1. Academic Writing Style
Abuelgasim Sabah Elsaid Mohammed
English Department, AUR, U of K.

2. Modern academic writing has a formal style
Modern academic writing has a formal style. But, what does 'formal' mean? Sometimes, students think that a formal style means that they have to copy their lecturer's writing style or that of the books and journals that they read. This may result in writing that is stilted and unclear. Academic writers develop their style after years of practice and students will take time to learn this style. In this workshop, you will be helped with your writing style if you follow some basic rules.

3. The way we write in academic and scientific settings differs greatly from the way we write to a friend or close one. The tone, vocabulary, and syntax, all change as the occasion changes.

4. Academic Style Guidelines
Academic essays should be written in a formal, academic style. This style includes:
1. Employing tentative rather than assertive language. Do this by:
using possibly and probably in front of verbs and noun phrases; e.g. 'This is possibly caused by...' or   'This is probably the most important factor.'
using the modal verbs may and might; e.g. 'This may be the most important factor.'
using appears to and seems to; e.g. 'This appears to be the most important factor.'
avoiding always and every, and replacing them with often and many/much

5. Academic Style Guidelines
2. Using formal vocabulary e.g. discuss rather than talk about. One way to do this is by replacing phrasal verbs with more formal ones.
go up: increase
ask for: demand, request
come in: appear, enter
talk about: discuss
go down: decrease
come up with: conclude, reveal,
come across: meet
look at: investigate
go up and down: fluctuate
pin down: hold firmly

6. Academic Style guidelines
3. Using more formal grammar, for example:
Use 'There' as a subject; e.g. 'There is a serious risk of...'
Use 'It' as a subject; e.g. 'It is very difficult to...'
Use 'One' as a subject; e.g. 'One may ask whether...' ('One' is a formal version of 'You' [plural] in general) .
Use the passive voice; e.g. 'Many things can be done in order to...'

7. 3. Using more formal grammar (cont.)
Everybody must…
In our daily lives we experience the influence of …
We simply/just order goods from…
Let us consider…
It’s high time we all did the right thing.
We can’t see and touch the goods.
When we download songs we cheat their authors of income.
We, Chinese, do things our own way.
I love/ I like/ prefer…
We face a huge danger of being cheated…
You may ask…
Students have their own styles of learning…
We can do many things…

8. Academic Style guidelines 4
Academic Style guidelines 4. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as you and we to address the reader. 5. Avoiding short, disconnected sentences . 6. Avoiding the use of rhetorical questions such as “Did you know that spoken and written language are very different?” 7. Avoiding the use of contractions such as won’t, didn’t, we’ll etc. 8. Avoiding the overuse and misuse of certain logical connectors, especially besides, furthermore and moreover. Besides is too informal, and both furthermore and moreover mean that the following information is more important than the information before, which is usually bad organisation. Use In addition or Also instead .

9. 9. Ensuring that grammar is accurate, that ideas link together smoothly and that a full range of grammatical structures is employed, such as relative clauses.
10. Referencing correctly, in both in-text references and bibliographical references.

10. 14 Do’s and Don’ts in writing good English
Verbs and subjects has to agree. 2. A pronoun must always agree with their reference. 3. Dont omit apostrophes where they belong. 4. Between you and we, it’s necessary to use the right case. 5. Proofread your writing to corect misspelling an erors in grammer punctuation, ect. 6. Don’t never use double negative. 7. Don’t put in commas, where they don’t belong. 8. It’s preferred to not split infinitives. 9. A word about incomplete sentences. 10. Don’t write run- on sentences put in proper punctuation. 11. Don’t join clauses like Id, but as I say. 12. Correct spelling duz matter. 13. Try not to end a sentence a preposition with. 14. Avoid comma splice, put in the proper punctuation.

11. Features of academic writing
Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument, without digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform rather than entertain. As well as this it is in the standard written form of the language. There are five main features of academic writing that are often discussed. Academic writing is to some extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit, and responsible. It uses language precisely and accurately.

12. Features of academic writing
1. Complexity Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language. Written language has longer words, it is lexically denser and it has a more varied vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases. Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives. 2. Formality Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means that in an essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.

13. Features of academic writing
3. Objectivity
Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It therefore has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader. This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you. For that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns (and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs).
4. Explicitness
Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in the text. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling words.

14. 5. Responsibility In academic writing you must be responsible for, and must be able to provide evidence and justification for, any claims you make. You are also responsible for demonstrating an understanding of any source texts you use.