ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC

AND PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES
UNIT ONE
PRELIMINARIES OF READING
AND WRITING FOR ACADEMIC
AND PROFESSIONAL PUROSES
LESSON 1
THE ACADEMIC WRITING
STYLE
Direction:
•The teacher will divide
the class into groups and
assign a number for each
group.
Guide Questions:
1.What were your difficulties in writing
instructions for your audience?
2. Do you think the recipients of your
instructions will safely get their destination?
What difficulties do you think they will
encounter and how can these be
addressed?
3. If you can improve your set of directions,
what revision can you make?
Task 1
• DNNHS compound , write a set of
directions for the ff. persons who need to
get to the SHS building:
• Group 1and 5 – a five –year- old girl
• Group 2 and 6 – a man on a wheelchair
• Group 3 and 7 – a deaf woman
• Group 4 and 8 – a ninety-year-old woman
Note: the persons reading your direction cannot seek
assistance from other people and should reach their goals
on their own.
4 Elements Influence Use of Language
in Writers
1. Topic- What is the text about? What
details am I imparting to the readers?
2. Role – Who am I as writer? Do I write
as a sibling? A student? A son/ a
daughter? A customer?
3. Purpose – Why I am writing this in the
first place?
4. Audience – Who is reading this piece?
What knowledge does he/she need to
understand in my writing?
Think and Share
• Think of a SMS personal message
in your social networking account or
e-mail that was missent to you.
Reflect on the details that made
you realize that you were not the
intended recipient of the message.
Share your reflections in class.
Task 2
• Examine the three texts below
and fill out the table that
follows. Together with two
classmates, discuss your
findings and when called upon,
present your observations to
the class.
 EXCERPT 1
Recent research on learner- centered
education and qualitative inquiry into student
cognition have indicated the importance of
students’ processing of concepts to
metaphor analysis can be attributed the
growth of applied linguistic research
happening today. The present investigation
is anchored on metaphorical analysis
espoused by Lakoff and Johnson (1980).
Attempts to draw images associated with
different mathematical operations of grade
pupils in the Philippines. For systematic
sampling, the data used in the analysis were
drawn from the journal entries of 35 students
written over three months. The investigation
reveals the different metaphorical images
associated with four mathematical operations.
Moreover , strategies for independent learning
and applied linguistic methods to improve
cognition are suggested.(Valdez and Villorente-
Saulo,2014, p. 138)
EXCERPT 2
EXCERPT 3
 Excerpts 1 Excerpts 2 Excerpts 3
Abstract Comic Strip Poster

Purpose

Conversational or
technical
language used

Audience

Role of the writer/

artist
 Enrichment
In your learning log, write a reflection on the
importance of considering the purpose, audience,
and your role in writing a text. You may include
experiences to support your points.

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LESSON 2
ASPECTS OF PROFESSIONAL
AND ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
ACTIVITY 1
• The internet has created a massive
space for people to engage with
others and to share ideas at great
speeds. Travel, for instance, is an
activity that requires preparation. In
vicinity of Bani, write an article that
feature one of the tourist spot that you
can recommend to.(thru video
presentation,writing etc.)
Guide Questions:( Answer these questions)

1. What are the activities in Bani especially

in Upland that the writer described?
2. What is the purpose of this text?
3. What is the role of the writer in doing this
piece?
4. Who are the possible audience or this
piece?
5. Would you visit the place after reading
the article? Why or why not?
Academic writing requires
sophisticated use of language. It
includes writing for
assignments, exams, and
reports, there is an expected
quality in your use of language
and structuring of texts.
4 Important Features of Language
1. Formality reflects your dignified
stance in your writing as a member
of the academic community. This
means that since your audience are
fellow members of the academic
community, the language you use
requires precision to make it a
“legitimate” piece of academic
writing.
 Formality can be achieved through the ff. ways:

1. Choosing expanded modal forms over

contracted forms, such as using cannot instead
of can’t, do not instead of don’t
2. Choosing one verb form over two word verbs,
such as damage instead of mess up
3. Choosing expanded terms over their abbreviated
equivalents, such as soon as possible instead of
ASAP.
4. Avoiding colloquial/trite/idiomatic expressions,
such as kind of like, somewhat, rather, as a
matter of fact, I need to go to the John.
Task 1
A. Underline the words or expressions
considered as colloquial.
1. With the growing number of health-
conscious articles, a lot of young
professionals are becoming serious
about maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
2. It is a bit improper to assume that the
plan does not work.
3. Experts determined that a lot of
health ingredients come from China.
4. Teachers say that a lot of incoming
freshman students are interested in
sports activities.
5. Lucas got together with Castro in
conducting an experiment on effectively
enhancing muscle build up.
B. Rewrite the following sentences to observe a
more formal tone.
6. Writing can’t be done effectively if you
don’t burn the midnight oil.
7. Parenting is a 24/7 job.
8. Watching that romcom gave the
audience the feels.
9. The class is cooking up something big.
10. Adventure may mean doing
something epic.
C. Substitute the single-word verb for the
two-word verb in the following sentences.

