Writing Skills (1)
Daniel Gerrard
daniel.gerrard@cjv.muni.cz
What is academic writing?
What is academic writing?
̶ Who is writing? Who is the audience?
̶ What is the writing about?
̶ Why is the writing done?
Academic audience
What kinds of texts do academics write? Who are these texts for?
What are the most important aspects?
neatly presented cohesive with full forms of words
objective correct without redundancies
explicit factual with flowing structure
hedged unambiguous without clichés
frequent 3rd person pronouns accurate responsible
well structured neutral backed up by evidence
professionally acceptable revised understandable
linear structure timeless specific
without colloquialisms re-drafted referenced
precise clear nominalized
claiming authority formal tentative
more frequent passive voice impersonal no negative forms
with explicit links between ideas coherent
with clear understanding of the subject concise
relevant within the discourse of your discipline
Academic writing vs. speaking
Nowadays companies are finding that they have to change the way they do
things and they’re finding that human resources planning is really helpful
when they have to do this. One reason why it’s helpful is because it can help
the companies work out what the issues are and then, when you’ve done that,
it can help you make up your mind what you’re going to do about it. Basically,
human resource planning is what you do when you’re going through ….
As companies experience the need for change, they often apply human
resource planning to define the relevant issues and develop responses to
them. Broadly defined, human resource planning is the process of analysing
an organisation’s human resources needs under changing conditions and
developing the activities necessary to satisfy those needs.
How is Czech academic writing different?
Academic writing: Czech vs. English
What differences are there between academic texts written in
Czech and English?
Think about:
̶ Structure
̶ Organisation of ideas
̶ Language
̶ Style
̶ Author’s aims
‘[Czech academic writing] is more intellectual and less reader-friendly than
the Anglo-American academic style. Anglophone authors tend to present their
ideas in a clear and easily comprehensible way: they organize their texts
carefully, indicating text-organization by transparent graphical signals, and
apply simpler lexical and grammatical patterns, including repetition. Many
Czech authors, by contrast, prefer more complex grammatical structures,
and – in agreement with the Czech stylistic norm – avoid the repetition of
words by an extensive use of synonyms. Czech texts are often less
logically and less transparently organized than texts written in English.
English academic texts are primarily oriented towards the reader, while
Czech texts focus on the topic and the presentation of all its complexity.’
(Chamonikolasová 2005: 77)
Want to know more?
Chamonikolasová, J. (2005) ‘Comparing the structures of texts
written in English and Czech’, Slovak Studies in English I, pp. 77-
84. http://www.phil.muni.cz/stylistika/studie/comparing.pdf
What is academic style?
Do you agree?
First draft: what’s wrong here?
(Bailey 2011: 151)
(Bailey 2011: 151)
Second draft: what’s changed?
(Bailey 2011: 151)
Academic style guidelines (Bailey 2011)
Read Bailey’s guidelines for academic style.
̶ Are there any points you disagree with? Why?
̶ Are there any points which Bailey has missed?
̶ What do you think are the most common style errors in your
academic writing?