EL 1102: Studying English in Context

Tutorial No. 5: Academic Writing

1. Are the following statements true or false? Give your reasons.

(a) Written and spoken languages do very different things.

(b) Written language tends to be more explicit than speech, ie conversation.

(d) Passivisation is frequently associated with scientific writing.

(e) The grammar of a language is usually based on the spoken mode.

(f) Academic writing disempowers people.

2. Text (i) below is a newspaper report in which black American tennis star, Alexandra Stevenson, speaks of the racial abuse she recently experienced at Wimbledon. Text (ii) is from a book in sociology entitled The Dilemma of Difference by Ainlay et al. which deals with the topic of racial discrimination and stigma.

(i) Alexandra Stevenson raises a stink, accuses players of racial abuse

London – 1 July

For the second year running, American teenager Alexandra Stevenson told a Wimbledon news Conference she had been racially abused by other women players.

‘Things have happened that weren’t very nice and they shouldn’t happen.’ She said after 7-6, 6-3, second round defeat by Patricia Wartusch on Thursday.

‘I don’t think any young girl should go through that. I got called a piece of shit black girl; I guess you could say that on the court a lot of times.’

‘That wasn’t nice. Other things happened. A girl hit my mom with a hat. I think it’s sad.’ She added, ‘It’s the year 2000’.

‘Everyone should grow up. America has gone through a lot. Europe has gone through a lot.’

‘No matter what colour you are . . . If I showed up pink, blue, purple, yellow, black, brown, white . . . You’re still a person. You eat, you breathe, you walk, you do everything alike . . . there’s no difference.’

Last year the 19-year old, who reached the semi-finals as a qualifier, revealed she had been called a ‘nigger’ in the pre-Wimbledon tournament.

(ii) There is nothing inherent in the attributes of any persons that qualify them for stigmatisation. Conceptualisations of stigma arise from negative perceptions of individual or group differences which become foregrounded. People qualify as stigmatised when they are perceived as possessing an attribute that is deeply discrediting and they are viewed as less than fully human because of it. Two of the most common ways in which non-stigmatised people convey a sense of fundamental inferiority to stigmatised people are social rejection or social isolation and lowered expectations.

(a) Discuss the differences between the two texts in terms of their use of grammar, lexis and conventions of language use. What explains these differences of use?

(b) Do/Can the texts (i) and (ii) really express the ‘same’ meanings and do the ‘same’ things?

3. Look at the cartoon on the left. It shows two different points of view about the food crisis – the view held by developed countries against that of developing ones. Choose any one point of view and rewrite the dialogue in a style you might use for an editorial in a serious journal on global issues published by the UNO.

(Some ‘academic type’ words and phrases which you might want to use are listed below to help you do the task:

predicted, unprecedented, burgeoning, depletion, wasting assets, exacerbated, irresponsible habits of consumption, rich minority, solution, imbalance, distribution.)

4. Using the information in this text, write a description of the findings of the study (or parts of it – you can select choice sentences) in the form of a scientific report.

Cholesterol: the killer is convicted

A 10-year study of 3,806 typical American men has shown that a cut in the cholesterol in their diet has saved lives. Doctors have argued for years that America’s predilection for food that is high in saturated fats is striking down men and women in their prime with heart disease, the country’s biggest killer. High levels of cholesterol in the blood coat blood vessels with plaque, which causes angina and prompts surgery that costs billions of dollars each year.

But the hypothesis that low fat diets and drugs could save lives had never been carefully tested until the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute began its study 10 years ago. One group of subjects embarked on a low-fat diet supplemented by cholestyramine, a drug that attacks cholesterol, taken several times a day. The other group also dieted but, unknowingly, took a placebo instead of the drug. After one year, cholesterol levels dropped among both groups, but eventually the drug easily outperformed the diet, reducing the risk of heart disease by 19%, and heart attacks by 24%.

You could begin like this.

There is general acceptance among the medical profession that the high incidence of fatal heart disease can be attributed to a diet high in cholesterol.

(a) Now compare your rewritten version with the original text and comment on the grammar, vocabulary and other devices employed in your version that mark it clearly out as a piece of scientific writing – for example, the use of nominalisation (general acceptance among the medical profession), the use of the passive voice (can be attributed), the use of non-core lexis (medical profession instead of ‘doctors’; general acceptance instead of ‘argue’; high incidence of fatal heart disease instead of ‘the country’s biggest killer’).

(b) Discuss the differences between the two passages in terms of the different purposes they serve and the readership they seek to address. In doing so show how your version achieves a measure of objectivity which is one of the distinguishing features of scientific writing.

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