11. __________ Mayor set up the

Panelco committee.
12. __________ Mothers cut down
spending on rice.
13. __________ Oil price has gone up.
14. __________ Students come up
with a solution.
15. __________ Students looked into the
problem.
16. __________ The dollar rate went up and
down.
17. __________ Students brought up the
uniform issue.
18. __________ The school gets rid of tuition
hike.
19. __________ Parents turned down the
proposal.
20. __________ The proposal turned out a
positive result.
21. __________ Major oil players put off oil
price hike.
22. __________ Employees did not put up
with the company’s expectations.
23. __________ Parents could not put away
money for their children’s education.
24. __________ The chemical gives off a
foul odor.
25. __________ The class carried out a
research on the frequency of using SMS.
2. Objectivity
- means that the writing must be
impersonal and maintains a
certain level of social distance
Objectivity can be achieved by:
1. Avoid the use of personal
pronouns such as you, I , and
we.
Poor example: You need to conduct
the experiment.
Improved version: The researchers
need to conduct the experiment.
2. Avoid rhetorical questions as it
marks “closeness” with the reader,
and constantly seeks his/her
attention.
Poor example: how can these
problems be solved?
Improved version: Certain measures
must be discovered to solve the
problem.
3. Avoiding emotive language that
shows biases and lessens
objectivity.
Poor example: The investigators
were very shocked to see the
outcome of the test.
Improved version: The investigators
did not expect the results.
Task 2: Improve the text below by rewriting
it into a more objective, impersonal version.
Write your version on the lines provided .

I believe that incidence of drug overdose has

indeed become prevalent nowadays. When
people are faced with difficult problems, I think
that they can no longer bear the problem and that
is why they get into drugs. That’s why if you are a
psychologist, you should treat your patients in a
way that helps them to understand their problems
and ways to deal with them.
Yeah I know it can be very difficult but hey,
that’s what you specialized in, right?

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3.Explicitness
-academic writing demands the
use of signposts that allow
readers to trace the
relationships in the parts of a
study.
If you intend to show a change in your line of
argument, make it clear by using however

Example:
It is apparent that the government
hopes to provide assistance to the
poor. However giving dole outs to
the “poorest of the poor” does not
work in the long term.
The ff. phrases may be useful in making ideas
explicit:
1. This is due …
A number of PANELCO consumers
trooped to the Municipal Hall to claim a
PHP 500 cash incentive. This is due to
the Supreme Court ruling that
overcharges must be returned to the
end users whose electric consumption
for the April – May period was below
100kw/hr.
2. This resulted in…
With the Supreme Court ordering
PANELCO to return overcharges to the
end users, government offices have
been tapped to operate as claim
centers. This resulted in a number of
PANELCO consumers trooping to the
Municipal Hall to claim the PHP 500
cash incentive.
 When two ideas seem the same, express each one
clearly.
• The study showed that eighty percent
of the 200 participants involved in the
study were dissatisfied with the
operations of PANELCO. Similarly, the
data revealed that majority of the
participants were not aware of the
changes imposed on them by
PANELCO.
If you intend to give extra information in your
sentence, make it clear by writing “In addition to…)

• PANELCO has been operating as

a business conglomerate involving
foreign stakeholders and
independent power producers or
IPP. In addition, PANELCO owns
major IPPs operating in the region
If you are giving examples, do so explicitly by writing
“ For example…”
• The PANELCO issue has led to
disputes between opposition and
administration representatives. For
example, those who have been
labelled as a against the
president considered the issue as
the administration’s way of
avoiding the NBN-ZTE scandal.
Task 3: Based on the examples given,
write a sentence for each of the following
expressions that would make your idea
explicit.
1. However
____________________________________________
2. This is due to the
____________________________________________
3. In addition
____________________________________________
4. For example
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 Scoring Rubric
3 Points 2 Points 1 Point
The sentences The sentences The sentences are
effectively show some lapses not understandable
communicate the in the use of due to the misuse of
intended meaning expressions that expressions of
through the use of show explicitness explicitness. There
expressions that but they could still are at least three
show explicitness. be understood. grammatical errors
There are no There are one or in the work. It does
grammatical errors two grammatical not use features of
and a formal errors and lapses the academic writing
academic writing academic writing style
style is used. style are observed.
4.Caution
• In academic writing, it requires
care since knowledge is built
from proven theories and
concepts. Therefore, caution
is needed to avoid sweeping
generalizations.
Consider the following example:

•
Government officials are
corrupt.
• The statement is not
completely true and the
rhetorical impact of the
statement may be misleading.
The statement can be
improved through the use of
devices such as modal verbs,
adverbs, or verbs.
Improve version:
Some government officials may be
corrupt. (modal verb)
Corruption is commonly linked to
some key government officials.
(adverb)
A number of government officials tend
to be linked with cases of corruption.
(verb)
In academic writing, caution needs to
be observed in the ff. points of your
paper:
1. When a hypothesis needs to be
tested
2. Drawing conclusions or predictions
from your findings that may
generalize certain matters or may not
be conclusive
3. Referencing other’s work to build on
your own paper
Verbs indicating caution: tends, suggest,
appear to be, think, believe, doubt, indicate

