INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING
WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING?
Academic writing is a form of writing that is formal, objective and technical.
1. Formal:
It avoids casual or conversational language such as contractions (e.g.: isn’t,
doesn’t, wouldn’t) or informal vocabulary (e.g.: live vs. reside, set up vs.
establish, hopeless vs. futile).
2. Objective (Impersonal):
It avoids direct references to people or feelings and emphasises on objects, facts
and ideas.
3. Technical:
It uses vocabulary that is specific to an academic discipline such as business,
humanities, natural and applied sciences, or social sciences .
For example, phoneme, morpheme, constituent, thematic role, etymon are the
technical vocabulary used in linguistics (or the scientific study of language) which
is a branch of the humanities.
Updated:: 04/01/2022 [n_farrid]
Centre for the Advancement of Language Competence
Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang
Selangor Darul Ehsan