What is wrong with the statements about academic writing in English below?
- Abbreviations are informal
- Avoid phrasal verbs
- Avoid semicolons
- Avoid strong language
- Contractions are too informal
- Don’t repeat words
- It’s impossible to avoid bias
- Long titles are better than short titles
- Only start a new paragraph when you start a new topic
- Quoting directly is better than paraphrasing
- Single countable nouns need a determiner
- State your conclusions in your introduction.
- The more references the better
- Use as many linking expressions as possible
- Use passives to avoid “I”, “you”, etc
- Using “one” is pretentious
- Using “the author” is pretentious
- You have to be consistent with the use of British and American English
- Never make generalisations.
Change any which you think aren’t 100% accurate. You can change the sentences as much as you like as long as the topic remains the same.
Use the language under the fold to help with the activity above.
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| tend In general,… To generalise somewhat/ To make a somewhat sweeping statement/ This is a bit of an overgeneralisation, but/ If we ignore… (for a moment)/ To simplify (almost) all/ the (vast) majority/ most/ (very) many/ much/ quite a lot/ some/ a few a huge/ (very/ fairly) large/ good/ substantial/ considerable/ (very) limited number/ amount of definitely/ almost certainly/ probably/ likely/ perhaps/ maybe/ possibly/ potentially must/ may/ might/ could almost always/ usually/ generally/ typically/ most of the time/ often/ sometimes/ occasionally/ rarely/ seldom/ very rarely/ almost never While it’s generally true that…/ Although it’s often the case that… Despite/ In spite of apart from/ except for unless…/ if but there are also exceptions, such as…/ but it is also the case that… but it depends on… approximately/ more or less/ around(just) under/ fewer than/ less than |
First of all without looking above, brainstorm as many similar expressions as you can into each of the columns below, with the language in order.
| definitely definitely not | always never | all no/ none | a huge number/ a huge amount a tiny number/ a tiny amount |
Use the language on the previous page to help, making sure you put it in order above.
Check as a class.
Use similar language to make other generalisations about academic writing, first with the table to help and then with no help.
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