Navigating Standard Academic English
Many students may have other languages than English as their primary language. Other students may use an English other than Standard Academic English on a daily basis in their writing and speaking. (I know I do). If you don’t feel like you live and think in Academic English, this blog post is for you!
First, let me explain what I mean by Standard Academic English. When I talk about Standard Academic English, I’m referring to a formal tone of English used in academic writing (such as academic articles and books) where the intention it is to inform fellow experts in a particular field about a topic. Nuances of this particular style of writing are clarified by the American Psychological Association for academics in the social sciences (like Walden students).
Most of us don’t think, write, or talk in Standard Academic English. Standard Academic English is a standard that was set a long time ago, and it’s being challenged today by thinkers like Asao Inoue (you can find his academic research in the Library’s databases, but you can also find him on his blog Infrequent Words and Twitter) because this linguistic standard can be limiting to just about everyone since it isn’t how we normally think or speak. In particular, current discussions revolve around how this standard disadvantages certain races, ethnic groups, and language learners. It’s a tough topic to tackle, and hopefully these standards can change with time. Also, a less frequently used type of writing than what we typically encounter or use day to day, it can be tough to shift how we write to meet this standard. For now, though, we at the Walden Writing Center have some suggestions and advice to support anyone who Standard Academic English is a challenge for!
First, I want to clarify that all forms of communication are important—there isn’t a wrong way to communicate, just like there isn’t a wrong way to think. However, the way we express ourselves varies depending on our audience and the venue. The way you text your mother is just as valid and important as the way you chat with a friend, write a Tweet, or publish a blog post—but when you think about it, you probably do all of these types of writing a little differently based on reader expectations. Your mom expects you to be friendly, your Twitter followers expect you to be succinct, and your friends expect you to be casual. At the Writing Center, we don’t encourage students to align with academic writing expectations because other forms of communication are wrong. Instead, we do so to help you meet those expectations so that you can finish your coursework, dissertation, or publications in your field and meet the expectations of your faculty, readers, and publishers for academic writing venues.
The good news is that if you write and speak differently to different audiences and in different formats, you are already halfway there as an academic writer and working on SAE! This is because those shifts in tone represent you the communicator doing the work of shifting your phrasing and content for a different venue. Read more about code-shifting and academic tone in one of our blog posts. Academic writing is just one of many publication and communication venues! So by learning the more formal tone expected in academic writing, you can implement it just like you implement emojis in your texts or citations in your coursework 😊.
At the Writing Center we have lots of great resources to support you as you grow in your writing skills and navigate academic English—either from a foreign language perspective or just as someone who doesn’t always think like an academic. One main thing is to read a lot! Pay attention to how your course reading sounds, what words they use, their sentence structure. Read aloud and get that tone of voice in your head—this will make it easier to make minor shifts in your writing for a particular venue.
Here’s a list of other resources that you might find useful:
How Academic Writing Helps you Beyond Academia—WriteCast podcast episode [transcript]
Tips for Multilingual Students/Language Learners—WriteCast episode [transcript]
The Writing Center is here for you as you navigate the nuances of Standard Academic English. Questions? Approaches that work well for you? Let us know in the comments below.
Claire Helakoski is a writing instructor at the Walden Writing Center. Claire also cohosts and helps produce WriteCast, the Writing Center's podcast.
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Learn by Writing; Learn by Listening
Faculty Voices: Writing Advice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjgUvtcxGMc&feature=emb_title
When it comes to writing, like any complex skill, self-study and practice are invaluable. But I recommend you get in the habit of asking for help and advice so you might know what to study and practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent. If you practice wrong or in a counterproductive way, you’re going to repeat those missteps every time you write. That’s why you should seek out successful writers and relish in their advice. Now, we can’t all get face time with Stephen King (although his Twitter feed is fire), but luckily for Walden students, we have access to a whole team of successful, skillful, and helpful writers: our Walden faculty.
You may not have the same career and research goals as your faculty. However, there is still a lot you can learn from taking their advice. Being able to learn from someone who has reached great success in a field that you are interested in could be one of the most important benefits of your Walden education. That’s why I’ve found the Faculty Voices video series to be such a wonderful source of writing advice as I continue to develop my own writing skills and habits.
I’ve always written under the assumption that the finished product of my writing was most important. What Dr. Critchlow’s advice helped me learn is that the ideas are most important, and brainstorming, prewriting, and development are necessary to enhance those ideas. The shaping and forming of my prose should come later once there is something to work with.
For example, something that has always derailed my writing momentum is that persistent internal editor that just won’t be quiet. Even as I write this sentence, I’ve revised it already three times: Reworking the subject first, then replacing the verb with one that is more active, then flipping the entire sentence structure around to highlight my own act of revision. My writing process is arduous because I have trouble finding that writing “zone” where ideas flow and writing is a joy, not a chore. My writing takes forever, and it is a struggle. It’s also hard for me to hold an argument together for any length of time because I’m constantly fiddling and tinkering with the prose. The beauty of my writing is never allowed to flourish because it is always so mediated and edited.
As scholarly writers, Dr. Critchlow’s advice gives us permission to put aside that internal editor and focus instead on the ideas that underpin our writing. The ideas are what matter. No one is studying at Walden University to get an advanced degree in scholarly writing. We use scholarly writing as a vehicle to do something else: Something beautiful that will improve our communities and enrich our own personal and professional selves.
Hopefully the writing advice in these Faculty Voices videos will give you some concrete, helpful tips that you can use today. When you’re done viewing, reflect on what you learned and consider these questions:
- What is the most helpful piece of advice that I’ve ever received about my writing?
- What did that advice change about my writing process?
Max Philbrook is a writing instructor in the Walden University Writing Center. Max’s instructional approach is to help writers of every background develop their voice among the many competing requirements of scholarly writing. Outside of supporting the social change mission of Walden writers, Max enjoys hiking in the forest with Zoie and Kirby: Max’s Australian Shepherd buddies.
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