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This video is brought to you by eapfoundation.com, the website for all your academic English
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needs. In the video on what is academic writing, we looked at different features of academic
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writing, namely that it is structured, evidenced, critical, precise, balanced, objective and
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formal. This video will focus on just one of those aspects, namely objectivity in academic
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writing. We'll look at three areas. First we'll answer the question, what is objective
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writing? Then we'll consider how objective academic writing actually is. Then in the
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main part of the video we'll see different ways to write objectively. First then, what
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is objective writing? So objective writing places the emphasis on information and arguments
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And it can be contrasted with subjective writing, which relates to personal feelings, personal
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experience and therefore shows your personal biases. Since objective writing is the opposite
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of personal writing, it's often described as impersonal writing. It tends to use third
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person pronouns, it, he, she, they, them, unlike subjective writing which uses first
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person pronouns, I, we, my, or sometimes second person pronouns, you and your. Next let's
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consider how objective academic writing is. To some extent this depends on the discipline
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If we're talking about natural sciences such as biology or chemistry or physics, objective
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writing is essential. For these subjects the writer is seen as an impartial observer with
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no emotional connection to what they're writing about. It's easy to be objective for these
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subjects because they deal with quantitative data, in other words numbers. A more subjective
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tone may be acceptable in some disciplines, especially naturalist research that seeks
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to study things in their natural environment, for example by using case studies. Subjectivity
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is of course essential for reflective writing, which is used increasingly as a form of assessment
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at university. Finally let's take a look at how to write objectively. There are five
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different ideas we'll consider here. First, use passive voice. Second, focus on the evidence
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Third, use evidence from sources. Fourth, use impersonal phrases. And finally, personify
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the writing. When people think about objective writing, the use of passive is normally the
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first thing that comes to mind. This removes the actor from the sentence. Most expert academic
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writers would agree that passive should not be overused. An active voice is preferred
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wherever possible. However, sometimes this is unavoidable. For example, if you're writing
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the method of a report, you'll normally need to use passive in order to avoid first person
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pronouns. For example, rather than I conducted the experiment, we can make the experiment
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the subject. The experiment was conducted. And that uses passive. In the second sentence
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we don't know who conducted the experiment. We assume it's the impartial observer. And
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the focus therefore is very much the experiment itself. A second example, rather than I measured
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the length of the string with a ruler, we make the length of the string the subject
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The length of the string was measured using a ruler. So again, this is passive. And the
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actor, the impartial observer, has been removed from the sentence. When studying passive for academic writing, it's useful to be aware of a special class
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of verb called ergative verbs. These are used without the actor, but also without using
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passive voice. Sometimes ergative is referred to as the middle voice between active and
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passive. Examples of ergative verbs, which can be used quite commonly in academic writing
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are dissolve, increase, decrease, lower, and start. For example, the white powder dissolved
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in the liquid. So even though the white powder is not doing the dissolving, we don't need
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to use passive, because dissolve is an ergative verb. Another example, the tax rate increased
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in 2010. So here we use increased, not was increased. A third example, construction work
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started six months ago. Those are just a few examples. There's actually many ergative
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verbs, and you can find more of those in a more detailed explanation on the website
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So that's use of passive. Let's turn now to focusing on the evidence. So here we make
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the evidence the subject of the sentence. So in other words, results, data, research
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figures, and so on. And this generally uses active voice. For example, the findings show
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The data illustrate. Data is actually a Latin plural, so that uses plural verb. The graph
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displays. The literature indicates. The conclusions are. So by making the evidence the subject
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of the sentence, we can avoid using I, but retain the active voice
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Thirdly, use evidence from sources. So citing sources is an essential part of academic writing
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and intake citations usually use the third person, which we saw as a feature of objective
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writing, and are normally in the active voice. For example, Newbold, 2021, shows that this
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is not always the case. He further demonstrates the relationship between. Another example
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Green and Atwood, 2013, suggest that. So these are author-date citations, as used by APA
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and Harvard. Although a similar method works for other referencing systems, such as MLA
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So the authors being cited are the subject of the sentence, and the verb is in the active voice
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Another common way to make your writing objective is by using impersonal phrases. This generally
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means constructions with the word it and the word there, and these are often used with
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hedges, which softens the information, and boosters, which strengthen the information. Hedges and boosters are a way to show the strength of your feeling about a topic without
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using emotive language, which is very subjective and should be avoided in academic writing
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For example, it is clear that, so that's a phrase with it, which uses a booster, clear
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It appears that, another phrase with it, which uses a hedge, appear. And those mean the same
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thing as I believe that, or we must. So for example, rather than I believe that this is
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harmful for health, and we must avoid it, we can say it appears that this is harmful
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for health and should be avoided. Or if we want to be stronger, we can say it is clear
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that this is harmful for health and must be avoided. A couple of other examples, this time using the word there, rather than I have identified
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three reasons for this, we can say there are three reasons for this. And rather than this
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is a terrible idea, which is very emotive, we can say there are several disadvantages
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to this approach, which is not emotive and would be much more objective
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Finally, we can personify the writing. So personify means to treat something as if it
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were human, as if it were a person. And in this case we make the writing, the essay
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the report and so on, the subject of the sentence. For example, rather than I will consider the
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role of diesel emissions in global warming, we can say this essay will consider the role
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of diesel emissions in global warming. Rather than I have shown that, we can say this report
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has shown that. So by personifying the writing and making it the subject of the sentence
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we again avoid the use of I and also keep the sentence in the active rather than the
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passive voice. So in this video we've seen what objective writing is, we've considered how objective
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academic writing is, and we've also seen five ways to write objectively, by using passive
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focusing on the evidence, using evidence from sources, using impersonal phrases, and by
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personifying the writing. For more information on this and other topics, please visit the
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website eapfoundation.com, where you can also find a worksheet for this and other videos