Writing Right in Academese: The Language of Academic and Research Report Writing

Abstract

This article is an abridged pullout of chapter ten a forthcoming book on academic and research report writing, which examines the major features of academese. The paper presents and illustrates questionable features of language usually found in some academic writings with a view to making researchers and academics, particularly budding ones, identify and avoid them in research report writing. Data for this article were sourced mainly from library materials and the Internet. The examples used for illustration were extracted from postgraduate students’ scripts, seminar papers, journal articles for blind peer review and other published academic works. The paper established that many research report writers, particularly novices, use “unscholarly” language to compose their works, thus tasking blind peer review and assessment, and making publishers and journals reject their good or bad work. Therefore, the paper recommends that budding research report writers should raise their competence and standard by reading quality academic journals and various research writing guides to acquire the skills, styles and mastery of academic writing; should write regularly; and should also ensure that they send their research report, particularly journal articles, to reputable and well-established journals published by experts in the relevant field.