Academic language. (Part 1) презентация

how and why)
Impartial (gives a balanced point of view, more than one point of view)
Logical (ideas flow logically from one to another: signposts, topic sentences and linked paragraphs)
Structured (keeps to the structure of an essay, report etc)

Supported (evidence and examples, referencing)

usual.
“In five experimental conditions we found that subjects took the recipients’ attentional state and their own communicative effectiveness into account by adjusting signal production accordingly. More importantly, in case of communicative failure, subjects repeated previously successful signals more often with a familiar than unfamiliar recipient…”

and reasoning.
But what is critical thinking?
Implies questioning taken for granted assumptions
Involves both openness to new ideas and appropriate scepticism
Provides evidence to support claims
Good thinking always involves ability to ask good questions.

journals after conclusions)
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References

logical requires planning.

A good way to plan a paper is to put down your ideas in bullet points using one page. You can also create a ‘mindmap’ for your ideas or list a series of questions.

Another key aspect in creating a logical piece of writing involves writing in paragraphs.
A report or essay is made up of a series of related paragraphs.
Paragraphs organise meaning. They help your readers to think clearly about what you have written.

main idea is introduced through a topic sentence, which is usually the first sentence
all sentences in the paragraph need to relate to the main idea in a logical way
paragraphs are linked together and flow logically on from each other
in-text references need to be included in the paragraph if supporting ideas come from other sources.

that there are a number of words contained in your writing that can be safely eliminated without any kind of danger to your meaning whatsoever. X

contained in your writing that can be safely eliminated without any kind of danger to your meaning whatsoever. (Beer & McMurrey, 2005, p. 34)

alternatives
Actual experience - experience
‘Various differences” (Various implies difference so you do not need both words)

Avoid starting sentences with linking words such as but, and or yet.
Beer, D., & McMurrey, D. (2005). A guide to writing as an engineer (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons

introduction when referring to other people’s ideas, suggestions or fundamental findings.
“This study… demonstrates that the residues lining the substrate binding pocket and N-terminal lid are the primary determinants of their substrate specificities”. “We also report the experimentally determined structure of mArAT-aromatic amino acid complex.”

Present Perfect is often used as an alternative to the present simple, but is particularly used to emphasise current relevance or continuing debate.
“Berg and Hudson have emphasized that modern factories need not have been large…”
Present Perfect is used to summarise points or arguments, especially in the concluding sections:
“The qualitative analyses in this chapter have illustrated crucial aspects…”

individual studies:
“Borgen et al statistically modelled the magnitude of such temperature…”
“Our functional assays clearly showed the inability of mArAT to catalyze Hsp as substrate, but it exhibited broad specificity for aromatic amino acids.”
“To explore the conservation of active site residues of Iβ aminotransferases across species, we performed a structure and sequence based alignment of mArAT and mHspAT”

to refer to things which are to be found later in the text or to predictions which the authors make. Both simple and progressive forms are used. Sometimes Future perfect can be used as well.
“The ‘rare resource’ hypothesis predicts that two monkeys that are both holding anointing resources will not form anointing dyads, whilst the ‘mutual application’ hypothesis predicts that monkeys holding anointing resources will continue to seek out other monkeys that hold resources, and that social anointing actions will target parts of the body that are inaccessible to a monkey rubbing individually.”
“After organisational-transformations the “right” environment will likely have changed, but the right internal state remains the same.”

capuchin monkeys in other studies 34,35, baboons, Papio papio 36, tonkean and rhesus macaques, Macaca tonkeana & M. mulatta 37, rooks, Corvus frugilegus5, and African grey parrots, Psittacus erithacus 38, did not pass the delay and/ or solitary control conditions, suggesting that they do not pay attention to the other’s role or even lack an understanding of the need of a partner.”

it is often necessary to shift the focus from human agency to the actions, processes and events described.
“Cooperative hunting has been described in social carnivores7–10, chimpanzees…“
“most emphasis has been put on whether animals understand the need and role of the partner in cooperation.”
“In experiment 1, seven ravens were confronted with the string pulling set-up in a group setting”
To signpost the section dealing with personal stance and evaluation, the author shifts to active voice:
“We investigated the cooperative problem solving abilities of ravens by using a set-up comparable to most other studies based on the loose string paradigm.”

subjects, as well as to describe activities etc. of the objects studied.
“In a group of captive Sapajus sp. the frequency of aggression increased, and durations of affiliative behaviours decreased…“
„individuals form multiple highly differentiated affiliative and agonistic relationships with others”
“The ravens cooperated successfully in 397 out of 600 trials (66.17%).”

well as in spoken academic style. It is usually followed by such verbs as:

one author of an academic paper:
“We investigated the cooperative problem solving abilities of ravens”
Also, “we” can be used by a single author as an inclusive strategy, referring to the author and reader together, making him a part of the team:
“We know the molecular biology of this virus in very great detail”
“You” and “one” can both be used to refer to people in general, and to academic community of writer / speaker and readers / listeners. “You” is less formal than one.
“It is possible that the more words you already know, the easier it is to aсquire the meaning of new words”
“One” is less frequent than you, particularly, in spoken academic language.

to avoid making claims and statements that are too direct and assertive. Therefore, hedging (making a proposition less assertive) is very important in academic styles.
“The anger experience may culminate in a variety of behavioral reactions…”
Sometimes, however, it is necessary to assert a claim or viewpoint quite directly and confidently (boosting).
“We must remember, however, that migrants may not need information about more than one destination”

often needs to state possibilities rather than facts, and academics frequently hypothesise and draw tentative conclusions.
Can is often used to make fairly confident but not absolute assertions:
“Genetic mutations, infection by parasites or symbionts, and other events can transform the way that an organism’s internal state changes in response to a given environment.”

some cases, the disadvantageous effects of these events could be reduced or neutralized”.
“An argument is then made as to why we might expect interoceptive behaviour to be more robust to organisational-transformations than exteroceptive behaviour.”

do occur. In this usage it is a formal equivalent of can:
„Increased coverage on the upper back may result from self-directed rubbing a
against other anointing individuals that may be a secondary source of material”.
May is also widely used in a more general way in academic texts to make a proposition more tentative. May is less tentative than could or might:
“The social anointing behaviours in capuchin monkeys may have lead to the formulation of the social bonding hypotheses for the function of anointing in the species.”
“They may well be explained in terms of innate behaviours”.

when it precedes such verbs as “advocate”, “argue”, “assume”, “claim”, “expect”, “propose”, “suggest”.
„Since the behaviour must be costly, we would expect it to provide significant benefits to the subjects.”
“This would suggest that birds that did not receive a reward in the previous successful cooperation trial, are less motivated to cooperate again.”

in our study groups.“

„Bouts in our groups typically included salivating and tail coiling, behaviours previously only observed in anointing Cebus”.

sense, in a way
In most cases
In principle
In some (many) respects
More or less

impersonal constructions with passive voice to avoid a more direct commitment to a proposition:
“It is suggested that the analytic procedure…”
“It is claimed…”, “It is assumed…”, “It is generally agreed…”
Also passive constructions (in complex subject) are used with the following expressions to make propositions less direct:

Be believed to
Be claimed to
Be considered to
Be found to
Be said to
Be seen to
Be shown to
Be thought to

“Operating practices are said to have been a major obstacle to improvement.”

complex subject constructions in active voice with the same effect as the previous passive constructions:
“Within a well-defined niche constant environmental conditions seem to be the exception rather than the norm.”