Every summer, international students arrive at English-language university courses with an IELTS or TOEFL score to prove their ability in English. Yet these tests only require students to write a short essay of about 300 words, while the same students are often expected to write a 10,000 word dissertation or thesis at the end of their Masters course! How can they bridge that gap in less than a year?
Clearly, there are no easy answers to this situation. These tests may get you a place on a college course, but they offer little preparation for the academic world.
The best approach is to take a course in Academic Writing (see my blog for 18th July: Pre-Sessional or In-Sessional). But all international students need to understand the basic differences between IELTS-type essays and academic papers:
a) Academic work is written in more formal language with precise use of special vocabulary.
b) It contains citations which link to lists of references giving full details of sources.
c) It is based on extensive reading and/ or research.
d) It follows a standard format, and is divided into sections with headings and sub-headings.
For more ideas about writing longer essays see Academic Writing, chapter 4.5 p. 273
The adjectives economic and economical are further examples of pairs of words with similar but distinct meanings, which need to be used with care in academic writing.
Economic relates to the economy:
The government attempted to promote economic growth
Economical means to reduce expenditure:
Cooking for yourself is more economical than eating in a restaurant
Note also that the noun economy means saving money, energy etc, while the economy refers to the national (or local) system of business:
Buying cheap products can be a false economy
The Spanish economy is in recession
Also, an economist is a person who studies economics (the academic subject).
Academic language frequently uses words in a special way, which can be confusing for readers used to standard English. It can be specially difficult when there are two words which have similar but distinct meanings. The verbs 'criticise' and 'critique' are a good example of this.
If you criticise a lecture or an article it means to analyse it in terms of strengths and weaknesses, and to demonstrate its faults. Criticism tends to have a negative connotation: eg She criticised the book as too subjective.
Critique can be used as a noun or a verb. It means to evaluate or judge something in an academic, disciplined manner: eg His critique of the text helped the students understand it better.
Note that although criticise can be used in academic writing, critique is more formal and has a more limited meaning. Look out for more examples in your studies.
