Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Northern Samar
Web: http://uep.edu.ph ; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

University of Eastern Philippines Laboratory Senior High

School

Grade 11: English for Academic and

Professional Purposes
First Semester, School Year 2023-2024

UNIT 1: READING AND WRITING

ACADEMIC TEXTS
Module 1: Aspects of Professional and Academic
Language
(Week 2)

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 MODULE 1: Aspects of Professional and Academic
Language

In this module, you will be able to:

Determine the aspects of professional and academic language.

Specifically, you are expected to:

1. Identify aspects of professional and academic language

2. Determine the structure of a specific academic texts and,
3. Write a sentence using expressions to make the idea explicit

Writers are influenced by the topic, their own role, there audience, and
their purpose. These four elements influence use of language. In this lesson,
you will be introduced to different aspects of professional and academic
language such as formality, objectivity, explicitness, and caution.

I hope you are curious about the activities we are about to do in

this module. Read the excerpt below and answer the following
questions.

LET’S BEGIN!

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. Read the blog entry Life’s a
Beach by AJ Poliquit about one person’s trip to La
Union.
Source:

https://ajpoliquit.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/light-up-la-union/

Guide Questions:

1. What are the activities in La Union that the writer described?

2. What is the purpose of thus text?
3. What is the role of the writer in doing this piece?
4. Who are the possible audience for this place?
5. Would you visit the place after reading the blog entry? Why or why
not? Page 2
 Now, let us study the concepts related to your activity.

Academic writing requires sophisticated use of language. Since your task

as students includes writing for assignments, exams and reports, there is an
expected quality in your use of language and structuring of texts.

There are four important features of language use that you need to know
about:

1. Formality
2. Objectivity
3. Explicitness

FORMALITY

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 following 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
as soon as possible instead of ASAP.
4. Avoiding colloquial/trite/idiomatic expressions, such as kind of like, as
a matter of fact, I need to go to the John.

OBJECTIVITY

Academic writing requires special knowledge and use of more complex

language and objectivity. This means that the writing must be impersonal
and maintain a certain level of social distance.

Objectivity can be achieved by:

1. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as you, I and we.

Poor example: You need to conduct the experiment.

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 Improved version: The researchers need to conduct the
experiment.

2. Avoiding 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 problems.

3. Avoiding emotive language that shows biases and lessens objectivity.

Poor example: The investigators were very shocked to see the
outcome of the tests.
Improved version: the investigators did not expect the result.

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 following phrases may be useful in making ideas explicit:

1. This is due to the…

Example:

A number of MERALCO consumers trooped to the City Hall to claim

a PHP 500 cash incentive. This is due to the Supreme Court ruling
that overcharges must returned to the end users whose electric
consumption for the April-May period was below 100kw/hr.

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 2. This resulted in….

Example:

With the Supreme Court ordering MERALCO to return overcharges

to the end users, government offices have been tapped to operate as
claim centers. This resulted in a number of MERALCO consumers
trooping to the City Hall to claim the PHP 500.00 cash incentive.

When two ideas seem the same, express each one clearly.

Example:

The study showed that eighty percent of the 200 participants involved
in the study were dissatisfied with the operations of MERALCO.
Similarly, the data revealed that majority of the participants were not
aware of the charges imposed on them by MERALCO.

If you intend to give extra information in your sentence, make it clear by

writing “In addition…”

Example:

MERALCO has been operating as a business conglomerate involving

foreign stakeholders and independent power producers or IPP. In
addition, MERRALCO owns major IPPs operating in the region.

If you are giving examples, do so explicitly by writing “For example….”

Example:

 The MERALCO issue had led to disputes between opposition and

administration senators. For example, those who have been
labeled as against the president considered the issue as the
administration’s way of avoiding the NBN-ZTE scandal.

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 CAUTION

Academic writing 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.

Improved versions:

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 for
corruption, (verb)

In academic writing, caution needs to be observed in the following parts 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.

Here are some forms that you may use in observing caution in writing.

1. Verbs indicating caution: tends, suggests, appear to be, think, believe,

doubt, indicate

Example:

The findings of the survey suggests that students who use the
social networking in their academic work tend to be more updated on
recent developments in their respective subjects.

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 2. 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.

3. Adverbs of frequency: often, sometimes, usually

Example:

The essays that were given marks were usually high.

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 writers’ 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 your 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.

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 STRUCTURE

Aside from language, sentences need to be constructed in such a way that

they show a level of complexity that reflects that 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 example:

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:

1. The company software to manage the transactions successfully.

Nominalization:
The creation of software to manage transactions was a success.

2. The president announced a three-day holiday this September.

Nominalization:
The president’s announcement of a three-day holiday for September
was released.

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 3. 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 action are a product of the writer’s work.

Examples:

1. The researcher conducted experiments to validate the hypothesis

Passivization:
Experiments were conducted to validate the hypothesis.

2. An engineer built a saltwater lamp to help communities with no

electricity.

Passivization:
A saltwater lamp was built to help communities with no electricity.

3. Several scientists conducted experiment to examine the effects of algae

on biodiversity.

Passivization:
An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of algae on
biodiversity.

References:
https://ajpoliquit.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/light-up-la-union/

Valdez, P.M. (2016). English for the Globalized Classroom Series English for Academic &
Professional Purposes.

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Name: ___________________________________________
Year and Section: ____________________________
Date: _________________________

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Activity 1

Improve the text below by rewriting it into a more objective, impersonal

version. Write your version on the space 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?

Scoring Guide:
Grammar = 10 points
Cleanliness = 5 points
Organization = 5 points

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Name:___________________________________________
Year and Section: ________________________
Date: ________________________

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Activity 2

Write a sentence for each of the following expressions that would make
your idea explicit.

Example:

1. However

2. This is due to the

3. Similarly

4. In addition

5. For example

Scoring Rubric

5 POINTS 3 POINTS 1 POINT

The sentences effectively The sentences show some The sentences are not
communicate the lapses in the use of understandable due to the
intended meaning expressions that show misuse of expressions of
through the use of explicitness but they explicitness. There are at
expressions that show could still be understood. least three grammatical
explicitness. There are no There are one or two errors in the work. It does
grammatical errors and a grammatical errors and not use features of the
formal academic writing lapses in the academic academic writing style.
style is used. writing style are observed.

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Name:
Grade and Section:
Date

QUIZ

Restructure the sentence by using nominalization.

1. The project was implemented to make to make sure that services are
not delayed.
Nominalization:

2. The investigators established a time to determine the chain of events

relating to the crime.
Nominalization:

3. The committee imposed a seven-day deadline for the members to

submit their requirements.
Nominalization:

4. The artists created a beautiful mural to pay tribute to the survivors of

the disaster.
Nominalization:

5. A number of students reported several cases of theft within the area.

Nominalization:

Restructure the sentence by using passivization.

6. The children gave several inputs to improve the operations of the

facility.
Passivization:

7. Nurses conducted workshops for those in far-flung areas on health

and sanction.
Passivization:

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 8. The company acquired a number of contractors to render service to its
consumers.
Passivization:

9. Marketers need to make a quota every month to maintain sustainable

growth.
Passivization:

10. Guitar players constantly practices to ensure fault-free

performances.
Passivization:

Rewrite the following sentences to observe a more formal

tone

11. Writing can’t be done effectively if you don’t burn the midnight
oil.

12. Parenting is a 24/7 job

13. Watching that romcom gave the audience the feels.

14. The class is cooking up something big.

15. Adventure may mean doing something epic.

Prepared by:

MARILOU T. LUNA JRA, LPT.

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