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Lesson planC260 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
From Notes to Paper: Academic style and nominalisation
Students learn the features of academic style, especially nominalisation, by studying a volunteering report, then turn informal notes into an academic abstract.
Academic writing · Register · Nominalisation · Research
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Plan at a glance
Aims
- Practise academic style and nominalisation
- Learn and use 8 words and phrases in one set: Academic vocabulary for research
- Read for detail: an abstract and discussion
- Writing task: from notes to an abstract
Stages · 60 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs talk about academic writing and share ideas with the class.
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 1
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes together and check understanding.
- 5 minControlled practice: Ex. 2
- 5 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 3
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 4
- 5 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 5
- 10 minReading: Ex. 6
- 15 minWriting: Ex. 7
Printables
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Download all (ZIP, 2 PDFs)Grammar notes
Nominalisation: turning actions into things
- Academic writing often turns verbs and adjectives into nouns: we analysed the data → analysis of the data; participants were reluctant → participants' reluctance.
- The noun phrase can then become the subject: An analysis of the interviews revealed three themes.
- Nominalisation packs more information into a sentence and makes it sound impersonal, but too much of it makes a text hard to read.
Impersonal and cautious reporting
- Prefer impersonal structures: It has been suggested that… · The data appear to indicate… · This may be attributed to…
- Choose precise reporting verbs: posit (put forward as a theory), corroborate (confirm with further evidence), substantiate (support with evidence), ascertain (find out for certain).
- Avoid conversational fillers (basically, kind of, loads of) and contractions.
Study tips
- When you edit your own writing, underline every verb + 'that' clause and ask whether a noun phrase would be clearer.
- Learn reporting verbs with their patterns: attribute something to something, corroborate a finding, posit that…
Glossary
- Academic vocabulary for research8 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
Academic verbs and nouns
Match each word with its meaning. There is one extra meaning.
Tap an item…
…then its match
2
Academic or conversational?
Read the sentences about a research project. Put each one in the right group.
- a
It has been posited that volunteering reduces isolation.
- b
Here's the main stuff the scheme does.
- c
Further research is required to substantiate this claim.
- d
So we kind of guessed that helping out makes people happier.
- e
The salient features of the programme are summarised in Table 2.
- f
Loads of people said they felt less lonely.
- g
The data appear to corroborate the earlier findings.
- h
Basically, the numbers back up what we found before.
- i
We're not really sure why the figures don't match.
- j
This discrepancy may be attributed to differences in sampling.
3
Nominalise it
Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first, using a noun phrase. Use the word given and between two and five words. Do not change the word given.
- a
We analysed the interviews, and this revealed three main themes.
ANALYSIS
the interviews revealed three main themes.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- b
Participants were reluctant to give their age, which made the analysis harder.
RELUCTANCE
Participants' give their age made the analysis harder.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- c
Volunteering increased sharply after the scheme was launched.
INCREASE
The launch of the scheme was followed by volunteering.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- d
If we fail to recruit enough men, the results may be biased.
FAILURE
recruit enough men may bias the results.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- e
It is not fully understood why older volunteers stay longer.
REASONS
The older volunteers stay longer are not fully understood.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- f
The researchers clearly depended on self-reported data.
RELIANCE
The researchers' self-reported data was clear.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
4
Word families in research writing
Use the word in capitals to form a word that fits the gap.
- a
The study's was criticised for relying on a single questionnaire.
METHOD - b
The interviews provided evidence for the survey results.
CORROBORATE - c
The two sets of figures proved , so one of them had to be discarded.
RECONCILE - d
The of the findings to other countries remains uncertain.
GENERAL - e
Participants were promised complete , so no names appear in the report.
ANONYMOUS - f
The difference between the two groups was not statistically .
SIGNIFY - g
No evidence has yet been offered to support the claim.
SUBSTANCE
5
Edit the draft
Each sentence from a draft paper has one mistake. Write the correction: the corrected word(s) or the whole sentence.
- a
The results are corroborated with two earlier studies.
- b
This difference can be attributed for the smaller sample.
- c
The research were carried out over two years.
- d
A discrepancy among the two sets of figures was noted.
- e
The authors posit for a link between volunteering and wellbeing.
- f
It was not possible to ascertain whom had left the programme early.
6
Read: an abstract and discussion
Read the text. Are the sentences true, false or not given?
Volunteering and wellbeing in later life: a mixed-methods study (Castell and Obi, Northam Institute for Social Research) This study set out to ascertain whether sustained volunteering is associated with higher self-reported wellbeing among adults aged 50 and over. A survey of 1,240 residents of Ardale county was complemented by forty semi-structured interviews, a methodology chosen to capture both the extent and the texture of participants' experience. Respondents who had volunteered for at least two hours a week over the preceding year reported markedly lower levels of loneliness than those who had not. The interview data broadly corroborated this pattern, although several participants described volunteering as a source of obligation rather than satisfaction. Two caveats are in order. First, the cross-sectional design precludes any causal claim: it is equally plausible that people who are less lonely to begin with are more inclined to volunteer. Second, a notable discrepancy emerged among male participants, who rated their wellbeing highly on paper but spoke at length about isolation in conversation. We tentatively attribute this to a reluctance to disclose vulnerability in writing, but further research would be needed to substantiate this interpretation. The most salient finding, however, concerns duration. The benefits were concentrated among those who had volunteered for three years or more, which leads us to posit that it is continuity of social contact, rather than the activity itself, that matters.
- a
The study combined a questionnaire with interviews.
- b
Every participant was over the age of sixty.
- c
Regular volunteers reported feeling less lonely than people who did not volunteer.
- d
All of the interviewees described volunteering as a satisfying experience.
- e
The authors conclude that volunteering causes a reduction in loneliness.
- f
Men were more likely than women to leave the study before it ended.
- g
The authors are certain why men's survey answers differed from what they said in interviews.
- h
The research was paid for by a local volunteering charity.
- i
The benefits seemed greatest among long-term volunteers.
7
Write: from notes to an abstract
Rewrite the notes as an academic abstract.
Below are a researcher's informal notes about a small study. Rewrite them as an academic abstract (180–220 words). Use an impersonal style, at least three nominalisations and at least four words from the box. Do not use contractions. Notes: 'We asked 300 students how much they used the new study app. Loads of the regular users got better marks – but we can't really say the app caused it, because keen students probably use apps more anyway. The figures from the app didn't match what students told us about how long they used it. Main thing: students who used it with friends did best. Next time we want to track actual use properly.' Word box: substantiate · posit · corroborate · attribute · discrepancy · methodology · salient · ascertain Example: This study set out to ascertain whether regular use of a study application is associated with higher marks.
Suggested minimum: 180 words
0 words · aim for at least 180
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Fix ItFind the mistake in each sentence, then correct it.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 8 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in one set.
Academic vocabulary for research
- substantiate
- to provide evidence that shows a claim is true
- posit
- to put forward an idea as a basis for argument or research
- corroborate
- to confirm a finding with further, independent evidence
- ascertain
- to find out something for certain (formal)
- attribute
- to say that something is caused by something else: attribute A to B
- discrepancy
- a difference between two things that should match
- methodology
- the set of methods used in a piece of research
- salient
- most noticeable or important (formal)
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