Features of academic writing style

Incorrect, the answer is 'false'

Although in the past it was accepted practice that academic writing always used the passive voice, in recent years this has changed. For example, the following short extract is from a paper in the Journal Social Science & Medicine. The paper repeatedly uses the pronoun 'we'.

'We find that focus group research does not derive epistemological authority.......'

In other words, it is written in the active voice. The passive voice, 'It was found that focus group research does not derive......' sounds less immediate and less under the control of the researchers. It could also be argued that, in a contemporary context, the passive voice is starting to sound a little pompous. However, there are still many scholars who insist that the passive voice should be used. It is wise to be guided by your tutor, by other project reports on similar topics or, if you are writing for publication, by the style of the published papers and the publication guidelines for authors.

If you do not want to use the first person (I investigated or we investigated), it is acceptable to say 'the researchers investigated'.

Incorrect, the answer is 'false'.

Academic writing is 'objective'. The following definition of objectivity is taken from the Royal Literary Fund's website

http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/glossary.cfm

and indicates what we are striving for in academic writing:

"objectivity: The activity, quality or state of being objective i.e. looking at the actual facts of something without your view of the facts being coloured by personal opinion or preference."

It is therefore not a good idea to add personal opinions to your work. You may need to make your position clear on a certain argument but you will still need to provide evidence for this so your structure could give the arguments you disagree with first and then give the arguments that support your position. For example:

'Hegley (2003) suggests that free primary education in rural areas is not effective. However, this is countered by a wealth of argument, in particular Jones (2004), Smith (2004), Harrison (2005) and Hughes (2005).'

In this way you make your position clear by pointing out that Hegley's argument has been successfully defeated.

Incorrect, the answer is 'true'.

Academic writing uses more nouns than verbs and often uses the process of 'nominalisation' (sometimes called 'nounification') to change verbs to nouns. The University of Newcastle's Writing Development Centre has a very good section on 'nominalisation' and makes the process very clear. The following example is taken from their website.

www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/learning/language/grammar/nominalisations.htm

"Compare these two sentences:

The government banned smoking in public places in 2007. Since then, fewer people have been admitted to hospital for smoking-related diseases.

The ban on smoking in public places in 2007 has led to a fall in hospital admissions for smoking-related diseases.

The second sentence contains two nominalisations (in bold). A nominalisation is a noun phrase derived from another word class, usually a verb. In the sentence above, 'the ban on smoking in public places in 2007' is a nominalisation of the verb phrase 'banned smoking in public places in 2007', and 'a fall in hospital admissions for smoking-related diseases' is a nominalisation of 'fewer people have been admitted to hospital for smoking-related diseases'.

Nominalisations are useful in academic writing because they convey an objective, impersonal tone. Nominalisations can also make the text more concise because they can pack a great deal of information in a few words."

Noun phrases can also be used instead of 'wh' clauses. For example, 'told us the place where the study is being carried out' becomes 'told us the location of the study' or 'explained why children don't go to school' becomes 'explained the reasons for children's absence from school'. (Although these clauses are often referred to as 'wh clauses - who, where, why, what - they also include 'how'.)

However, you should take to not overdo the use of nominalisation. 'The facilitation of the initiation of the establishment of the investigation' sounds pompous and clumsy. We initiated the study' or 'the study was initiated' are both acceptable. Overuse of nominalisation can make your text turgid - verbs make it livelier so you need to maintain a balance between the two, so if we compare our two sentences from above, a third option is possible.

The government banned smoking in public places in 2007. Since then, fewer people have been admitted to hospital for smoking-related diseases.

The ban on smoking in public places in 2007 has led to a fall in hospital admissions for smoking-related diseases.

The government banned smoking in public places in 2007. This has led to a fall in hospital admissions for smoking -related diseases.

In the third example, we have an action followed by its consequence (a noun). This balance between verbs and nouns gives the text movement and makes it more readable. In addition to conveying information to your readers, you are aiming to make your text interesting.

Incorrect, the answer is 'true'.

Academic writing (especially scientific writing) is always precise. Expressions such as 'about 40%', 'roughly half of the population' or 'up to 39%' are not formal or academic. If you do not know the precise figure, state a range, e.g. 'between 47 and 53% of the population.

