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 eight main features of academic writing that are often discussed. Academic writing is to some extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit, hedged, and responsible. It uses language precisely and accurately.
Complexity
Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language. Written language has longer words, it is lexically more dense 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. More.
Formality
Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means that in an essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions. More.
Precision
In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely. More.
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). More.
Explicitness
Academic writing is explicit about the relationships int he 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 signalling words. More.
Accuracy
Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not. More.
Hedging
In any kind of academic writing you do, 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. A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by linguists as a ‘hedge’. More.
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. More.
Complexity, formality, precision, objectivity, explicitness, accuracy, hedging, and responsibility. Although these characteristics equally weigh the same amount of marks when it comes to scoring an academic writing, both formality and accuracy have proven themselves again and again to be some of the most apparent weaknesses that I have when it comes to creating an academic writing. Moreover, the one similarity that is common between these two characteristics is that formality and accuracy both require the writer to master a sufficient number of vocabularies in order to produce the least amount of errors in terms of those academic writing’s characteristics or perhaps requirements to gain a high score on the matter. Not only that, this burden is then amplified by the fact that these two characteristics complement one another in a way that formality depends partially on the accurate use of vocabularies by the writer. One example would be how the restriction to use colloquial words and expressions to achieve formality in academic writing, actually calls for the utilisation of other vocabularies to replace those unwanted words. Therefore, one solution that could perhaps solve such difficulty is actually to read more non-fiction books instead of feeding more of our fantasy imaginations on fictional books, as the writers of the former also strived to be as formal and accurate as possible in his/her writing.
ReplyDeleteAcademic writing is a clear and focussed paper backed by evidence. The sole purpose of academic writing is to help reader’s understanding. It has a formal tone and style but doesn’t require to use complex and long sentences and advanced vocabulary. Academic writing is usually a bit tricky for students. Most students think that academic writing must be filled scientific sentences and advanced vocabulary and that’s what make academic writing a bit tricky. In academic writing all the answers to the question must be planed and focused. Students must portray an understanding to the subject. The writing structure must be in logical order and all points and materials must be related. Evidences showed in the work must be supported by arguments and must be accurate. Academic writing must also use formal language and the tenses used must be clear and appropriate. In academic writing, student must interpret their ideas and concept in a strong perspective.
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