Manual on Academic Writing

Proper Paraphrasing

The following short manual will provide several hints useful to properly and effectively
paraphrase.

1) Alternating Active and Passive Forms. The ability to alternate between active and passive
structures is an extremely useful paraphrasing technique. There are, of course, situations in
which the passive is preferred to the active:

 When the performer of the action is not known.

 When the performer of the action is not important.
 When the performer of the action is perfectly obvious.
 When the performer of the action refers to the writer

Consider the following examples:

 a) No one knows the exact period when language was first spoken (The actual performer
of the action is not known);
 b) This sweater was made in England (The identity of the industrial worker who made the
sweater is not important);
 c) French is spoken in France (“By the French people” is obvious);
 d) It can be concluded that further research is necessary (It is the writer who is drawing
the conclusion: “I conclude that...”).

The conversion from Active to Passive and vice versa is possible when there is a direct object
after the verb:

 - Social motives play a very important role (Active) / A very important role is played by
social motives (Passive);
 - You can see that social motives are very important (Active) / It can be seen that social
motives are very important (Passive).

No conversion is possible in the following cases:

 a) Verbs WITHOUT Direct Object: This discussion will consist of three parts (Only
Active);
 b) Actions without known performers: These techniques were developed in 1958 (Only
Passive).

2) Alternating Word Forms. An obvious way of expressing an author's thought in your own
words is to change the form of one word, from a verb to a noun, adjective or adverb. However, it
may be problematic due to the fact that certain words undergo a slight shift in meaning when
they change forms. So you should be very attentive when you make any alterations.

ORIGINAL SENTENCE:

 A manager's success is often due to perseverance.

POSSIBLE PARAPHRASES:

 A manager often succeeds because of perseverance.

 Perseverance often leads to managerial success.
 A persevering manager is often successful.
 Successful management is often a result of perseverance.
 A manager who perseveres often succeeds.
 Perseverance often causes a manager to achieve success.
 The success of a manager often stems from perseverance.

3) Alternating Clause/Phrase Structures. This method of paraphrasing is to alter the structures

which appear in the original text. As a result, the sentence can be either reduced or expanded.

Example of Reduction:

ORIGINAL:

 Although neurons come in many different shapes and sizes, they are all specialized to
receive and transmit information (Adverb clause);

PARAPHRASE:

 Despite their different shapes and sizes, neurons are all specialized to receive and
transmit information (Adverb Phrase);
 The different shaped and sized neurons are all specialized to receive and transmit
information (Noun Phrase).

Types of Essays

Essay is a shorter piece of writing that requires the student to demonstrate various skills such as
close reading, analysis, persuasion, conciseness, clarity etc. Essays should leave no room for the
wandering thoughts or derivations from the given topic. In order to mitigate the discomfort
associated with essay writing it is important to distinguish between the four traditional genres
of essays: exposition, description, narration and argument.

Expository essay is designed to explain a topic. Such essays direct and explain how to
accomplish definite tasks. Expository writings investigate, evaluate evidences, expound on an
idea and make arguments concerning that idea. This can be accomplished through comparison
and contrast, definition, example, analysis of cause and effect, etc.

Descriptive essay is intended to describe an object, a person, a place, experience, emotion,

situation, etc. Description is painting an image that is vividly moving into the mind of the reader.
A successful descriptive essay should make the reader clearly form an impression of the thing,
event or experience described in the essay.

A Narrative essay is a vivid story depicted in a way that the audience learns a lesson or gains an
insight. Narrative essays may sound anecdotal, experiential, and even personal, allowing the
writer to express oneself in a creative and moving way. A narrative essay comprises of several
important parts:

 A setting, where the story starts or takes place. It is important to describe the physical
appearance of such setting with the help of descriptive words or even metaphors and
imagery.
 Characters, depicted and taking part in the story. Such characters should be described in
detail, including their features, speech, behaviour and how one contradicts with the other.
 A climax, which is a major event in the story. It is important to prepare the reader for the
climax gradually and bring it at the end. This will keep the reader glued to the final word.
- Sensory words, that appeal to all five senses of the reader.

An Argumentative essay requires the writer to collect, generate, and evaluate evidence and
establish a position on the topic in a concise manner. Argumentative assignments may require
empirical research (conducting interviews, surveys, observations, or experiments).
Argumentative essays are intended to convince, persuade and make the readers accept the
writer’s way of thinking.

