Academic Style Many students struggle with what is meant by 'academic style' and how to write that way

when they're feeling underconfident about their authority to present arguments. There is plenty of authority in making a strong argument based on sound evidence, no matter your level of experience. On the other hand, particularly if you are new to a discipline or particular topic, you will not want to sound overly confident or overstate the importance of your claims to the wider field. Finally, one of the most important aspects of academic style is achieving a balance between using more formal language and maintaining some sense of your own 'voice' within the academic register. Let's look at a few examples. Everyday Spoken English v. Academic English Academic English does not necessarily mean writing that is full of jargon, though clear use of disciplinary jargon is obviously useful to your audience. Convoluted formulations that make your writing difficult to follow are not only unnecessary, they will not impress your most important audience - the examiners. As you work on using formal language, remember to use direct language and clear expression. Choose from the following examples which are more like spoken English (informal) and which are more academic (formal): 1. "Sylvia Plath's poetry feels like she's telling you everything about herself, but by using mythical characters she distances herself from her confessions."
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Informal Formal

2. "In Plath's poetry the personal concerns and everyday role are transmuted into something impersonal, by being absorbed into a timeless mythic system."
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3. "Aboriginal Australians are not only put in jail more than white Australians, they have a worrying rate of deaths in custody."
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Informal Formal

4. "The unacceptably high number of deaths in custody of Indigenous Australians is clearly linked to their disproportionate rate of incarceration as compared with that of nonIndigenous Australians."
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5. "The prevailing scientific opinion on global warming is that most of the climate change observed in the last 50 years is due to human activities."
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Informal Formal

6. "People driving their cars everywhere and a general reliance on polluting substances is definitely why we have global warming, according to scientists."
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Informal Formal

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There are some specific grammatical forms and techniques that can help your writing sound more academic. Below are some exercises on using the active vs passive voice, and nominalisation. Passive Voice Although it is not wrong to use the passive voice, it can weaken the clarity of your writing. First, let's have a quick refresher on the passive. Basically, a sentence constructed in the passive turns the object of an action into the subject of the sentence. That is, the agent performing the action is not the subject of the sentence. For example: 1. Global warming is caused by human activities.vs 2. Human activities cause global warming. In a case like this one, you need to make a decision about which thing you want to emphasise, "global warming" or "human activities"?

A more devious use of the passive can also be to intentionally hide the agent in a sentence. For example: The cyclist was hit on a particularly curvy stretch of road in country Victoria leaves the reader to wonder who hit the cyclist. Compare that with: The speeding P-plater hit the cyclist on a particularly curvy stretch of road in country Victoria. In the first example, the road seems to be the cause of the accident, while in the second, the presumably young, inexperienced, speeding driver appears at fault. A further example of hidden agency from use of the passive can occur incidentally by less sophisticated writers. For example: Muslim Australians are marginalised in Australian media begs the question of who is performing the action of marginalising others? We know the writer is discussing media representations, but who is doing the representing? Consider this alternative: The editorial team for The Age marginalises Muslim Australians by limiting their representation in the paper in terms of frequency and agency. Not only is this a specific acknowledgment of the agent of marginalisation, it forced the writer to think and write about the ways in which the paper is marginalising Muslim Australians. There are appropriate times to use the passive voice and you needn't be worried that you can't ever use it. You might like to use the passive to emphasise the object of the sentence or to de-emphasise the subject when it's somewhat unclear who or what it actually is. You may also like to de-emphasise the subject if it's simply not important. Finally, it can be useful to occasionally write sentences in the passive for a bit of variety in your writing. A series of paragraphs in the active may become dull simply because of the lack of variation of style. Lab reports and the passive voice The other time to use the passive is in lab reports. It may be all well and good for those in the humanities to avoid the passive, but many scientists choose the passive for reports to maintain a 'more objective' (sounding) tone. For example, you may be expected to write, It was discovered that instead of, We discovered that. Although this is a historically accepted way to write lab reports, it does not mean that there is no place for the active, and some scientists are increasingly choosing more active reporting that does acknowledge the agency of the researchers. Another possibility for the above example in the active might begin, The research team discovered that. In the case of lab reports, it is important to understand the preferences and requirements of your lecturers. Nominalisation Nomina-who? Nominalisation is just a big word for the practice of turning actions into nouns. Instead of writing about the process of something, you write about the 'thing' as an established fact. Some examples:

1. Doctors were concerned that the patient would die if she didn't stop bleeding.vs 2. "Doctors were concerned that the hemorrhage would be fatal. In this example you can see the economy of word count achieved by nominalising the text, as well as the more authoritative tone. 1. Police reacted violently to the crowd's drunken shouting and pushing, which led to a spate of clubbing of unarmed individuals, 12 of whom were hospitalised.vs 2. The crowd's drunken behaviour provoked a violent police reaction, resulting in injuries. In this example you can also see the word economy, however, it is also clear that nominalisation, like the passive voice, can be used to hide agency. It is a popular technique of journalists writing to strict word limits. 1. While this might at first appear as a logistic workload nightmare, in fact staff involved in the units have noted it was better sharing lesson preparation with other colleagues.vs 2. While potentially a logistic workload nightmare, faculty actually noted significant benefits of shared lesson preparation with colleagues. This example eliminates wordiness through good editing as well as by nominalising the phrase "was better sharing" into "significant benefits of shared". As well as cutting words, the editing here offers a voice with more authority due to the increased density of the text and change from 'spoken' language to a more formal voice.

Further Reading

UNC Writing Centre handout on using the passive OWL at Purdue handout on using the passive

Index

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