Language of the Professionals: How To Write Academic English (International Tests, Research Papers or Journals)
On March 23, 2022, Ms. Anjum Mishu delivered a presentation on "Language of the Professionals: How to Write Academic English (International Tests, Research Papers or Journals)" as part of a webinar orchestrated by the female Alumni Unit. Her presentation focused on the challenges students often encounter when preparing for competency tests or writing research papers required in their MA and Ph.D. programs. She underscored the struggle students often face in transitioning from everyday, informal language use to the high standards of academic discourse expected in tertiary education.
To address this issue, Ms. Anjum proposed a solution that involves strategic manipulation of syntax to elevate sentence construction from simple and plain to formal and academic. She discussed various strategies, including the use of attitude adverbials, fronting, cleft sentences, quantifying differences, generalizing and distancing, and referencing, among others.
Ms. Anjum further stressed that the academic tone could be considerably enhanced by the judicious use of affixes at the lexical level. To assist students in this regard, she included charts of useful affixes in her presentation, a resource aimed to be both practical and readily accessible for the students.
The webinar thus provided valuable insights into overcoming the challenges of transitioning to academic English, offering students strategic tools to elevate their linguistic competency to match the high standards of academic and professional discourse.
