Academic Writing, Meaning, and Significance

Academic writing is always a form of evaluation that asks you to demonstrate knowledge and
show proficiency with certain disciplinary skills of thinking, interpreting, and presenting.
Writing the paper is never just the writing part (Irvin, 2010). To be successful in this kind of
writing, a person must be completely aware of what the professor expects he\she to do and
accomplish with that particular writing task.
Each discipline has specific style of academic writing and specific language in which
researchers ought to be familiar with it: Knowledge of research skills, the ability to read
complex texts, the understanding of key disciplinary concepts, strategies for synthesizing,
analyzing, and responding critically to new information (Marcela et al., 2021).
All the academic writing (articles, papers, thesis, dissertations, and books) must be written in
specific academic style in which researchers ought to be familiar with it (Wordvice, 2021).
Each discipline has its own language with different forms of writing like casual, simple and
literary.
1. Meaning
a. It’s a style of expression: It should be quiet formal, objective and technical language.
b. It’s Impersonal: This indicates that a research or academic writing should avoids direct
references of people or personal feelings or emotions: emphasis on objects, facts and ideas
c. It’s usually based on the third person (rather than First Person) perspective.
d. It’s like a specialist (Technical) language for a group of scholarly experts, researchers.
2. Significance:
a. Though Academic Writers require to be objective, impersonal, they need to:
1) solve a problem, critique the works of others.
2) develop an argument or point of view.
3) present a theory.
4) hypothesis and original findings.

3. Essential Features of Academic Writing

Academic writing is difficult. It requires a complex combination of generating ideas, selecting
the ideas that are appropriate to the writing tasks, translating these into a text and a polishing
the text to produce a reasonable and presentable documents. In doing this, a writer has to
bring out not only his or her own thoughts but also to make more and enough connection with
the community whom writing is being written.
As you may already realize, academic writing is a product of many considerations: audience,
purpose, organization, style, flow, and presentation.

Audience

Even before you write, you need to consider your audience. The audience for most graduate
students will be an instructor, who is presumably quite knowledgeable about the assigned
writing topic and will have expectations with which you need to be familiar. Other possible
audiences include advisors, thesis committees, and those who will review research you may
want to present at a conference or publish in a paper. Your understanding of your audience
will affect the content of your writing.

Purpose and Strategy

Audience, purpose, and strategy are typically interconnected. If the audience knows less than
the writer, the writer’s purpose is often instructional (as in a textbook). If the audience knows
more than the writer, the writer’s purpose is usually to display familiarity, expertise, and
intelligence. The latter is a common situation for the graduate student writer.
The interesting question that now arises is what strategy (or strategies) can a graduate student
use to make a successful display.
Organization
Readers have the expectation that information will be presented in a structured format that is
appropriate for the particular type of text. Even short pieces of writing have regular,
predictable patterns of organization. You can take advantage of these patterns, so that readers
can still follow.
Style
Academic writers need to be sure that their communications are written in the appropriate
style. The style of a particular piece should not only be consistent but also be suitable both
in terms of the message being conveyed and the audience. A formal research report written
in informal, conversational English may be considered too simplistic, even if the actual ideas
or data are complex.
One difficulty in using the appropriate style is knowing what is considered academic and
what is not. The grammar-check tool on your word processing program is likely not of much
help in this matter since such programs are written primarily to find spelling and basic
grammar errors and not to offer stylistic advice for academic writers. Moreover, what little
stylistic advice is offered may not be right for what you are writing. For example, contrary to
what your grammar checker might suggest, if you are describing a procedure or process, you
can and probably even should use passive voice in many cases.
Deciding what is academic or not is further complicated by the fact that academic style
differs from one area of study to another. Finally, academic style is not used in all
academic settings. Research based on the Michigan Corpus of Spoken Academic English
(MICASE) shows that academic and research speech, in linguistic terms, is much more like
casual conversation than written academic English. It is not uncommon to hear U.S. lecturers
use words and phrases like stuff, things, a bit, bunch, or a whole lot of, which we would not
expect to find in a written academic text. They may also use elaborate metaphors and other
vivid expressions to enliven their speaking style.
Language Focus: The Vocabulary Shift—Verbs
English often has two (or more) choices to express an action or occurrence. The choice is
often between a phrasal (verb + particle) or prepositional verb (verb + preposition) and a
single verb, the latter with Latinate origins. In lectures and other instances of everyday spoken
English, the verb + preposition is often used; however, for written academic style, there is a
tendency for academic writers to use a single verb when possible. In some fields this is a
very noticeable stylistic characteristic. Here is an example.
Given our fast-paced society, people must routinely put creative solutions to unexpected
problems into practice.
Given our fast-paced society, people must routinely implement creative solutions to
unexpected problems.

What follows are some other considerations that you can investigate and possibly
incorporate in your academic writing style. These are not rules to follow, but rather
choices you can make.
1. As indicated earlier, single authors in some fields use the first-person pronoun I (note that
in some Engineering and hard science fields, single authors may choose we, given the
collaborative nature of research in these areas). We, of course, is common in co-authored
papers, which are increasingly the norm in publications. Research indicates that I or we can
be used in academic writing, but many new authors are very reluctant to use I.
In this paper I argue that This paper argues that small
small incentives can lead to incentives can lead to
greater participation in greater participation in
surveys. surveys.
2. Again we remind you that in a few fields contractions may be common; in most they
are not.
Export figures won’t improve Export figures will not
until the economy is stronger. improve until the economy is
stronger
3. Some authors prefer some negative forms over others, believing that those on the
right are more academic.
Not . . . any no
The analysis didn’t yield any The analysis yielded no
new results. new results.
Not . . . much little
The government didn’t The government allocated
allocate much funding for little funding for the
the program. program.

