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• Academic text


  • Based on opinions of educated scholars
  • Anything that is used in schools or classrooms
  • Use jargons or specialized language of the field
  • Is backed up with information that is valid and reliable, and usually sites further references
• Types of academic text

  • Textbooks
  • Student Essays
  • Theses (10,000 to 20,000 words) and Dissertations (60,000 to 80,000 words)
  • Research Articles
  • Case Studies
  • Reports
• Academic text vs. Non-academic text

  Academic text: Written by professionals in a specific field, can be edited by other professionals and often takes years to publish, language used is formal and contain words of jargon typical on that field, inclined and supported by studies and concrete basis

  Non-academic text: Written for the mass public, can be produced or published anytime, and can be written by everyone, language used is informal, casual, and may contain slang, not supported by evidence, and generally there is no reference list included
• Factors that shape academic writing

  • Topic
  • Role
  • Purpose
  • Audience
• Formality in writing


  • Avoid colloquial and slang expressions
  • Limit the use of two-word prepositional verbs
  • Avoid contractions and abbreviations
  • Use more formal language
• Complexity in writing


  • Nominalization
  • Noun-based Phrases
  • Subordinate Clauses
  • Lexical Density
• Objectivity in writing


  • Use of the third person rather than first person
• Impersonality in writing


  • Avoid making statements that are not supported by evidence or examples
• Explicitness: Maintaining the flow in writing

  • Uses transitional devices
• Hedging in writing


  • Tentativeness and possibility in communication
• A sentence should be written with a complete thought so that it is understood by the reader
• Plagiarism


  Copying verbatim language and ideas of other writers and taking credit for them
• Types of plagiarism


  • Global Plagiarism
  • Verbatim Plagiarism
  • Paraphrasing Plagiarism
  • Patchwork Plagiarism
  • Self-Plagiarism
• Author-oriented citation


  Starts with the surname of the author, followed by the year of publication in parentheses
• Text-oriented citation


  A paragraph or sentence from a source is followed by the surname of the author of the work and the year of publication enclosed in parentheses
• In-text citations


  • Parenthetical Citations
  • Narrative Citations
• Direct quotation


  Employed for statements that are closely associated that altering the words may lose its rhetorical impact
• Paraphrasing


  Restating a statement or passage in your own words
• Types of paraphrasing


  • Literal Paraphrasing
  • Structural Paraphrasing
  • Alternative Paraphrasing
• Summarizing


  A short statement of the main idea of a text
• Parts of an essay

  • Introduction
  • Main Body
  • Conclusion
• Parts of a long essay

  • Introduction
  • Main Body (Literature Review, Case Study, Discussion)
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Appendices
• Steps for planning an essay

  • Determine the purpose, role, and audience of the work
  • Expand sub-topics
  • Collect sources and make notes
  • Brainstorm, form the thesis statement, and outline
  • Draft
  • Peer evaluation and revision
• Thesis statement


  Overall idea or argument of an essay
• Topic sentence


  Serves as the main idea of a paragraph; usually has one supporting point
• Outlining


  A strategy in writing that is usually in the form of a list divided into headings and subheadings that distinguish main points from supporting points
• Summarizing


  A synthesis of the key ideas, restated in your own words
• Annotating


  Process of making critical or explanatory notes or comments
• Features of an Academic Text

  • Formality in Writing
  • Complexity in Writing
  • Objectivity in Writing
  • Hedging in Writing
  • Impersonality in Writing
  • Explicitness: Maintaining Flow in Writing
  • Constructing Structurally Correct Sentences
• Formality in Writing


  Formal language and highly formal language are the levels of language appropriate in academic and professional settings. The language is formal because it follows the accepted rules, forms, and conventions of writing in a particular writing community or discipline.
• To make your academic writing style formal

  1. Avoid colloquial and slang expressions

  2. Limit the use of two-word prepositional verb

  3. Avoid contractions and abbreviations

  4. Use more formal vocabulary
• Complexity in Writing


  It observes the use of more noun-based phrases and more content or lexical words than function words in contrast with spoken language. It makes use of more subordinate clauses and complex words and phrases, which is not often observed in oral communication.
• To achieve complexity


  1. Nominalization

  2. Noun-based phrases

  3. Subordinate Clauses

  4. Lexical Density
• Objectivity in Writing


  This feature will help you show the reader that the emphasis is about what you are writing and not about you. It is characterized by the use of the third person rather than first person.
• Impersonality in Writing


  This style of writing requires you to avoid subjectivity. This means that you have avoid making statements that are not supported by evidence or examples. This also entails avoiding adjectives or adverbs that tend to exaggerate your description.
• Explicitness: Maintaining the Flow in Writing

  A feature of writing that shows the ideas or information in the text are connected. Through explicitness the reader can determine if the idea belongs to the writer or someone else. This can be done by indicating the source of the idea.
• Examples of Transitional Devices

  • To show additional idea
  • To show sequence
  • To show contrast
  • To show cause and effect
  • To indicate time
  • To indicate place
  • To make a generalization
  • To introduce an example or illustration
  • To show comparison
• Hedging in Writing


  Hedge entails tentativeness and possibility in communication. Hedging enables you to express a perspective on claims that have not been acclaimed yet by discourse community. This is also referred to as "cautious" language. Using cautious language means mitigating the strength of a proposal by decreasing its illocutionary force through hedging devices (Mojica, 2005).
• Examples of Hedging Devices

  • Hedging verbs (suggest, indicate, estimate, assume)
  • Verbs (appear, seem)
  • Expressions (according to, on the basis of, based on)
  • Modal verbs (may, might, could, can)
  • Adverbs (probably, seemingly, presumably, perhaps, apparently)
  • Adjectives (probable, possible, uncertain, unlikely)
  • Nouns (probability, possibility, assumption, evidence, likelihood, claim)
  • Approximators (approximately, roughly, about, often, occasionally, generally, usually, somewhat, somehow, a lot of)
• Constructing Structurally Correct Sentences

  A sentence should be written with a complete thought so that it is understood by the reader. Common sentence errors are found in sentence fragments, run-on sentences, choppy sentences, and sprawl sentences.