2 Academic style

As you have seen in the previous section, the style used depends on the topic being dealt with and the situation in which communication is taking place. In familiar situations, it is much easier to use the most appropriate style, but speaking or writing in new contexts, or about a new topic, or with different people, makes greater demands on communication skills and may make it necessary to learn different ways to communicate.

If you decide to study for a university degree, you will become a member of the community that studies your chosen subject. As such, you will be helped by the study materials and your tutor to gradually learn to understand and use the specific style that is followed by members of this community.

This consists in learning to understand and write texts that follow a very specific structure. You would also learn to use specific grammatical structures and the academic and the specialised vocabulary of the field.

In this section you will look at some formal and less formal university texts.