Reliability/Credibility of Sources

Reliability means that the sources used in your writings are accurate and trustworthy. The Purdue
University Writing Lab suggests the following steps in defining the credibility of sources:

 a) Define the authorship. A reliable source is written by a reliable author. Such authors
cite the sources used in their research to support their arguments and information. On the
 other hand, sources with no authors (like a number of Internet websites) may not be
credible and the information such sources provide may be erroneous.
 b) Define how recent the source is. There is a number of fields you may be writing
about. While the spheres of religion, history or philosophy may not require recent
information, papers on economy, technology, politics, statistics etc. require recent
information. In such cases avoid using sources older than 5-10 years.
 c) Define the author’s purpose. It is important to carefully check whether the author
you are going to cite was unbiased. Each topic may be considered from different
viewpoints. Therefore, it is better to use the least biased information, which will not limit
your outlook.
 d) Define the types of sources valued by your audience. In academic writing it is
recommended to use peer-reviewed journals, books, credible periodicals, credible
websites.
 e) Avoid non-reliable Internet sources. It is recommended to avoid using web-sources
where the author is not indicated unless the site is associated with a reputable institution
such as a respected university, a credible media outlet, government program or
department, or well-known non-governmental organizations.

!!!
A credible academic source is written by an author who has an academic standing (the opinions
of such author are respected). Such sources should contain the date of their publication, which
helps the reader identify the relevance of the source to the current state of events, and be
available for the reader. Before being published, such sources as books and journals are usually
reviewed by other professionals in the same field of knowledge (peers). Such peer-reviewed
sources are authoritative enough to be used in academic purposes.

!!!
In academic, formal writing it is demanded to refrain from using Wikipedia-like websites. While
such resources provide easily accessible general information, they are developed by users. This
means that anyone can add or change the content of Wikipedia articles, which makes such
resources not credible. It is also required to realize whether the Internet source you are going to
use will still be available to the reader. Some websites are likely to change, or remove the
information you are referring to, which makes them a bad choice to cite for academic purposes.
In order to add relevance to such sources, it is recommended to print out the pages used and
attach them as appendices.

Finally, the higher the academic level of a writing, the more authoritative sources should be used.

While high school papers often require the students to use websites as primary sources, the
University level writings mostly rely on academic sources, such as peer-reviewed journals,
academic books, academic publications created or reproduced in e-form, academically reliable
websites.
Colon (:) vs. Semicolon (;)

These punctuation marks are not typical for definite languages, and their visible similarity may
be confusing for a person unfamiliar with their meaning and purpose.

1) Colon [ :] should be used (a) before a list or (b) an explanation that is preceded by a clause
that can stand by itself. Think of the colon as a gate, inviting one to go on:

 Example: This decision called for only one course of actions: revolt! (b)
 Example: This sentence contains the following parts of speech: a noun, an adjective and
a verb. (a)

2) Semicolon [;] is used: to (a) connect two independent clauses together into one sentence, (b)
as a super-comma, (c) between items in a series or listing containing internal punctuation:

 Example: This could be a complete sentence; this could be another one.

If you put a comma where that semicolon is, you will have committed a "comma splice,"
which is a nasty grammar error.

There is, however, one exception that can cause you a problem. You don't use a semicolon to
connect two complete sentences if there's a conjunction between the clauses (and, but, etc.). In
that case, use a comma:

 Example: This could be a complete sentence, and this could be another one.
Adding that single word, the conjunction "and," means that you must change that
semicolon into a comma.

Avoiding Contractions

Avoiding contractions in formal writing is a typical requirement.

Contraction is a shortened form of a word from which one or more letters have been omitted.
The apostrophe is used in writing contractions. In standard English, this generally happens only
with a small number of conventional items. While largely acceptable in speech, contractions are
too informal and should not be used in academic writing.

Examples of common contractions: “I’d”, “she'd've”, “can’t”, “shouldn’t”.

There are few exceptions, like “o’clock”. Such contractions are allowed as they have
traditionally assumed the form of a full word.

Contractions should not be confused with abbreviations. Such shortened forms as Mr., Mrs., bc.,
e.g. are allowed in formal writing.

