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Academic English notes summary
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A summary of the class notes for Academic English including common errors of assignments.
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Academic EnglishThe oral, written, auditory and visual language proficiency required to learn effectively in
school and in an academic environment.
Why do we need it?
Who uses it?
The academic community and anyone in higher education.
Why/when do they use it?
In an academic setting it is all the time. As to why we use it, it’s to be able to communicate
properly and exactly about what you want to say. You should not be ambiguous. It’s all about
clear communication.
Why can’t we just use normal language?
If you don’t formulate exact things, you can be disproven about what you speak with.
Academic Language vs Popular Science Writing
Academic language:
- Purpose: inform/persuade
- Audience: other experts
- Clear and informative title
- High information density
- Many technical terms, few to no anecdotes or creative stylistic device
- Formal language
- Fixed structure
Pop Science:
- Purpose: entertain/ persuade
- Audience: lay people
- Catchy title
- Begin with an informal hook
- Balance of information and entertainment
- More creative (stylistic devices like metaphors, narration, or personification)
- No fixed structure
Academic language vs everyday language
Register and style
- Formal
- Impersonal, objective
- Cautious
- Strict Structures
Grammar and mechanics
, - More passive constructions
- Strict
- No contractions (can’t, don’t, won’t. It should be cannot, do not, will not)
- Specific rules about formatting and referencing
Vocabulary
- Precise
- Formal
- More normalizations
- Fewer phrasal verbs (e.g. give up, take out)
- More formal connections/linkers (e.g. Therefore, However)
BICS AND CALP
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
- Needed for everyday tasks
- Helps with socializing
- Interactions are full of context and nonverbal cues
- Not as cognitively demanding
- Proficiency in BICS does not equal proficiency in CALP
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
- Needed for academic learning
- More than just learning vocabulary: comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating,
inferring.
- Lack of context
- Often simultaneously introducing new language and new content.
CUP = Common Underlying Proficiency
Skills and knowledge acquired that can be applied in any language: use what you already know
and apply what you learn.
Academic english is
- The most precise words
- Text that is connected and cohesive
- Your thoughts and ideas explained and described by showing evidence (NOT just a
collection of what authors A, B, and C have claimed.
Introduction
Purpose:
Say what the paper is about:
- What’s the research question?
- What’s the hypothesis?
Make the paper easier to read and understand
- Provide background information readers need
, - Tell readers how the current study fits in with related studies. Guide them.
Explain what’s motivating your study and your beliefs
- Establish a niche by indicating a gap in the previous search, or by extending previous
knowledge in some way.
- Occupy the niche by outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research.
Engage readers
- What grabs readers is a problem they think is in need of a solution, and what holds them
is the hope that you’ve found it.
Content
According to Wallwork (2011),introductions have 10 parts:
We must focus on the following:
1. Definition of topic plus background
2. Accepted state plus problem to be resolved.
3. Introduction to the literature
4. Author’s objective (include your aim here)
Wallwork gives six questions that can help you add content to your introduction: we focus on
five:
1. What is the problem?
2. Are there any existing solutions? (In the literature)
3. Which solution is the best?
4. What is its main limitation? (What gap or niche am I hoping to fill?)
5. What do I hope to achieve?
Other questions to help you write your introduction:
- What do my readers need to know to understand why I’m asking my Research
Question and why believe my hypothesis?
- Does every paragraph in my introduction build my RQ/Hypothesis?
- Have I connected the paragraphs of my introduction together so that the steps
from the problem to my RQ/hypothesis are clear?
- How much can I assume my readers know about my topic and how much should be
explained?
- Will My readers understand why I’ve included each paragraph in my introduction?
- Have I started my introduction with enough of a context (frame) for my readers to
understand where I’m going?
*The first sentence of each paragraph gives a broad explanation of what you will talk about in
it.*
Structure
Where to put the content
The CARS model: three moves that most research papers make
Move 1: Establish research territory
, - Show that the research topic is relevant, problematic,interesting
- Review previous. Research
Move 2: Establish a ‘niche’
- Challenge earlier research without a counterclaim
- Indicate a gap
- Extend previous research
Move 3: Occupy the niche
- Specific purpose of the article
- Research questions and hypothesis
- Structure of paper
Introduction structure:
Broad > Specific
Starting your intro:
- Nowadays
- In recent years
- The development of the internet
Avoid these!
How broad should you go?
- Your readers already know______
- Introductions longer than 800 words are likely too long for this assignment - get to the
point faster.
- First paragraphs that don't introduce key content OR engage the readers should be
changed.
Should I use subheadings?
- Short texts generally don’t need subheadings. Try strong topic sentences instead.
Verb tenses: Definitely
- Present simple
- Past simple
- Present perfect
Try to write as actively as possible, because passive (although not wrong) makes sentences
longer and more complex to readers.)
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