ACADEMIC WRITING

ALIMENTO
BENALDO
CABALLES
GOMEZ
LUPIAN
MALAZARTE
MARIKIT

Adapted from:
DR. NIRAJ THURAIRAJAH
BIRMINGHAM CITYUNIVERSITY
2
 ACADEMIC WRITING

Have you read any transfer rumors

regarding David De Gea? Squadra
azzura was really good last night.
“Red Devils” always have a tough
experience at Stamford Bridge.
 ACADEMIC WRITING

Academic writing in English is linear, which

means it has one central point or theme with
every part contributing to the main line of
argument, without digressions or repetitions.
Its objective is to inform rather than
entertain.
 ACADEMIC WRITING

•Academic writing is:

Complexity
Formality
Objectivity
Explicitness
Accuracy
Hedging
Responsibility
 COMPLEXITY

• It uses more complex sentences and

complex structures.

• Academic writing usually has a higher

lexical density than spoken English.
 COMPLEX SENTENCES

- 1 independent clause + 1 or more

dependent clause.

Dependent Clause Types:

Adjective, Adverb, Noun

 Adjective Clause

• Adjective , is a single word used before a noun to

modify its meanings
(e.g., tall building, smelly cat, argumentative assis
tant)

•Adjective Clause, usually comes after the noun

it modifies and is made up of several words which,
like all clauses, will include a subject and a verb.
 Adjective Clause

It will start with:

relative pronoun
(who, whom, whose, that, or which) or a

relative adverb (when, where, or why).

Eg. Moreover, there are a number of challenges that our world

faces that necessitate the collaboration of many nations, such as
climate change, pollution and deforestation.
 Adverb Clause

Is a group of words that function as an adverb in a sentence.

•It can modify or describe verbs, adverbs and adjectives.

•Add information that elaborates on when, where, why, how, how
much or under what condition the action in the sentence takes
place.
•Begins with a subordinating conjunction, such as "after," "if,"
"because" and "although."
 Adverb Clause

Examples:

1. Unless you put in more hours, I cannot recommend you for the
promotion.
2. Chocolate, because it has a low melting point, can be difficult to
bake with.
3. I never knew how wonderful life could be until I met you.

Note: Using an adverb clause in your sentence is a good way to add

important, descriptive detail and information to your writing.
 Noun Clause

•Noun clauses can act as subjects, direct objects, indirect

objects, predicate nominatives, or objects of a
preposition.

•Noun clauses begin with words such as how, that, what,

whatever, when, where, whether, which, whichever, who,
whoever, whom, whomever, and why.

Eg Whichever restaurant you pick is fine with me.

 Complex Structure

Inversion –putting the verb before the subject. We usually do it in

question form.
-when the explanation of an action comes before the
subject.

eg. Normal Sentence: You are tired.

Question Form: Are you tired?

eg. If she knew the store was closed, she wouldn't have stopped
the car.
Regular Sentence:
She wouldn't have stopped the car if she knew the store was
closed.
 Complex Structure

Subjunctive mood - is the verb form used to express a

wish, a suggestion, a command, or a
condition that is contrary to fact.

Eg. Regular Sentence: I was in your position two years ago.

Subjunctive Mood: If I were in your position, I would

do the same.
 Complex Structure

Embedded clause - is a clause (a group of words that

includes a subject and a verb) that is
within a main clause, usually marked
by commas.

Eg. My bike, which is very old, is broken.

The coat, which was old, had a hole in the pocket.

 COMPLEXITY

• Written English usually has a higher lexical density

than spoken English

• Lexical density is a measure of the proportion of

content words in a sentence or text

• Acontent word is any verb, noun, adverb or adjective

which has a stable and significant lexical meaning
 capability (noun)
 organisational (adjective)
 enhance (verb)
 productively (adverb)
 COMPLEXITY

• The higher the density of a text, the

harder the text is
to read

• Lexical density can be defined as a

percentage by the following formula:
Lexical Density = (number of content words /
total number of words) X 100
 COMPLEXITY
Sig nifica nt expenditu re on prod uct ma rketin g mig ht on ly be of limite d
a ssista n ce to a corp ora ti on if the q u a lity of tha t p rod u ct is b e low a ce r ta
in min imu m acce pta ble sta ndard .
 This sentence contains 52% content words, and thus is quite dense.

It is not much use spending a lot of money on marketing a product if the

quality of the prod uct is poor.
 This sentence contains about 36% content words. It is less dense and
therefore easier to read than sentence 1 .

If I we re you I wou ld n ot sp e n d a lot of mon ey on ma rketin g th a t p rod u ct

of you r s.
 This sentence contains about 22% content words. It is not dense and is
easier to read than sentence 2.

Spend ing money on ma rketing a low qu ality prod uct is prob ably unhe lp fu l .
 This sentence contains about 64% content words. It is dense. However, it is
short and easy to read.