English Research Writing in Linguistics Summer School, June 29-July, 2015, KNLU T. V. Yakhontova English Academic Language and Style English Research Paper in Linguistics

Recommendations for Maintaining Formal Academic Writing Style Avoid contractions Do not use hesitation fillers and interjections Be careful about using direct questions Prefer appropriate negative forms (not much… little, not many… few) Place adverbs before or within the verb (little is actually known…) Choose the more formal alternative when selecting a verb, noun or other part of speech (happen occur, exam examination, a lot of considerable)

Developing Academic Style: Some Pieces of Advice Practise Academic Word List (AWL) ( suggested by A.Coxhead (2000) While reading the literature in your field, try to write out formal verbs and collocations typical of your discipline and make your own list. Keep it at hand when writing your research paper in English: you will find this extremely helpful!

That master narrative of our time… ( S. L. Montgomery, The Scientific Voice, 1996)

The research article is a genre of research communication The research article can be defined as a relatively short piece of research usually published in a journal What is the Research Article, anyway?

Traditional Division of Research Communication Research communication Formal PrimarySecondary Informal

Major Features of English Research Discourse Reader-friendly manner of writing Clear organization and structure of texts Linear argumentation Tendency to self-promotion Rather comprehensive, up-to-date lists of references Formal (academic) style Wide use of meta-text (phrases like The purpose of this article is…) and logical connectors Use of visual devices (e.g., tables, graphs or charts)

Types of Research Articles Theoretical articles Review articles Polemic articles Research reports Research and discussion notes (brief reports, short communications)

Communicative Purposes of the English Research Article (Research Report) To present and validate new knowledge claims To promote the reported research

The First Scientific Journal in the UK

Robert Boyle ( )

IMRD Structure of the English Research Article Introduction Methods and materials Results Discussion

In your opinion, which of the two structural parts is more important : the Introduction or the Conclusion?

Some Pieces of Advice Organize your research report articles in accordance with the IMRD model Pay special attention to your introduction; formulate the purposes of the article as clear as possible Use standard phrases typical of each research section; do not be afraid to do this – it is not plagiarism! Make sure your thoughts and arguments are developing linearly Stick to the norms of academic style

THANK YOU!