Academic English Lesson 2 Page 3

SPEAKING FOCUS: INVITATIONS

WARM-UP READING
What can I do to get invitations to give academic talks?
You will have to have discovered an important result or do research on something
extremely interesting/controversial/helpful, or overall atleast something worth
speaking about. It should be important and interesting enough for a group of
people at a university to be willing to invite you, pay for your airfare and lodging,
and overall entertain you as you stay at their university.
Your work can be discovered through various ways. Primarily, you can meet people
at conferences or events at your own university or at other universities, and discuss
your work. The people you speak to may become quite interested and may ask
you to give a talk at a seminar at their institute. Another way would be to publish a
paper (or use various mediums to display your results publically) and have readers/
viewers become interested in it---enough that they would reach out (via e-mail)
and ask you to visit their university and speak about it at a seminar.
If youre a PhD student, your advisor can contact a colleague and speak about
your work. If your work captivates their interest, the colleague can invite you to their
university and give a talk.

Jonathan Goldhirsch, Computer Science PhD student at Technion:

TL;DR instead of getting invited, invite yourself!

Go to the websites of universities you can travel to, find seminars relevant to your
research area, and contact the seminars organizers. Also, whenever youre traveling,
try to find nearby universities that have relevant seminars and give talks there as
well.
https://www.quora.com/What-can-I-do-to-get-invitations-to-give-academic-talks

Inviting
In accordance with our previous conversations,
I am very glad to invite you to ...
I sincerely hope that you will
be able to accept this invitation, and look forward to hosting you in name of town.
I was wondering whether you
might be interested in joining
the Scientific Advisory Board
of ...
I am writing to you to find out
whether you would be willing
to ...
Withdrawing acceptance
I am sorry to have to inform
you that I am no longer able to
Due to family problems I am
sorry to have to inform you that
I am sorry to give you such
short notice and I sincerely
hope that this wont cause you
too much trouble.

Accepting
Thank you very much for your
kind invitation to ...
I would be delighted to be a
member of ...
It is very kind of you to invite me
to ...
Declining
Many thanks for your kind invitation, but unfortunately ...
I am really sorry but I am going
to have to turn down your invitation to ...
Thank you very much for your
kind invitation. However, I am
afraid that ...
Thanks very much for inviting
me to ... I am really sorry but I
am afraid I cannot accept.
I regret that I cannot accept your
invitation at the present time
because ...
So it is with great regret that I
am afraid that I will have to decline your invitation.

Adrian Wallwork English for Academic Correspondance and Socializing (2011) p 273.

A QUICK CHAT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

When do you go to a party?

What do you like to do at parties?
Where do you like to have a party?
Who do you invite to your parties?
Do you let people smoke at your party?
What can people do at a party that will annoy you?
Do you serve food at your parties?
What kind of food do you serve?
What are some polite and impolite excuses to give for not
going to a party?

Academic English Lesson 2 Page 4

WRITING FOCUS: THANKING FOR HOSPITALITY

Insert an appropriate word into the spaces:
by, due, feel, for, further, great, just, kind, on, would

SYNONYMS 1
Latinate versus Anglo Saxon: Match the words on the left with those with
a similar meaning (though not always identical) on the right.

Dear Theodor,

1. ascertain

I (1) _____ wanted to thank you for your (2) _____ hospitality during the
congress you really seemed to go out of your way to make me (3)
_____ welcome. I thought the congress was a (4) _____ success and
much of that success was undoubtedly (5) _____ to your organizational skills.

2. commence urge

Congratulations also (6) _____ your paper which I thought was excellent, I re-read it again on the plane coming home. (7) _____ the way,
have you had time to look at those notes I left you?

6. prohibit end

Kind regards,
Knut Wiesengrund
Adrian Wallwork English for Academic Research: Vocabulary exercises (2013) p 185

3. facilitate show
4. elucidate ease
5. manifest use
7. recommend

start

8. substantiate

prove

9. terminate block
10. utilize
6. prohibit, block
7. recommend, urge
8. substantiate, prove
9. terminate, end
10. utilize, use

Well, once again thank you very much (10) _____ everything.

find out

shed light on
1. ascertain, fi nd out
2. commence, start
3. facilitate, ease
4. elucidate, shed light on
5. manifest, show

You mentioned during that delicious dinner on the last night that you
might be interested in setting up a collaboration between our departments. I think that (8) _____ be an excellent idea have you had any
(9) _____ thoughts about it?

Adrian Wallwork English for Academic Research: Vocabulary exercises (2013) p 153.

PRO TIP : Be careful how you use pronouns

Unlike most languages, English uses the same word you for everyone. It is not possible to show more respect by capitalizing the y (i.e., You, Your)
this form does not exist in English. Thus, the phrase below is incorrect:
I believe Your paper would help me in my research. Thank You in advance for any help You may be able to give me.
Christopher Robin, a character in A. A. Milnes famous stories about Winnie the Pooh, said: If the English language had been properly organized ...
then there would be a word which meant both he and she, and I could write, If John or Mary comes, heesh will want to play tennis, which would
save a lot of time. In modern English this problem has been resolved by using they. In Anglo countries there are some rules regarding the use of
politically correct language which help to make the communication more neutral and avoid the likelihood of offending anyone.
The masculine pronoun should not be used to refer to a generic person who is not necessarily or specifically a man.
Adrian Wallwork English for Academic Correspondance and Socializing (2011) p 66.