General vs. Academic Vocabulary
As you read your academic textbooks, you'll realize that the language can be quite different from the general, conversational language we use every day. Students are expected to not only understand academic language but also use it in their assignments. This lesson will review some vocabulary strategies to help you make the transition from using general to academic vocabulary.
What is Academic Language?
Every form of writing has its conventions. How we write messages to our friends is different from how we write a job application; the language used in a soap opera is different from the language used on the news. And the language of academic writing has its own set of characteristics.
As a basic rule, academic language is more formal than the everyday language we tend to use for communication. But at the same time, academic writing isn't about impressing people with 'big words' or being overly formal. It needs to be clear, concise, and objective so that you can communicate your ideas effectively.
The primary purpose of academic language is to analyze and explain knowledge or to arrive at conclusions with the help of theories or other scholars' arguments. Therefore, academic language is typically analytical and relies on evidence to reach conclusions.
In academic work, we will frequently need to analyze other researchers' findings and views, formulate an argument of our own, and present our findings, all in a formal and somewhat dispassionate way. This is what is generally known as academic language.
Characteristics of Academic Language
Academic language is typically formal, which means it should not have an informal or conversational tone. This is because academic language needs to be clear, precise, and structured, avoiding the potential ambiguities of conversational and informal language, in order to communicate research effectively. Formal language also helps make that research understandable to an international academic community.
Academic language relies on the use of single-word English or Latin-derived verbs to enhance clarity, precision, and formality, making the text more universally accessible. It also reduces the ambiguity of phrasal verbs. Read the examples for an illustration of how academic vocabulary clarifies the meaning of the phrasal verb "made up":
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Sue made up (invented) a story about her mom's illness to extend her essay deadline.
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John and Julia had several arguments, but after they discussed their financial concerns calmly with each other, they made up (resolved the issue).
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The high sales of plane tickets in the school holiday period made up (compensated) for the poor sales in the winter.
As you can see in the above examples, colloquial language can detract from the clarity and formality required in academic writing. Colloquial language relates to informal expressions often used in casual conversation rather than in formal speech or writing, such as slang, clichés, and idioms. It may make the text appear less serious or less researched, potentially undermining the credibility of your arguments.
|
|
Slang |
Clichés |
Idioms |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Definition |
very informal language, usually spoken by particular groups of people |
overused words and phrases |
phrases where the words together has a meaning different to the immediate surface meaning; cultural specific and often non-literal |
|
Why Avoid It? |
less accessible to a broader audience and feel less professional |
seem uninspired/lazy and make text less engaging and less persuasive |
lead to misinterpretation for readers not familiar with the cultural context and may detract from the academic tone |
|
Examples |
slang→ "I can't handle cramming for tests." academic→ "I find it difficult to engage in intensive revision for tests." |
"Think outside the box" "You can't judge a book by its cover" |
"Cut to the chase" "A piece of cake" |
However, avoiding colloquial, informal language does not mean using academic language is about impressing people with 'big words' or being overly formal. The main aim is to be clear, concise, and objective so that you can communicate your ideas effectively.
Compare these two sentences. They contain the same information, but the better style example is much shorter, simpler, and easier to understand:
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Poor style: The primary ambition of expressing concepts in an academic fashion is to provide assistance for the audience of the piece in comprehending the information being conveyed in an expeditious and accessible manner.
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Better style: Effective academic writing helps readers understand your points quickly and easily.
Instead of being too overblown, academic writing uses neutral words and avoids informal, conversational, or colloquial language. For example, "many factors" is more academic than "loads of things".
Watch this video to learn more about making the distinction between conversational and academic language and how you can make a smooth transition to using academic language:
Now that we remember different vocabulary strategies to help with making the transition to academic language, let's take a closer look at strategies for working with specialized academic vocabulary.
Sources: University of York, https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-language
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
UTM RGASC Academic Skills, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0iCHuLePCw
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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