**Academic Style (Academic Writing) — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/academic-style-academic-writing/

Academic English UK explains academic style: dos and don'ts such as avoiding phrasal verbs, personal pronouns and contractions, and using passive voice, nominalization, hedging and precise language, w

## Key Takeaways

- Academic writing avoids informal features such as phrasal verbs, personal pronouns, contractions and personal adverbs.
- Passive voice and nominalization make academic prose more formal and concise.
- Hedging language and referencing show appropriate caution and support claims.
- Specificity and precise vocabulary, rather than vague or repetitive wording, are central to academic style.

## What the video covers

- Defines academic style as the conventions associated with academic writing, with broad agreement among teachers on key elements.
- Lists informal features to avoid: idiomatic/colloquial language, phrasal verbs, personal pronouns (I, we, in my opinion), contractions, question forms, and personal adverbs like 'surprisingly' or 'unfortunately'.
- Notes that numbered lists and bullet points are uncommon in academic paragraphs, and vague expressions like 'and so on' or 'etc' should be replaced with specifics.
- Advises avoiding repetition and basic spoken-English vocabulary, instead using synonyms and academic word list vocabulary.
- Recommends passive structures (e.g., 'The data was analyzed') and nominalization (e.g., 'An analysis of the data showed').
- Explains the use of referencing and cautious hedging language to signal that claims are not fully certain.
- Emphasizes accuracy and precision, including exact figures and clear distinctions between key terms.
- Demonstrates a rewriting method: highlight informal words, find alternatives using thesaurus.com or Google synonym searches, select appropriate academic words, then nominalize.
- Works through practice sentences on unemployment, malaria vaccine predictions with hedging, and Japanese property prices.
- Recommends the book 'Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students' by Steven Bailey (2014) and a paid worksheet on the presenter's website.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction
2. 00:18 Definition of Academic Style
3. 00:50 Dos and Don'ts: Informal Features to Avoid
4. 02:30 Yes: Passive Voice, Nominalization and Hedging
5. 03:20 Practice: Rewriting an Informal Sentence
6. 04:40 Exercises and Model Answers
7. 05:30 Resources and Book Recommendation

Answers

## Questions about this video

What features of informal writing should be avoided in academic essays according to the video?

The video says to avoid phrasal verbs, personal pronouns such as I and we, contractions, question forms, personal adverbs like 'unfortunately', numbered lists and bullet points, vague language like 'etc', and basic spoken vocabulary. Academic writing should use more formal and specific language instead.

How does the presenter suggest rewriting an informal sentence in a more academic style?

The presenter suggests first highlighting informal words, then using a thesaurus or Google synonym searches to find more academic alternatives, selecting the most appropriate ones in context, and optionally nominalizing a verb into a noun, as in 'consider' becoming 'consideration of'.

What is hedging and why is it used in academic writing?

Hedging is cautious or tentative language, such as modal verbs and certain adverbs, used to show that the writer is not 100% certain of the facts stated. The example given is the sentence 'It has been proposed that by 2017 a vaccine for malaria will have possibly been discovered.'

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:02

Speaker A

Hello and welcome to Academic English UK. Today's video is on academic style in academic writing.

00:11

Speaker A

All the links are below, but if you want further information, then go to our website forward slashwriting.

00:18

Speaker A

Okay, we're going to start with a definition of academic style. So academic style is the conventions often associated with academic writing. Now although there is much debate over what exactly academic style is, generally there is an agreement among most

00:40

Speaker A

academic English teachers to the key elements that should or should not be included. The following is a list of the dos and the don'ts.

00:50

Speaker A

So before we begin, I'd like you to think about what you should not do in academic writing and what you should do considering academic writing style. So to give you an example, no idiomatic or colloquial language should be used and the yes would be

01:10

Speaker A

academic vocabulary should be used such as the academic word list. Pause this slide and see if you can think of four or five nos and four and five yeses.

01:23

Speaker A

Okay. So, the nose, no phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are seen as informal. These are verbs plus prepositions and their use should be limited and alternatives should be found. Personal pronouns I, we in my opinion. Again, these are seen as

01:44

Speaker A

informal. They create informal structures and their use should be limited. Some universities and departments do not accept I in written academic essays.

01:59

Speaker A

Contractions ital should be written in full form. For example, questions. It's not common to use questions forms in academic essays and positive statements should be written.

