possession of is able to a total of three reasons end result first began true fact completely destroyed brief in duration

ahead of schedule early most, the majority always to review consider almost all most, the majority at all times always conduct a review of to review give consideration to consider in advance of reservation/before in possession of  has/have is able to can a total of three reasons in sum end result ending first began firstly true fact fact / truth completely destroyed ruined brief in duration briefly

High Frequency phrases.. One way to make sure our academic style is correct and our language is accurate and concise is to use commonly used Academic phrases. In what circumstance would you use the following phrases in academic writing: In contrast to.. It was found that… According to…. In the following section… Little research has been done in this area..

Adapted from: Sowton, C. 50 Steps to Improve Your Academic Writing Take a look at the following text and identify any common academic phrases, one has been done as an example: Academic phrases, also known as 'lexical bundles', are an important feature of academic discourse. One of the most important reasons that you should use these short, formulaic phrases is that that they are a common feature of academic writing. As well as this, academic phrases can lessen certain grammatical problems which you might face. It should be noted that academic phrases are not a a complete solution to grammatical problems; at the same time, they may offer a partial solution. As a result, it is clear that a good understanding of these three-, four- and five-word phrases is one of the key ways you can make your writing sound more 'academic' Adapted from: Sowton, C. 50 Steps to Improve Your Academic Writing

Take a look at the following text and identify any common academic phrases, one has been done as an example: Academic phrases, also known as 'lexical bundles', are an important feature of academic discourse. One of the most important reasons that you should use these short, formulaic phrases is that that they are a common feature of academic writing. As well as this, academic phrases can lessen certain grammatical problems which you might face. It should be noted that academic phrases are not a a complete solution to grammatical problems; at the same time, they may offer a partial solution. As a result, it is clear that a good understanding of these three-, four- and five-word phrases is one of the key ways you can make your writing sound more 'academic' Adapted from: Sowton, C. 50 Steps to Improve Your Academic Writing

Useful tech tools A couple of tools you can use to give yourself quick access to these phrases… Microsoft Word’s autotext Chrome browser extension Papercuts More information about these are available on the Course Syllabus page. Demonstrate these tools

Questions….? Please remember that all slides/links will be available on the Google Classroom about page.