学术英语写作入门

Part I

lSpeaking and Writing 区别?

Speaking

First, I think education should be free because it will help society. More people can get an education if they don’t have to pay for it. And, because of that, people will creative more companies, and this will give a lot of people better jobs, like high-tech jobs in computers. Also, these people will make more money, and they can buy bigger homes and nicer cars. This will help other industries, like construction.

Writing

First, I support free education because of the social benefits. More students can get an education if they do not have to pay tuition. In a society, a higher percentage of educated citizens will lead to more companies. Therefore, many people can have better careers. For example, more graduates can become computer programmers, engineers, or doctors. Moreover, these workers will have higher salaries, so they can afford bigger homes and nicer cars. The increased spending will help other industries, such as construction.

Tips

lBelow you will find a list of ten features characteristic of academic writing. According to several findings, five of them are relatively prominent in Anglo-American research texts. Try to find these features in the list judging from your own experience that you might gain while reading English papers in your field.

v 1. Impersonal style of writing (i.e., without using the personal pronouns "I" or "we").

v 2. Intensive use of logical connectors (words like "therefore" or "however").

v 3. Heavy load of terminology and specialized jargon.

v 4. High degree of formal text structuring (i.e., division of the text into sections and subsections with appropriate headings).

v 5. Tendency to cite and to include into the lists of references the most recent publications in the field.

v 6. Frequent occurrence of the phrases which provide reference to the text itself (e.g., "This paper discusses ...").

v 7. Use of long sentences with complicated grammar.

v 8. Strong emphasis on generalizations and highly theoretical issues.

v 9. Frequent use of footnotes and long remarks in parentheses.

v 10. Tendency to follow a certain pattern of textual organization (e.g., problem-solution).

Formal academic English will normally avoid:

缩写

1. The research won't be continued until appropriate funding is secured. 

2. Interjections and hesitation fillers (i.e., um, well, you know; etc.).

l Well, we will now consider the influence of sex hormones on stress response.

3. Addressing the reader directly.

l You can see the data in Table 3.

4. Phrasal verbs (although not always).

l Researchers have found out that many mental illnesses are based on molecular defects. 

5.词汇用法太嫩

l We must do our best to protect animals.

l Do our utmost

l preserve

6. Adverbs in initial or final positions (the middle position is preferable).

l Then it will be shown how teachers can utilize this method.

l This work relies on previous research heavily.

l It will then be shown how teachers can utilize this method.

l This work heavily relies on previous research.

7. Inappropriate negative forms.

l not ...any ------------------- no

l The investigation didn't yield any new results.

l The book doesn't raise many important issues.

l not...much --------------little

l The government won't do much to support universities in the near future.

8. Short forms of the words or slang俚语.

l This booklet describes the requirements and content of the university graduation exams. 

9. Figures at the beginning of the sentence.

l 97 people visited the museum last week. 

10. SMS-like spelling. 

11 英式美式拼法不能混用

l Why these travellers damage the environment should be analyzed.

12. 不应该带感情色彩,忌讳空口号

l So individuals, communities and the government all must work hard to fight crime!

13. 文化背景，圣经不可用

l We must be friendly to other because the Bible said, “Treat your neighbors as you would like to be treated.”

Part II 写作中绝对不能出现的词汇

1. a lot of/lots of    这对词组一般不要出现在academic essay中,考官已经看烦了.可以用A considerable number of代替

2. Everything has two sides/every coin has two sides    说了跟没说一样,明显的事实,以后也不要用了

3. Recently    这个词不好.按照他们的说法就是too imprecise,没有一个具体的时间.可以用 In the last 5 years…/since….代替

4. There is a survey……    也就是说考官知道这些都是你编的,最好不要用了

5. And, because, but      这三个词我们还是经常会用到.其实最好用in addition, therefore, however等代替

6. 不能用vivid 来形容world  vivid可以用来说memories或者是dream之类的

7. No one can deny that…/Undoubtedly    这2个词组太绝对了，用来开头并不合适. 其实每个人都能持与你意见相反的态度

8. in a word   

9. Nowadays   理由和3差不多, 这个词用在文章里显得太普通了,

10. It is a well known fact…   最好不要用, 有的考官会扣分

11.  advantage and disadvantage   换成merits and drawback 和negative and positive

12.  In my opinion, I dis/agree with this    这是多余的表达. When stating your opinion you follow with a fact

13. very不能用来形容delicious, lovely, fantastic, wonderful, amazing, gorgeous and huge.

