Academic Writing

PART 
2
Elements 
of Writing

---

This page intentionally left blank

---

1 Discussion vocabulary
Essay titles commonly ask students to ‘discuss’ a topic:
‘Children will learn a foreign language more easily if it is integrated with another subject –
discuss.’
This requires an evaluation of both the benefits and disadvantages of the topic, with a section
of the essay, sometimes headed ‘Discussion’, in which a summary of these is made. The following
vocabulary can be used:
+
–
benefit
drawback
advantage
disadvantage
a positive aspect
a negative feature
pro (informal)
con (informal)
plus (informal)
minus (informal)
one major advantage is . . .
a serious drawback is . . .
One drawback to integrating content and language is the demand it places on the
teacher.
A significant benefit of teaching a subject through a language is the increased
motivation to master the language.
Argument and
Discussion
UNIT
2.1
On most courses, it is not enough to show that you are familiar with the leading
authorities. Students are expected to study the conflicting views on any topic and
engage with them, which means analysing and critiquing them if appropriate. This
unit demonstrates ways of showing your familiarity with both sides of an argument
and presenting your own conclusions in a suitably academic manner.

---

䊏
Fill the gaps in the following paragraph using language from the table above.

Every year, millions of students choose to study in a foreign country. This can
have considerable (a) _______________, such as the chance to experience
another culture, but also involves certain (b) _______________, which may
include feelings of isolation or homesickness. Another (c) _______________
aspect may be the high cost, involving both fees and living expenses.
However, most students appear to find that the (d) _______________ outweigh
the (e) _______________, and that the chance to join an international group of
students is a major (f) _______________ in developing a career.
2 Organisation
The discussion can be organised in two ways, either by grouping the benefits in one section
and the disadvantages in another (vertical), or by examining the subject from different
viewpoints (horizontal). For example, the following essay title can be discussed in two ways,
as shown:
‘Prisons do little to reform criminals and their use should be limited – discuss.’
(a) Vertical
Drawbacks
Prisons are expensive, may be ‘universities of crime’, most prisoners reoffend after leaving,
many prisoners have mental health problems that are untreated.
Benefits
Prisons isolate dangerous criminals from society, act as a deterrent to criminal activity,
may provide education or treatment (e.g. for drug addiction), provide punishment for
wrongdoing.
Discussion
Numbers of prisoners are rising in many countries, which suggests that the system is failing.
Evidence that short sentences are of little value. But prisons will always be necessary for
some violent criminals, and as a deterrent.
(b) Horizontal