Formal language - Ms. Kadri's Classroom Pensieve



Formal language

When writing or speaking, we choose the words which seem most suitable to the purpose and audience. In academic writing we use formal language, avoiding the use of slang and colloquial language.

Try to learn a range of appropriate language for expressing your opinions and referring to those of others.

In contrast to spoken English, a distinctive feature of academic writing style is for writers to choose the more formal alternative when selecting a verb, noun, or other part of speech.

English often has two (or more) choices to express an action or occurrence. The choice is often between, on the one hand, a verb which is part of a phrase (often verb + preposition), and a verb which is one word only. Often in lectures and in everyday spoken English, the verb + preposition is used (eg speak up, give up, write down); however, for written academic style, the preferred choice is a single verb wherever possible.

For example

Informal: The social worker looked at the client's history to find out which interventions had previously been implemented.

Academic: The social worker examined the client's history to establish which interventions had previously been implemented.

Impersonal style

Compare the changes in these sentences from informal to academic style.

|Informal writing |Academic writing |

|When I look at the situation in emergency wards, with many staff |If we consider the situation in emergency wards, with |

|leaving, it's hard not to worry about how many doctors will be |increasingly low staff retention rates, there are concerns about |

|available to treat patients in the future. |the capacity of hospitals to maintain adequate doctor to patient |

| |ratios. |

|It's so obvious that people were given jobs just because they |It appears that in a number of instances jobs were assigned on |

|were male or female. I don't think that is an acceptable approach|the basis of gender. Given the current anti-discrimination laws, |

|and is even against the law. |this raises serious concerns. |

You will notice that, in general, in academic writing we:

• minimise the use of the personal I in the text: avoid writing 'When I look; I don't think this is an acceptable approach'

• use formal verbs, and fewer verb phrases (verb + preposition), use consider rather than look at

• use impersonal expressions: there are…, this raises

• use more nouns than verbs: concerns, rather than to worry

• avoid emotional expressions, such as it's so obvious ( it appears is preferable); just because ( assigned on the basis of is preferable)

• aim for concise, often abstract expression, gender, rather than male or female.

Objective writing

• In general, academic writing aims to be objective in its expression of ideas. Therefore specific reference to personal opinions, or to yourself as the performer of actions, is usually avoided.

Expressing opinions

|Personal |'Objective' |

|In my opinion |It has been argued that |

| | |

|I believe that… |Some writers claim… |

| | |

|In my view… |Clearly,… |

| | |

| |It is clear that… |

| | |

| |There is little doubt that… |

Avoiding too much reference to yourself as agent in your writing

|Agent or performer |No agent or performer |

|I undertook the study… |The study was undertaken… |

|I propose to … |It is proposed to… |

|In this essay I will examine… |This essay examines… |

Use of acronyms and abbreviations

|Avoid abbreviations in academic writing |

|Full form |Contraction |

|do not |don't |

|cannot |can't |

|will not |won't |

|must not |mustn't |

|he would |he'd |

[pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download