Finally, contractions in foreign words and names are also allowed: D'Angelo, McTavish.  Such
word forms are not considered as contractions because there is no alternative way of writing
them.
There are other contractions which are often heard in speech, like: - 'Fraid so. - 'Nother drink? -
I s'pose so. - 'S not funny. It is, of course, never appropriate to use such colloquial forms in
formal writing, except when you are explicitly writing about colloquial English, or cite the
original colloquial text.

Inclusive Language

Writing inclusively means to avoid expressions and words that exclude particular groups of
people.

For example, gender-specific words, like “man”, “mankind”, masculine or feminine pronouns
etc. are considered to exclude other genders. Formal writing avoids value judgements about
anyone based on their gender, because such statements diminish objectivity, therefore it is
important to avoid:

 emphasizing gender inappropriately or irrelevantly;

 treating women and men unequally;
 minimise or trivialise women or men.

- The following specific techniques are helpful in writing inclusively:

Historically, pronoun “he” has been used as a generic term. But in contemporary formal writing
it should be avoided when possible. “He/she” is an alternative that may be used, but it adds
awkwardness especially due to repetitions in various contexts: “If a writer sees that he/she has
mistakes with his/her paper, he/she should seek help from his/her supervisor.”
In such case using pronoun “they” will be helpful: “If writers see that they have mistakes with
their papers, they should seek help from their supervisors.”

- Another technique presumes avoiding words or phrases indicative of gender when gender is
irrelevant: “I went to a function for the celebrated lady novelist.” No-one would say “I went to a
function for the celebrated man novelist”, so this gender identification implies that the novelist is
a dilettante, a woman who writes as a kind of elegant hobby rather than as a serious career. If
you need to identify her further, use her name:
“I went to a function for the celebrated novelist, Keri Hulme.”

- Taking heed of compound words also improves style: astronaut vs. spaceman, humanity vs.
mankind, artificial vs. manmade, sales representative vs. salesman.

- Avoid diminutives to imply female: usher vs. usherette, poet vs. poetess. Neither ushers nor
poets are inherently male or female.

Other specific cases: “woman” and “women” are more commonly used than “lady” and “ladies”.
Paired words should be equal: “man and woman” or “husband and wife” should be used instead
of “man and wife”

Colloquialisms

Academic writing requires accurate, formal English. Please, take a look at the rules below and
try to follow them in future.

- Anybody, anyone: Anyone and its variants are more formal than anybody and its variants.

As: As is often used in formal writing to mean because. Placing a comma before “as” can help
prevent ambiguity when it could also be understood to mean “when” or “where.”

Big, large, great: All these words are acceptable in formal English, but large is more formal
than big, and "great" is more formal than "large."

Fellow: Avoid using fellow when you mean a person. Calling someone a fellow is more formal
than calling him or her a dude, but fellow is still a colloquialism.

For sure: Replace "for sure" with "with certainty"in formal writing.

Get: Avoid all forms of this verb in formal writing: “I received an A in the course.” vs. “I got an
A in the course”; “She did not understand the joke.” vs. “She didn’t get the joke.”; “The machine
is never used.” vs. “The machine never gets used.”;

Got: Got is a colloquialism. Replace it with have, as in “Do you have [not "got"] an extra pen?"

Kind of, sort of: "Kind of" and "sort of" are unacceptable in formal writing when used for
"somewhat" and "rather." When used to categorize something, "kind of" and "sort of" are
acceptable, but "type of" is more formal: “Kestrel is a type of bird." Note that it is informal to
include an article after "of": "Kestrel is a type of a bird."
Let: When used in place of "allow" or "permit," "let" is a colloquialism.

Most: In formal English, do not use "most" for "almost." You should write, "Almost everyone
likes pizza," not "Most everyone likes pizza."

On the other hand: "On the other hand" is a very common phrase, but can be considered a
cliché and should, therefore, be avoided in extremely formal English. Instead, use "conversely"
or "by contrast." "On the other hand" is particularly useful in everyday writing and can eliminate
the temptation to start with "but."

So: Avoid using "so" as a synonym for "very" in extremely formal writing. In perfectly formal
writing, you also should avoid using "so" as a coordinating conjunction. You can eliminate this
colloquialism by deleting "so" and beginning the sentence with "because." Compare "The song
may bother me, so I’ll cover my ears" and "Because the song may bother me, I shall cover my
ears." Sometimes, you need the conjunction "that" after "so," as in "I wrote this how-to so that
you could improve your grammar and style."

