Book: Academic writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills (2nd), SWALES and FEAK.
Writing tasks need to be written "academically."
(1). Audience
Understand your audience's expectations and prior knowledge.
(2). Purpose and Strategy
Display familiarity, expertise, and intelligence.
(3). Organization
Ways of organizing information: (a) problem-solution structure; (b) comparison-contrast; (c) cause-effect; (d) classification.
(4). Style
1. Use single verb instead of prepositional verb (verb + preposition).
Ex: brought by --> caused; looking into --> investigating; figure out --> determine; come up with --> developed; make up --> constitute; get rid of --> eliminate; gone up --> reached; keep up --> maintain.
2. Avoid contractions. Ex: won't --> will not.
3. Limit the use of "run-on" expressions. Ex: , etc. --> , and other devices.
4. Place adverbs within the verb, not at the beginning or end of sentences.
5. Consider whether you should split infinitives (p.23-24).
(5). Flow
1. Linking words and phrases can help a writer maintain flow and establish clear relationships between ideas (p.27, Table 1 for Linking words and phrases).
2. Use this/these + summary word. Ex: Nowadays, laptop computers are lighter, more powerful, and easier to use than they were five years ago. These improvements have led to an increases in the sales of these machines.Use "it" to refer to the subject, and "this" to the entire idea.
(6). Presentation
Check the spelling and homophone.
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