Not . . . many few

This problem doesn’t have This problem has few
many sustainable solutions. sustainable solutions.
4. Some readers (for example, journal editors) object to the use of vague expressions such
as and so forth and etc. These expressions may sometimes be used, but keep in mind that they
are imprecise and require readers to “fill in” the missing information.
5. In many fields writers typically avoid addressing the reader as you (except, of course,
if you are writing a textbook or other instructional materials). Note that this means you may
need to use passive voice.
You can see the results in The results can be seen in
Table 1. Table 1.
6. Sometimes the use of a direct question can be a very effective means to draw your
reader’s attention to a point. This may be particularly useful when laying out an argument
or research questions to be answered. However, indirect questions, such as those on the
right, are likely more common.
Why has antibiotic resistance Many studies have
increased? investigated why antibiotic
resistance has increased.
or
 It is important to understand
why antibiotic resistance has
increased.
or
It remains unclear why
antibiotic resistance has
increased.
7. Adverb placement might be important. Often in academic writing adverbs are placed
in mid-position rather than in the initial or final positions of sentences. In other contexts,
English adverbs often occur at the beginning or end of sentences.

This model was developed This model was originally

by the International Monetary developed by the International
Fund (IMF) originally and was Monetary Fund (IMF) and was
adapted by Lalonde and Muir later adapted by Lalonde
(2007) later. and Muir (2007).

8. Consider whether you should split infinitives (to + verb). The prescriptive view of
grammar condemns the use of split infinitives (placing an adverbial modifier between to
and the infinitive as in to sharply rise). Although we would agree that split infinitives are
not so common in some areas of academic writing, they are sometimes used, particularly to
avoid awkwardness or ambiguity. (Both Chris and John regularly use split infinitives in their
writing.)
We need to adequately meet We need to meet the needs
the needs of those enrolled of those enrolled in the
in the program. program adequately.

9. Use as many words as you need to express your points, but try not to use too many
words. If you are wordy, readers may have difficulty following your point.
It may be difficult to make a Choosing the proper method
decision about the method may be difficult.
that should be used.
10. Consider using both active and passive voice. Both active and passive voices are used in
academic writing; the key is to choose the right voice for the right purpose. Although
grammar checkers may caution against using passive voice, it is commonly used in academic
writing.

Flow
Another important consideration for successful communication is flow—moving from one
statement in a text to the next. Naturally, establishing a clear connection of ideas is important
to help your reader follow the text.
Old-to-New Information Flow
Although your first instinct in establishing a smooth flow of ideas is to use logical
connectors such as however or furthermore, many writers generally try to follow a
progression from old or given information, which is in the subject position or early at the
left end of the sentence, to new information, which is placed at the right end of the sentence.
Placing relevant “old” information in early position establishes a content connection
backward and provides a forward content link that establishes the context. Notice how this
old-to-new pattern is established in this text.

Research has shown that caffeine does indeed reduce sleepiness and can lead to better
academic performance since students can spend more time studying. (Despite its effectiveness
in counteracting sleepiness, caffeine can have a negative impact on subsequent sleep,

To tie two sentences together, you can repeat information from the beginning
of the first sentence, as in the case of caffeine in Sentences 1 and 2. Alternatively, you can
pick up information from the end of the first sentence (since, once read, this new information
is now familiar). An example of this is Sentences 5 and 6.
However, a new kind of caffeinated drink has become increasingly popular, namely
functional energy drinks (FEDs). ,FEDs are marketed as products that can improve both
mental and physical performance.
Note also how passive voice in Sentence 6 is essential here. The point about marketing might
not be well connected using active voice. An old-to-new pattern can also be achieved by using
this/these + a noun, which refers back to some or all of the preceding sentence. An example of
this can be seen in this possible Sentence 9.
/ If this relationship could be explained, more effective FEDs could be developed.
If old-to-new cannot be easily maintained, writers will often opt to use a logical
connector to make relationships clear, as in Sentences 4 and 5.
* Most of the research on how caffeine affects sleepiness/ alertness has focused on coffee or
no-doze pills. + However, a new kind of caffeinated drink has become increasingly popular,
namely functional energy drinks (FEDs).
Note that a new kind of caffeinated drink is new information that was not mentioned in
Sentence 4. In order for the author to strongly establish the logical connection, the linking
word, however, is added.
Language Focus: Linking Words and Phrases
As demonstrated in Task Seventeen, repetition and linking words and phrases can help a
writer maintain flow and establish clear relationships between ideas. Table 1 lists some of the
more common linking words and phrases, arranged according to their function and
grammatical use.

Subordinators Sentence
(introduce a Connectors Phrase Linkers
dependent clause (introduce a (introduce a noun
Function that must be joined complete sentence phrase)
to a complete or independent
sentence) clause)
Addition furthermore in addition to
in addition
moreover
Adversativity Although however despite
even though nevertheless in spite of
despite the fact
Cause and effect Because therefore because of
Since as a result due to
consequently as a result of
hence
thus 1
Clarification in other words
that is
i.e.
Contrast While in contrast Unlike
Whereas however
on the other hand
conversely
Illustration for example
for instance
Intensification on the contrary
as a matter of fact
in fact

Sentence connectors raise a small, but important, issue—namely,

punctuation.
Many general style guides and style guides for your specific area of
study are available (online and in book form) that can provide detailed
explanations of punctuation use. Therefore, we will limit our discussion to
a
few key points regarding semicolons (;), colons (:), dashes (—), and
commas
(,).