On the Stylistic Awareness of English Majors’ Undergraduate Thesis Writing

Abstract：The paper discusses the stylistic features of English academic papers from three aspects of formality， objectivity， and conciseness with the purpose to provoke undergraduates stylistic awareness. This paper also provides them some techniques to use in their paper writing.

Key words：English academic papers； stylistic awareness； objectivity； formality； conciseness

中圖分类号：H315.9 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1672-1578（2017）04-0001-02

1 Introduction

The greatest accomplishment undergraduate students fulfill in their four-year English study is the completion of a research project， submitted in the form of a thesis. Thesis writing is perhaps the most daunting part of undergraduate education. Therefore ， most students feel that the amount of energy they spend on writing this thesis equals or outweighs the energy they spend during their whole studies， for the process requires discipline， creative thinking， harmonious cooperation with their supervisors， close contact with literature research， surmounting of retreat， good command of language use， etc. As such， some of these factors might be in the way to their final accomplishment of their task. But based

on the author‘s observation， the unawareness of stylistic

appropriateness have destroyed greatly the quality of their academic papers. Accordingly the following discussions intend to help English majors establish a strong stylistic awareness in their academic endeavors.

2 Theoretical Base

Stylistics， a branch of？applied linguistics， is the study and interpretation of texts in regard to their linguistic and tonal style. In terms of general stylistics， according to field of discourse， such study is carried out in relation to different genres as novels， poetry， scientific treaties， legal documents， even academic papers. The key to the effective use of language of academic papers is “appropriateness”.

As the term “academic paper “ denotes， this special document ，which includes abstract， key words， methods， introduction， discussion， conclusion， bibliography， notes， serves a particular purpose and is for the purview of a particular group of readers. Due to the transactional nature and message-orientedness of the written language， certain conventions and techniques should be used. In order to achieve this purpose， one must know the conventions of academic writing. This is especially so for undergraduate students since they are novices in this field. Therefore the following parts would unearth the stylistic features of undergraduate thesis from three aspects： awareness of objectivity， awareness of formality and awareness of conciseness on the basis of stylistic theories

3 Awareness of Objectiveness

Undergraduate thesis writing is the scientific study on a certain issue which aims at discovering the true nature and underlying system of the related topic. So the author should hold the objective voice. As Ding Wang-dao says，“A research paper is a study of some objective facts or problems， and the conclusions that are drawn should be based only on relevant data， not on personal likes and dislikes. Your arguments will be convincing if they are well grounded， and acceptable if presented in a cool， objective tone.” Therefore a researcher should be guided by the principle of objectivity which can be achieved in many ways. For example， at the lexical level， he should use neuter words（have no gender difference）， and nominalized forms derived from verbs， adjectives， such as analyses（from analyze）， thinking （from think），equality， feasibility （from equal， feasible）.In terms of grammatical category， he should use the third person instead of the first， or second person. At syntactical level， the sentence pattern“It +be+verb-ed+that” is preferred， for example，“It is argued…” rather than“Some people think...” “It can be seen that...” rather than“You can see that...”.Apart from this， passive voice is believed to be an effective way to avoid subjectivity.

4 Awareness of Formality

Besides the feature of objectivity， a researcher should adhere to the principle of formality as well. As is known to us， the voice of a piece of writing can be both formal and informal. If it is of informal style， the style can be light， easy， emotional， personal whereas if it is of formal style， it is dignified， elegant， and solemn.“But for one who is learning to write research papers， it is advisable to use the formal， written style...”as professor Ding Wang-dao claims. In English there are some techniques contributing to the solemnity or formality of academic papers. One way is to use solemn words derived from Latin or Greece such as demonstrate instead of show， interrogate instead of ask. Another preference is to use monoseme， such as the use of eliminate， not get rid of， the use of investigate， not look into， In addition， full forms of words should be used， for example， professional replacing pro， memorandum instead of memo. have not instead of havent. But what can persuades the readers most is the wide use of academic terms. Furthermore， sentence structure is another factor affecting the voice of formality. A researcher can use declarative sentences rather than interrogative sentences， imperative sentences，or exclamatory sentences.

5 Awareness of Conciseness

Apart from the above two features， conciseness is another principle never neglected in academic paper writing. It is admitted that conciseness？ is the extent to which a piece of writing communicates clear information in as few words as possible， since “Florid expressions or unnecessarily complicated structures would only divert your readers attention from the main issue. Besides， they are often boring” as Ding Wang-dao says. In a word， a researcher has to make his research economical in order to instruct and persuade people more forcefully. Here are some strategies worthy of noticing. First， conciseness can serves the researcher in his writing when an acronym of an academic term is used， for example， EFL（English as a foreign language），IPA （the international phonetic alphabet）.Second， to transform a clause into a phrase is another shortening way， such as， the transformation of “The research that is being carried out is…” into“The research being carried out is”， the transformation of “What he has investigated…” into His investigation…

6 Conclusion

Undergraduate thesis writing is the compulsory course for English majors in the last academic year. Most students find themselves involved in the struggle with this hard work for many reasons. The authors findings are that the lack of the stylistic awareness prevents them from finishing it smoothly. Therefore three principles of objectiveness， formality， and conciseness are strongly proposed along with the introduction of some techniques. The purpose is to give them some guidance in their academic paper writing.

Reference：

[1] 丁往道，吳冰，钟美荪，郭棲庆.英语写作手册[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1996.

[2] 胡壮麟.语言学教程[M].北京：北京大学出版社，2012.

[3] 秦秀白.文体学概论[M].长沙：湖南教育出版社，1999.

作者简介：刘娟（1964-），女，四川内江人，内江师范学院外国语学院，副教授，主要研究方向：英语语言学和英语教学。