Example:
The findings of the survey suggest that
students who use the social
networking in their academic work
tend to be more updated on recent
developments in their respective
subjects.
Modal verbs: will, must, would, may, can, might,
could

Example :
The observations of students’
use of social networking sites
may lead to the different
behaviors that manifest in real-
life communication.
Adverbs of frequency: often,
sometimes, usually
Since academic writing draws on
previous writings done related to
your topic (in the case of research
writing), it is important that creating
knowledge is expressed through
means that do not lead to sweeping
generalizations that may directly
attack other writer’s point of view.
If your results show something different
from another author’s ideas, there are
possible ways in writing these points:

1. The results contradict Meyer’s

findings
2. The results appear to be
different from Meyer’s findings
• While both sentences essentially
mean the same thing , sentence
1 expresses an explicit difference
between your findings and of
Meyer’s. This may be interpreted
by readers as an attempt to
highlight your findings as
superior compared to Meyer.
• On the other hand, sentence 2
shows that you are distancing
yourself from work (basing
conclusions on what is observed)
and comparing it to previous
works done by other researchers
relating your contributions to other
ideas in the discipline.
• Remember that in academic
writing, since you are part of a
community, it is important that
you express ideas with
openness, striking a balance
between being concise and
cautious.
Task 4: Examine the following
expressions and think of ways to
reduce impact of the utterances.
Direct Expression Statement using
hedging
He has halitosis.

You need to eat this to

be healthy.
The different steps taken
led to their failure
Structure
• Aside from language, sentences need
to be constructed in such a way that
they show a level of complexity that
reflects the sophistication of an
academic writer. Combining ideas
effectively, nominalization, and
passivization are some ways to
achieve structure fit for academic
writing.
• In combining ideas
effectively, you will need to
avoid redundancy and at the
same time , make sure that
ideas are packed effectively.
Consider the following examples:
• The earthquake caused loss of
life.
• The earthquake caused massive
property damage.
• The earthquake changed the
landscape of the village.
Though these sentences are grammatically
correct, they do not possess the
sophistication of academic writing. They can
be improved by continuing similar ideas
expressing them through a more complex
construction. Hence, they can be written this
way:
• The earthquake was a disaster that
caused loss of life, property damage,
and permanent changes in the
landscape.
In nominalization, the verbs are made
central as they denote action. Transforming
verbs into nouns helps readers focus on the
action and not on the doer of the action

Examples :
The company created software to manage
the transactions successfully.
Nominalization:
The creation of software to manage
transactions was success.
• The president announced a three-
day holiday this September.
Nominalization:
The president’s announcement of a
three-day holiday for September
was released.
The mall distributed several free
items to consumers in the hope to
boost sales.
Nominalization:
Distribution of free items for
consumers was done in the hope to
boost sales.
• In passive construction, “the
results of actions are highlighted”.
In academic writing, since the
writer of the paper is presumed to
have done the collection and
analysis of data, it is understood
that all results of the action are a
product of the writer’s work.
 Examples:
The researcher conducted
experiments to validate the
hypothesis.
Passivization:
Experiments were conducted to
validate the hypothesis.
An engineer built a saltwater
lamp to help communities with
no electricity.
Passivization:
A saltwater lamp was built to
help communities with no
electricity.
Task 5
• Restructure the sentence by using
nominalization
1.The project was implemented to
make sure that services are not
delayed.
2.The investigators established a time
to determine the chain of events
relating to the crime.
3. The committee imposed a seven-day
deadline for the members to submit
their requirements.
4. The artists created a beautiful mural
to pay tribute to the survivors of the
disaster.
5. A number of students reported
several cases of theft within the area.
• Restructure the sentence by using
passivization
6. The children gave several inputs to
improve the operations of the facility.
7. Nurses conducted workshops for
those in far-flung areas on health and
sanitation.
8. The company acquired a number of
contractors to render service to its
consumers.
9. Marketers need to make a quota
every month to maintain sustainable
growth.
10. Guitar players constantly practice to
ensure fault-free performance.
Enrichment
Rewrite the paragraph below to make
its language sound more academic.
Take into consideration the kind of
language required for research writing.
Use the lines provided.
 The rice shortage that affected a number
of countries in the Asian region showed how
unpredictable nature can be if we continue
being apathetic about improving rice
production. Call it the calm before the storm,
we see now a lot of people queuing for a
bag or two of NFA rice. Worse, for some,
observing a full square meal a day is no
longer possible. This leads us to reflect on
how we can help to counter this strongly felt
problem.
At restaurant, we see a lot of leftover servings
of rice knowing that hungry tummies in
resettlement areas exist. On the way to school,
I witness families sheltered in shanties at the
town pulling through lunch with mere kropek
and noodles at hand. Along the area, I see
youngsters satisfying themselves with least
modest skewers sold by hawkers. Yet, at the
square canteen, I see the trade off- students
disregarding the value of rice servings and
modest viands where plates are left on the
table just that.
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QUIZ