The ability to display familiarity with a concept is one of the six tenets of EAP. When it comes to defining a thing, a person, or an idea there are certain aspects of grammar that it is important to get right.
Why do academic writers define things?
In academic writing students are often expected to give definitions of key words and phrases in order to demonstrate to their instructors that they understand these terms clearly. Academic writers generally, however, define terms so that their readers understand exactly what is meant when certain key terms are used in context of a particular piece of writing.
What kind of academic terms does an academic writer usually need to define… and how?
The kind of terms that need defining are key words or phrases in an assignment title; technical, new or unfamiliar terms that have no standard, agreed definition. The appropriate use of articles is important as incorrect use can affect the accuracy of the definition. Hedging language, i.e. modal verbs such as may and could, aid in adding an element of caution to a definition. Relative clauses are also a common fixture of formal academic definitions (you can learn more about the various uses of academic definitions here).
Today’s infographic gives a brief overview of the essential grammar, certain commonly used phrases, as well as examples of how these might appear in sentence form. It was developed using the Piktochart application. All images are part of the free Piktochart library. The source material has been adapted from Doyle, P., Morley, J. & Pople, I. (2007). University Writing Course. Express Publishing, Longman.
Please feel free to use this either as a teaching material, or share with your learners for self study purposes. This infographic is also available in text form as a pdf document.
The original can be downloaded from here (1200×2800), while there are also a number of embed options available via Flickr here.