One exception to this is when you are writing a summary of your paper or report (e.g. in the abstract) in which case it is better to say 'the increase in condom use' than 'the 37.25% increase in condom use'.

Incorrect, the answer is false.

Long sentences will not necessarily impress the reader and even if they do, the aim of academic writing is 'to express not impress'. Your primary aim is to communicate your ideas clearly and authoritatively and this will not be achieved with long, meandering sentences where your reader loses the thread of the sentence half way through!

It is, however, also important to avoid the 'staccato' effect that too many short sentences can create. Aim to have a mixture of short and long sentences and make sure that you punctuate long sentences accurately so that your reader can still follow your argument. You can find helpful advice on sentence structure on the OWL website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/573/1/

Incorrect, the answer is 'false'.

Try not to use jargon or fashionable expressions in your academic writing. They sound less authoritative than simple, clear, formal English and they are often imprecise. They are also likely to sound old fashioned in a few years time. For example, the expression 'think outside the box' was extremely fashionable in the 1980s but no-one would use it seriously in the 2010s.

Incorrect, the answer is 'true'.

Two-word verbs usually sound informal and casual and are better suited to use in conversation. There are, however, one or two exceptions to this. The phrasal verbs 'carry out' and 'set up' are regularly found in academic writing and manage to sound formal. Nevertheless, these are exceptions and as a general rule two word (or phrasal) verbs should be avoided in academic writing. There is more discussion of word choice in the section on Word Choice.

Incorrect, the answer is b).

In this case there is a right answer. One very important point to remember about the passive and active voice is that you should never use the passive voice to hide a lack of knowledge. If you don't know who asserted that girls attained higher grades than boys, find out!

Incorrect, the answer is b).

'Interesting' is a subjective adjective (what is interesting for one person is deadly dull for another). An important point to remember in academic writing is that any views for which you do not give a citation are assumed to be your own so in sentence a) you are clearly expressing a personal opinion about qualitative research. In sentence b), however, you are reporting the fact that many others find it interesting - an entirely objective observation.

Incorrect, the answer is a).

This one is tricky! - in this context 'excellent' is an objective view. An exam result of over 70% is regarded as excellent by examination boards worldwide. Comments about the nature of the individual student as in sentence b) are, of course, subjective.

Incorrect, the answer is b).

'Astonishing' is a subjective (and emotive) term, although you may have been astonished, other people reading your protocol may have been unsurprised by your findings. You can, however, say they were unexpected - this is indisputable.

Objectivity is a particularly important feature which distinguishes academic writing from many other genres of writing. In scientific academic writing in particular, it is vital that you present your findings as facts.

In essays where a personal opinion is called for, this should still be expressed in an impersonal tone and couched in formal language. For example, rather than saying,

'The present UK coalition government has blatantly disregarded the promises made by the Liberal Democrats not to increase tuition fees.'

you could say,

'The present government's decision to increase tuition fees is another example of a policy promise that the Liberal Democrats have been unable to keep now that they are in a coalition with the Tory party.'

Incorrect, the answer is b).

It is possible to be too vague! By using 'suggest' and 'might' in sentence b) you are already expressing some caution about your results. The number of hedging terms in a), 'could', 'possibly' and 'suggest' sound as though you really have no confidence in your results.

Incorrect, the answer is a). 'Prove' is an unequivocal assertion. It is not advisable to be so definite unless you are 150% certain!

The Using English for Academic Purposes website http://www.uefap.com has a useful section on hedging. http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

The following extract is from the website.

'....it is now recognised that an important feature of academic writing is the concept of cautious language, often called "hedging" or "vague language". In other words, it is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making. Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways.

Language used in hedging:

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 .

All of this vocabulary will help you to moderate the claims you make for your research and find the precise level of certainty you wish to communicate.'

The http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm website also provides examples of sentences with and without hedging terms. For instance:

'There are certainly cases where this would seem to have been the only possible method of transmission.
There are cases where this would have been the only possible method of transmission.

Nowadays the urinary symptoms seem to be of a lesser order.
Nowadays the urinary symptoms are of a lesser order.'