Academic writing and style Daniel Gerrard daniel.gerrard@cjv.muni.cz What is academic writing? Do you agree? 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 academic texts do we write? Who are they for? Academic texts What kinds of texts are these? How are they different in terms of organisation, language and style? A. student essay B. academic book C. project proposal D. peer review What are the most important characteristics? 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. speech 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. Cultural differences in academic writing Academic writing: English vs. Czech What differences are there between academic texts written in Czech and English? ̶ 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) Academic writing: your language/culture Is academic writing in your language/culture more similar to English or Czech? Consider: ̶ Structure ̶ Organisation of ideas ̶ Language ̶ Style ̶ Author’s aims What is academic style? 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?