LESSON 1

THE ACADEMIC WRITING STYLE

 WRITING is a form of communication that is shaped by the following factors:
o TOPIC- What is the text all about?
o ROLE- Who am I as a writer?
o PURPOSE- Why am I writing this in the first place?
o AUDIENCE- Who is reading this piece?

LESSON 2
ASPECTS OF PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
 (4) Four Important Features of Language
1. Formality- reflects your dignified stance in your writing as a member of the academic community, this means, the
language you use requires precision to make it a “legitimate” piece of academic writing.
a. Choosing expanded modal forms over contracted forms.
Ex. Can’t  cannot doesn’t  does not
b. Choosing one verb form over two- word verbs.
Ex. mess up  damage
c. Choosing expanded terms over abbreviated equivalents.
Ex. ASAP  as soon as possible
d. Avoiding colloquial/ trite/ idiomatic expressions.
Ex. as a matter of fact I need to go to the John. kind of like
2. Objectivity- requires special knowledge and use of more complex language and objectivity. This means that the writing
must me impersonal and maintain a certain level of social distance.
a. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns (I and We)
Ex. You need to conduct the experiment  The researchers need to conduct the experiment.
b. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it marks “closeness” with the reader
Ex. How can these problems be solved?  Certain measurements must be discovered to solve the
problems.
c. Avoiding emotive language that shows biases and lessens objectivity.
Ex. The investigators were very shocked to see the outcome of the tests.  The investigators did not
expect the result
3. Explicitness- academic writing demands the use of signposts that allow the readers to trace the relationship in the parts
of a study.
Ex. however similarly in addition for example
This resulted in this is due to the etc.

4. Caution- academic writing requires care since knowledge is built from proven theories and concepts. Therefore, caution
is needed to avoid sweeping generalizations. The statement is not completely true and the rhetorical impact of the
statement may be misleading.
- This can be improved through the use of devices (modal verbs, adverbs, or verbs).
- (When hypothesis needs to be tested.)
- (Drawing conclusions or predictions from your findings that may generalize certain matters or may not be
conclusive.)
- (Referencing others’ work to build your own paper.)
Ex. Government officials are corrupt.
5. Structure - complex level of sentence construction that shows sophistication.
A. Sentences should avoid redundancy but the essence must be retained.
B. Two types of sentence structure:
1. Nominalization – focus on verb (action done) in the sentence.
a. The companycreated an educational game about planets.

Nominalized: Creation of a planet-based educational game was done. (by the company.)
Note: The VERB of the original sentence MUST be changed to its NOMINAL (noun) form and the DOER of the sentence CAN
(OPTIONAL) be put to the last part by using the BY+DOER.

2. Passivization – focus on the result of action (object) of the sentence.

b. The company created an educational game about planets.

Passivized: An educational gamewas created. (by the company)

Note: The result (object) will now be the SUBJECT of the sentence since in passivization, the result is highlighted. The DOERof the
sentence CAN (OPTIONAL) be put to the last part by using the BY+DOER.
 LESSON 3
PLAGIARISM, NOTE-TAKING, AND CITATION STYLES

Plagiarism is the serious from of academic dishonesty and is defined as the copying verbatim of language and ideas without taking
credit for it/them.
1. Plagiarism of ideas
2. Plagiarism of language

To avoid number 2, use note-taking skills and citation.

1. Author-oriented citation : Acosta (2019) …

2. Text-oriented citation: … (Acosta, 2019)
3. According to Acosta (2019), …

NTS:
1. Direct Quotation: “…” (Acosta, 2019)
2. Summarizing: short restatement of the main idea
3. Paraphrasing: restatement but of own words
 Literal – replace vocab terms
 Structural – sentence and word structure
 Alternative –question to ponder before the text

APA (American Psychological Association)’s way of citing texts, authors, and other references.

LESSON 4
ESSAYS
Ideas in text: thesis statement – overall idea or argument that presents the essential points to the readers of the text
1. Focused
2. Clear on its boundaries
3. Declarative sentence

THESIS STATEMENT (WHOLE ESSAY) VS TOPIC SENTENCE (PARAGRAPH)

and the outline – helpful tool to organize ideas

1. Traditional – numbers, letters, numerals
2. Standard – numbers only

Principles of Outlining
 Parallelism – same language structure
 Coordination – levels of importance
 Subordination – differences in importance
 Division – at least 2 supporting points of the major idea

Before writing:
1. Plan
2. Research
3. Determine TARP
4. Brainstorm
5. Draft

After writing
1. Peer evaluation and revision - feedback

ADDITIONAL NOTES
APA citation styles – in sequence:
Newspaper: Author + Date of Release + Title of the Article + Newspaper Name + Page Location
e.g. Ramos, T. (2019, August 6) Facebook: Boon or Bane. TechToday Weekly. p. H4
Journal Article: Author + Title of Article + Journal Name + Volume and Series + Pages
e.g. Ramos, T. (2019) Twitting Twitter as it Happens. 11(10) 1-5
Books: Author + Year + Title of Book + Place of Publication + Publishing House
e.g. Ramos, T (2019) Instagram for Dummies. Valenzuela. SocialMediaCorp. Publishing House

A. Critique Paper – presents a balanced view of things, mixture of actual observation and personal perspectives.
Must have the sense of ideas you want to tackle, summary of the concept, strength and weakness with tact and caution,
and recommendation

REVIEW/
CRITIQUE PAPER

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE TOPIC

INTRODUCTION
SENSE OF PROBLEM TO CRITICIZE

FEATURES OF THE OBJECT &

BODY
STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESS OF THE OBJECT

CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATION FOR THE OBJECT