 Cautious Writing

l the avoidance of too definite statements or conclusions.

1. By using modal verbs.

Continuum thermodynamics of solids, fluids, and mixtures forms a powerful tool for many unsolved problems.

改为may form / could form

2. By using adjectives that express probability (in all examples below the statements gradually weaken in strength).

Dinosaurs died out due to sudden climatic changes.

It is certain

It is likely

It is probable

It is possible

It is unlikely   that …….

3. By using a there is construction with the word possibility.

There is a strong possibility / a definite possibility / a slight possibility that dinosaurs died out due to sudden climatic changes.

4. By using adverbs that express certainty and probability.

Definitely,

Undoubtedly,

Probably,

Possibly,

Presumably, dinosaurs died out due to sudden climatic changes.

5. By using verb phrases that distance the writer from the statements or conclusions he/she makes.

Social scientists often serve contradictory political and scientific values.

It seems / It appears / It would seem/appear that …

Social scientists seem to / appear to / tend to often serve contradictory political and scientific values.

6. By using quantity words.

A majority of social scientists often serve contradictory political and scientific values.

A large number of social scientists …

Social scientists of many countries …

Some social scientists ...

A few social scientists …

7. By using statements of shared knowledge, assumptions, and beliefs.

It is generally agreed

It is widely accepted

It is now generally recognized

that dinosaurs died out due to sudden climatic changes.

Part III. Style 风格

Study this paragraph and underline any examples of poor style.

l How to make people work harder is a topic that lots of people have written about in the last few years. There are lots of different theories etc and I think some of them are ok. When we think about this we should remember the old Chinese proverb, that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. So how do we increase production? It's quite a complex subject but I'll just talk about a couple of ideas.

将下列句子变得更正式

Reduce the informality of each sentence.

1. The investigation of the origin of the Universe will go on..

2. What are the effects of pollution on the population of birds in large urban areas? Several assumptions can be made.

3. You can clearly see the difference between these two sets of data.

4. The experiment will be over in three months.

5. We can't tell whether electricity is some peculiar kind of substance or motion of ordinary matter.

6. This approach does not promise many innovations.

7. Our new research assistant is a nice guy.

8. 7 out of 25 students had difficulty with the task.

9. Each statement in a high-level programming language is translated into many machine-code instructions generally.

10. You can easily forget how different life was 50  years ago.       

总结Summary

(a) Do not use idiomatic or colloquial vocabulary: kids, boss. Instead use standard English: children, manager.

(b) Use vocabulary accurately. There is a difference between rule and law, or weather and climate, which you are expected to know if you study these subjects.

(c) Be as precise as possible when dealing with facts or figures. Avoid phrases such as about a hundred or hundreds of years ago. If it is necessary to estimate numbers, use approximately rather than about.

(d) Conclusions should use tentative language. Avoid absolute statements such as unemployment causes crime. Instead, use cautious phrases: unemployment may cause crime or tends to cause crime.

(e) Avoid adverbs that show your personal attitude: luckily, remarkably, surprisingly.

(f) Do not contract verb forms: don't, can't. Use the full form: do not, cannot

(g) Although academic English tends to use the passive more than standard English, it should not be overused. Both are needed. Compare:

Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter.

The moons of Jupiter were discovered by Galileo.

In the first case, the focus is on Galileo, in the second (passive) on the moons.

(h) Avoid the following:

like for introducing examples. Use such as or for instance.

thing and combinations nothing or something. Use factor, issue or topic.

lots of. Use a significant/considerable number.

little/big. Use small/large.

‘get’ phrases such as get better/worse. Use improve and deteriorate.

good/bad are simplistic. Use positive/negative (e.g. the changes had several positive aspects).

(i) Do not use question forms such as Why did war break out in 1914? Instead, use statements:

There were three reasons for the outbreak of war . . .

(j) Avoid numbering sections of your text, except in reports and long essays. Use conjunctions and signposting expressions to introduce new sections (Turning to the question of detecting cancer . . .).

(k) When writing lists, avoid using etc. or and so on. Insert and before the last item: The main products were pharmaceuticals, electronic goods and confectionery.

(l) Avoid using two-word verbs such as go on or bring up if there is a suitable synonym. Use continue or raise.

第1讲 学术写作特点 yzx.ppt(下载附件 1.66 MB)