-ly: Usually, the words ending "-ly" are more formal. For example, "firstly" is more formal than
"first."

Generalization

Generalization is an extension of a concept to a less-specific criteria. Writers often use

generalization if they cannot come up with specifics or be clear. In fact, generalization
diminishes the value of academic writing and undermines the authority of the writer, causing the
readers to feel the ground on which they are treading is a bit shaky. Formal writing requires
specificity and well-supported information. Generalization leads to inaccuracy in statements,
which is a serious flaw in a formal text.

Use of the words always, all, every, everyone, many, never, nobody, none can create inaccurate
statements, and even factual errors. It leaves the reader disbelieving the writer. These
inaccuracies could produce false statements about people, places or things. (e.g. “Marketing will
solve the problem for an organization.” - that does not tell the reader anything about the solution
- be more specific about your statements.)

Avoiding generalization is easy:

 1. Be specific. After reading a piece, the reader should know exactly what the author was
conveying. Avoid being ambiguous. If you are a non-native English speaker, try reading
out loud what you have written and translate it for yourself. Have you written something
reasonable? something you yourself would have easily understood?
  2. Use facts, data, statistics, and other research. Instead of writing all, always or never
about a subject, do the real research. Find out how many!.
 3. Use quotes. Use and attribute quotes by other authoritative sources to make your
points. Being specific means that you should not simply state a fact; you need to prove
this fact. Formal writing requires you to quote and reference.
 4. Quantify, don't qualify. Use real quantities and numbers, rather than qualifiers. But if
you do qualify, select the qualifier carefully. Some is better than all or none.
 6. Do not overstate a situation. Exaggeration causes unintended bias.
 7. Break down the topic. The best way to avoid generalizations is to break down a broad
topic into smaller topics. This will force the writer to get specific.

Avoid Personal Language

The convention in academic writing is to write with minimal reference to yourself as an

author.

The reason for this lies in a tradition of needing to present your work "objectively", as the work
of a dispassionate and disinterested (unbiased) researcher. Personal language is subjective and
therefore may decrease the authority of the argument. Personal pronouns "I, we, our" make the
reader aware of the writer's presence in the text. Judgmental words, "I believe", "I disagree",
exacerbate the issue of the writer's presence in the text because the reader becomes aware of the
writer's personal feelings about the argument. The use of emotive words, "repulsive",
"undignified", creates text that is persuasive, increasing the subjective and personal nature of the
text.

Academic writing is all about expressing opinion, yet this opinion needs to be presented as an
objective, educated position based on sound evidence. Your text should provide and reference
this supporting evidence. So, one of the features of academic writing is a general absence of the
first person pronouns. A professional writer needs to let the assignment "speak for itself":

"I show..." becomes "The report shows..."

"I interpret the results as..." becomes "The results indicate..."

Another way to avoid the first person is to use the passive voice construction:

"We administered the questionnaire..." becomes "The questionnaire was administered...";

"I surveyed the literature" becomes "The literature was surveyed".

At the same time, overusing of passive voice is also a style mistake, which should be avoided.
Be Concise

Being concise is to write exactly what you have to, avoiding redundancy. Do not waffle, do not
be evasive. In formal writing it is a sign of a good writing style to write as few words as possible
to get to the point. It is one of the reasons why instructors impose word limits on written
assignments.

It is recommended to apply the following techniques to reduce overflow of unnecessary words in

a paper:

 Make your points straight away: “Firstly, ...”, “Secondly…”, “Finally…”

 Replace phrases with single words: “Smith(2006) agreed, but considered the fact that
some managers preferred to have longer, all-day meetings.” instead of “Smith (2006)
also believed this to be true, but took into consideration the fact that some managers also
preferred to have long meetings that took all day”

Avoiding words with the same meaning: “Records” instead of “past records”, "Separate”
instead of "separate out”, “In retrospect” instead of “looking back in retrospect”.

Omit unnecessary words: “lowering the rope” instead of “lowering the rope down”, “measuring
the job” instead of “measuring up the job”, “because” instead of “due to the fact that”.

