Academic Writing and Presentations CA Sri Lanka Academic Writing and Presentations

Objectives of the session To introduce the basic Active and Passive voice constructions To introduce cohesion in academic texts To introduce the structure of a basic academic essay

What are Active voice and Passive voice? In Active voice dominant place is given to the subject In Passive voice dominant place is given to the object In other words, Active structure is S+V+O passive structure is O+V+S

Which one is more academic? Passive is more academic as it gives prominence to the object and verb not to the person Passive voice expresses an unbiased tone/register

Activity Let’s convert the following into passive The council of directors declined the salary increment policy proposal (Simple Past) The supervisor will compensate the minor staff member (Simple Future) A stenographer enters incorrect data to the system (Simple Present)

What mistakes do you notice? She have completed the accounts journal A felicitation were organised by the junior executives The bench of lawyers are probing into the new scheme of legal work

Cohesion Fill in the blanks of the passage using appropriate cohesive devices ………….. 2010 several private sector companies in USA, have been gradually curtailing employment opportunities. …………… temporary employees have been instructed to find new places within a stipulated timeframe. ………… countries like New Zealand encourage more skilled workers to apply. ……….. Such countries show a conspicuous economic growth.

Writing an academic essay Starting with the introduction STATE YOUR FOCUS (This includes key words, phrases and concise definitions) FORMULATE YOUR THESIS (Mention the focus, argument and stance)

Writing a topic sentence First list out the key words of the topic Now see whether there is an argument Select your stance (agree/disagree/neutral) Now write one sentence indicating all that This is your topic sentence!

Writing a thesis statement Read the topic sentence again Extract the key words and your stance Make the topic sentence more specific Do not use a lot of conjunctions and connectives Be direct and don’t have ambiguous ideas

Basics in PPP 10 – Slides 20 – Minutes 30 – Points Printed copies of the PPP Formal greeting If it’s a group presentation introduce the members As the initial point state your focus Don’t have paragraphs in slides. Only bullets Don’t have too many visuals. It’s distractive