02:14

Speaker A

Personal adverbs again personalizing language creates a more narrative feel. So words like surprising, unfortunately should be emitted.

02:27

Speaker A

Numbering and bullet points in paragraphing is not common. Vague language such as and so on etc is also not normally accepted and we should be more specific.

02:40

Speaker A

Repetition repeating the same words constantly is seen as lack of vocabulary and an inability to use synonyms.

02:50

Speaker A

Finally, basic language that we use in spoken English should be avoided in academic writing. Here are some examples with possible alternatives.

03:03

Speaker A

Okay, the yeses. Yes, we should be using more passive structures. So, for example, language like we analyze the data could be changed into a more formal structure.

03:16

Speaker A

The data was analyzed. We can also take this one step further and make it more complex by using nominalization or noun structures by taking the verb analyzed and using it as a noun. An analysis of the data showed

03:32

Speaker A

we should be using referencing systems. We should be using cautious or tentative hedging language. These kind of words, these adverbs and verbs are used just to show that we are not 100% certain of the facts that we state.

03:50

Speaker A

We should be accurate in our vocabulary and show the differences between key words and we should be precise and show the exact specific figures. So being specific is a key part of academic writing.

04:07

Speaker A

Right? If you would like to test yourself, here is the same slide with the words emitted. Please pause this and see if you can name some of the nos and the yeses.

04:20

Speaker A

Okay, academic style practice. So, see if you can rewrite this sentence so it's more academic.

04:28

Speaker A

Another thing to think about is the chance of crime getting worse. So, pause this slide and see if you can rewrite it please.

04:38

Speaker A

answer. So the first thing you should do really is look at the sentence and see if you can highlight the informal or non-academic words. So here we have thing. Think about phrasal verb chance and getting our informal words. From

04:55

Speaker A

here you should perhaps go to the internet. something like thesaurus.com is a good website to go to to check synonyonyms. So if I put in thing thesaurus.com highlights the keywords um that are specific to that one word and the brighter orange are the key more

05:26

Speaker A

frequent words and the lighter orange are the less frequent words connected to that word. You can also use Google and Google you can put in thing plus sin and this will highlight a whole list too and you can pick words that you feel are

05:44

Speaker A

appropriate to the word in context. So through that I come up with a list.

05:52

Speaker A

So I could use thing area aspect feature point or think about. I could change to consider note understand acknowledge chance possibility probability situation, and getting. The the most common similar word to this is becoming.

06:09

Speaker A

I then choose which word I'd like to use or which is the most appropriate.

06:15

Speaker A

So here I'm choosing aspect, consider, possibility becoming, and then I rewrite the sentence. So another aspect to consider is the possibility of crime becoming worse. I can take this to a further step which is by nominalizing it. So here uh I'm changing the main

06:35

Speaker A

verb into a noun form. So I take consider and I turn it into the noun of consideration.

06:43

Speaker A

Consideration with of preposition and it's done and it's more academic. So I would like you to do these exercises.

06:54

Speaker A

your first one. Please pause this slide and see if you can rewrite this using some of the information you've learned from today.

07:06

Speaker A

Answer. Currently, the rate of unemployment is at an unprecedented level. C. Pause this slide.

07:22

Speaker A

See if you can rewrite it. answer. It has been proposed that by 2017 a vaccine for malaria will have possibly been discovered.

07:35

Speaker A

Notice hedging cautious language. Next, pause this slide. Answer. After 2013, the Japanese property market inhouse value fell dramatically. Or since 2013, the price of property fell dramatically in Japan.

08:05

Speaker A

For all of these exercises, there are a variety of answers, and these are just some of the possible answers you could use. If you want more then please go here academicenglish UK/academicstyle where there's a worksheet and everything I've talked about today you can download

08:27

Speaker A

and fortunately it will cost you 50 p but it's a good investment and there's lots more on our website.

08:36

Speaker A

A lot of what I've done today has been taken from this book academic writing a handbook for international students.

08:42

Speaker A

This is Steven Bailey 2014. Um, it costs about £25 and here's the link here connected to the publisher.

08:52

Speaker A

Thank you for watching my video today. If you would like more information on academic style or academic writing, please go to our website/writing.

09:01

Speaker A

Thank you.

Topics: academic writing academic style academic English hedging nominalization passive voice formal writing paraphrasing EAP writing tips

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