Avoid saying the same thing twice: “The farmer sheared the sheep and removed all their wool”
could simply be replaced with “The farmer sheared the sheep”
Avoid clumsy sentences with extra words that detract from the point: “There are several of the
soldiers, each with their guns and ammunition, who gathered at the gates of the camp before
dawn.” A better way would be to say: “Several of the soldiers, each with their own guns and
ammunition, gathered at the camp gates before dawn.”

Objective Writing

Academic writing is a special sphere different from other writing contexts. Academic (formal)
writing has a number of requirements, like: formal order or structure in which to present ideas,
support ideas by properly made citations, particular ‘tone’, traditional conventions of
punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Finally, formal writing should be objective.
In order to write objectively it is important to be concerned with facts and avoid personal
feelings or biases. Being objective also means fairness. As an independent researcher a writer has
to show both sides of an argument and avoid making value judgements through the use of words
such as “wonderful”, “pretty”, etc. An objective work sounds professionally and believable.

Another key practice intended to make your writing professional and objective is avoiding
personal pronouns when necessary. Writing impersonally is a key to make your writing
believable and unbiased. For example, readability improves when a writer uses “It could be
argued that…” instead of “I think…”. “The studies show that...” instead of “I believe...” or
“They say...”. Writing impersonally also means to use citations to express your views, e.g.
“Thompson (2012) believes that…”.

Formal writing discourages the use of first or second person (‘I’, ‘we’, ‘you’, etc.). These
pronouns diminish the objective tone of formal writing. Instead, it sounds as though a writer has
a limited, personal view of the issue under discussion, rather than a view of the broader picture.
In some circumstances, however, it is appropriate to write in the first or second person, according
to the writing style, requirements and the discipline. For example, reflective writing relies on
personal experience.

Some Facts about Structure

Grammar and structure of your paper are the two key aspects that make up a grade-A writing. In
an attempt not to overlook grammar writers (especially non-native speakers) often underrate the
value of a perfect paper structure. Such attitude to your writing is a serious mistake, as only a
well-structured paper may be effective and will show that you have properly elaborated your
topic.

Please, read about the following parts of your paper:

Paragraph - a professional writer should remember that a paragraph is a single "unit" of a paper.
Reading a paragraph the reader expects to see well-elaborated representation of a <b>single
</b>point or thought, and find a proper support for that point. Violating this expectation
(wandering paragraphs, aimlessly splitting into a number of ideas, often unrelated; declaration of
ideas without evidence or support) makes your paper unreadable, signifies of a poor writing
style, and simply leads to a revision request in the best case, or a total customer dissatisfaction
and a refund in the worst.

Introduction: usually about 3-4 sentences. Should not exceed the following body paragraph.
Introduction contains: a Hook - a sentence, which from the first line intends to grasp the reader’s
attention subconsciously motivating him to read up to the end; and a Thesis Statement:  The last
sentence of your Introduction, where you take certain position you are going to stick to in your
paper. This sentence is mandatory!

Topic sentence: Each body paragraph of your paper should start with a topic sentence, which is a
statement that you are going to discuss, claim or oppose in the following paragraph.

Conclusion: Last sentence of your paper, which finalizes your paper by providing the results of
your research, your key points given and defended in the body of your paper. Conclusion should
not contain any new points or data, as it should not raise any more questions.

Basic Structure: Introduction and Conclusion is a MUST to be in every paper. Each paragraph
should contain at least 3 sentences. Body paragraphs should contain references when the need to
support your points arises.

Readability

Readability is the ease with which the reader perceives your text.

Proper readability is a significant factor that contributes to the overall perception and acceptance
of your thoughts and arguments. Please, remember these golden rules of readability that apply
irrespective of the type of your paper:

 Use simple, familiar terms,

 Avoid jargon,
 Use culture-and-gender-neutral language,
 Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling,
 Use simple sentences, active voice, and present tense,
 Begin instructions in the imperative mode by starting sentences with an action verb,
 Use simple graphic elements such as bulleted lists and numbered steps to make
information visually accessible.
 Carefully and properly proofread your completed writing before uploading (we
recommend proofreading your paper 30 minutes after having finished it),
 Do not make the paper too complicated and hard to read. Please read twice what you
wrote and make sure it flows smoothly,
 Avoid wordiness.