English for Academic Purposes

INFORMAL ELEMENTS IN ACADEMIC

RITIN!

Occurrences of Six Informal Elements in 30 Research Articles: Element Imperatives I / my / me Initial but Initial and )irect *uestions ,erb contractions Notes: $% All -riters use. one or more imperatives& but the philosophers use the least% #% All the philosophers an. all but one of the linguistics use I / my / me& but onl/ ' out of $0 statisticians .i.% 3% 0here -as onl/ $ sentence beginning -ith and in the $0 statistics papers& but there -ere $#0 such sentences in philosoph/% '% None of the statisticians use. verb contractions 1uestions: In general& ho- .oes /our fiel. compare to those in the table above an. in the notes2 3hat explanations for an/ .ifferences occur to /ou2 3hich of these elements -oul. /ou feel comfortable using /ourself2
Sources: 4hang& 5u65ing7 S-ales& 8ohn% $"""% 9Informal elements in English aca.emic -riting: 0hreats or opportunities for a.vance. non6native spea:ers2; in 4an.lin& 4%N% < =/lan.& >% ?e.s%@ Writing: Texts, processes, and practices% Aon.on: Aongman% S-ales& 8ohn B%7 Cea:& 4hristine D% #000% English in todays research world. A writing guide% Ann Arbor: niversit/ of Bichigan Press%

Number of Occurrences !3" $&0#0 3'" $3( ##' "#

Average per Paper #$%3 3'%0 $$%! '%! (%+ 3%$

Nr of Authors sing Element 30 #3 #3 $( $( $$