As the world becomes a smaller and smaller place, we are all being influenced by language from the internet and from the rapidly expanding vocabulary of words and phrases that are in fashion one month and horribly \u2018last year\u2019 the following month. However, we should be aware that we can pick up words and phrases that make sense when we are using them with our peers, but that are \u2018jarring\u2019 to older generations. When you meet your grandparents, do you tell them that their clothes are \u2018lit\u2019? They might think that they were in physical danger, so probably not!<\/p>\n
When we are writing for university, or for publication in an academic journal, we should remember that the normal words and phrases we use do not fit in this context. If we wanted to talk about something that happened a few years previously we might refer to it as \u2018back in the day\u2019. However, in an academic context, that would not only be seen as \u2018street talk\u2019, but too vague to be of any descriptive use.<\/p>\n
Likewise, on YouTube everyone is increasingly being referred to as \u2018guys\u2019 (\u2018Hi guys!; welcome to my channel, guys!; Please subscribe, you guys!, etc.). This is an interesting shift since much of the developed world is discussing and debating the meaning of words and phrases and their ability to be inclusive or exclusive of gender. Nowadays, airlines no longer refer to us as \u2018ladies and gentlemen\u2019, but say \u2018Good morning, passengers!\u2019 instead because they do not to be accused of discrimination.<\/p>\n
Academic writing tends to be conservative and slow-moving in its adoption of modern language. For a very long time, using the word \u2018I\u2019 was seen as incorrect (the author was expected to refer to themselves as \u2018the author\u2019), but that is slowly changing. \u00a0So, when we write, we are expected to fit into the accepted \u2018academic voice\u2019. The academic voice is easy to understand if you read enough journal articles.<\/p>\n
Bahasa Indonesia is a very passive language. If a customer comes into an Indonesian shop, they might be asked \u201cada yang bisa bibantu<\/em>?\u201d (\u201cIs there anything that can be helped?\u201d (Yes, me!)). In English, this is more direct: \u201cCan I help you?\u201d. However, since we want to focus on the scientific process in an academic paper, the language becomes more passive, replacing many active sentences with passive sentences.<\/p>\n \u201cThe author found evidence for the positive influence of crowd noises on football teams performances\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Could become:<\/p>\n \u201cCrowd noises were found to positively influence football teams\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n You will notice in the above example that the reference to \u2018the author\u2019 has disappeared. The academic voice does not really care who found the information; it is more important in the academic voice to focus on the cause(s) and the effect(s). This makes the academic voice feel impersonal (cold and uncaring), but it means we can better objectively assess a scientific outcome without worrying about the person who found it. As said before, this is now changing with many authors referring to themselves as \u2018I\u2019 and teams of researchers describing themselves as \u2018we\u2019.<\/p>\n The reason we have the academic voice is because we need to be able to be understood by English readers all over the world. As English speakers of second languages make up the majority of English writers, it is important that academic papers are written in a consistent voice for people who want to learn from each other, regardless of their first language.<\/p>\n Prove\/Prove\/Proven<\/strong><\/p>\n These words tend to be removed by proofreaders. It is not because we want to deny anyone the glory of a new discovery, but because we want to ensure the author does not fall into the trap of believing that a single experimental study can tell us all we need to know about a topic or prove <\/em>beyond doubt that this fact is now completely true. Most experiments need to be repeated hundreds of times before we can accept that they conclusively prove<\/em> anything. We can say that it can be \u2018shown\u2019, \u2018found\u2019 or \u2018determined\u2019 to be conclusive, but we usually stay away from using the word \u2018prove\u2019.<\/p>\n Redundancy<\/strong><\/p>\n Proofreaders tend to remove words that are redundant. For a word to be redundant means that it adds nothing to a description apart from repetition. \u2018And also\u2019* is an example of redundancy, and it is being used all over the world right now. As soon as you become aware of it, you will hear it everywhere (especially YouTube \u2013 you have been warned!). The reason why \u2018and also\u2019 is redundant is because both the words mean the same thing (you might as well say \u2018and and\u2019). There are few sentences with \u2018and also\u2019 that would not be improved by deleting the \u2018also\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that<\/strong> Elon Musk is a genius and also<\/strong> a role model\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Could become:<\/p>\n \u201cI think Elon Musk is a genius and a role model\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n In the above example, the removal of two redundant words (\u2018that\u2019, \u2018also\u2019) does not change the meaning of the sentence and tightens it up. Each word is now useful.<\/p>\n ————-<\/p>\n This is just a taster of how to improve the academic voice of your essay. The best way to improve your academic voice is to read as many academic papers as possible (go to Google Scholar to find lots of free papers). You will slowly start to see that the whole world speaks academic English in a very similar way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n *In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I (me, the author) hate this phrase and have watched it take over the world in the last ten years (MAKE IT STOP!). \u2639<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the world becomes a smaller and smaller place, we are all being influenced by language from the internet and from the rapidly expanding vocabulary of words and phrases that are in fashion one month and horribly \u2018last year\u2019 the following month. However, we should be aware that we can pick up words and phrases […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,38],"tags":[51,46,48,42,49,50,47],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-language-differences","tag-academic-english","tag-academic-voice","tag-and-also","tag-english","tag-prove","tag-proven","tag-redundancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/lc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}