What is difference between "academic prose" and "academic article"?

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Context:

We illustrate each of these areas with case studies taken from research conducted for the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English ( LGSWE; Biber et al., 1999), discussing how such information is useful to textbook writers and teachers. The case studies are based on analysis of corpora from four registers: conversation, fiction, newspaper language, and academic prose. Although these are general registers, they differ in important ways from one another (e.g., with respect to mode, interactiveness, production circumstances, purpose, and target audience). The analyses were carried out on the Longman Spoken and Written English
(LSWE) Corpus, which contains c. 20 million words
of text overall, with c. 4-5 million words from each of
these four registers. All frequency counts reported below
have been normalized to a common basis (a count
per 1 million words of text), so that they are directly
comparable across registers.

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 9,929 • Replies: 18

[+3] - Zarathustra - 09/22/2012You are right about that. I have not heard the term academic prose either; my response is based on the context given. I think the reason they are using this term is that they are differentiating...

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@oristarA,

The relationship is that academic prose is used in writing academic literature. The text seems to be saying that they are using four different kinds of prose for use in case studies and one of these is academic pros.

Of the prose examples given, academic prose would be, of course, the most detailed, technical, and verifiable in relation to information contained. It is also the type understood by the smallest audience as the other types are for general audiences using colloquial language. The text seems to be addressing the relative usefulness of each type in produceing text books and class materials.

I hope that helps.

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@Zarathustra,

Zarathustra wrote:

The relationship is that academic prose is used in writing academic literature. The text seems to be saying that they are using four different kinds of prose for use in case studies and one of these is academic pros.

Of the prose examples given, academic prose would be, of course, the most detailed, technical, and verifiable in relation to information contained. It is also the type understood by the smallest audience as the other types are for general audiences using colloquial language. The text seems to be addressing the relative usefulness of each type in produceing text books and class materials.

I hope that helps.

Impressive.
Thank you.
But I've always heard that the writings in Nature, Science, Lancet, Cell and other scientific magazines being called (academic) articles. Such articles, when cited, are referred to as References. If you search in Pubmed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
you'll get tons of (academic) articles (which together be called Literature). It seems no one in scientific field calls them as academic prose(s).

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@oristarA,

You are right about that. I have not heard the term academic prose either; my response is based on the context given. I think the reason they are using this term is that they are differentiating between writing styles of these prose formats, rather than actual content found in these formats. In this context academic pros most likely referes to refereed journals and magazines, such as those mentioned.

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@oristarA,

Quote:

academic prose.

It's a general term describing academic writing, Ori.

I've sometimes referred to these four registers in discussions of language here at A2K.

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@Zarathustra,

Zarathustra wrote:

You are right about that. I have not heard the term academic prose either; my response is based on the context given. I think the reason they are using this term is that they are differentiating between writing styles of these prose formats, rather than actual content found in these formats. In this context academic pros most likely referes to refereed journals and magazines, such as those mentioned.

Reasonable.
It seems no definition in OneLook yet that helps to clarify this.

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Prose is a kind of writing; an article is a piece of prose.

Prose is the most typical form of language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure (as in traditional poetry). It is commonly used, for example, in literature, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, broadcasting, film, history, philosophy, law and many other forms of communication.

Academic prose is a formal style of prose often demanded by academic institutions and publishers for essays, article and other submissions. The example below may provide an idea of what is usually required.

There is much argument about what consitutes good prose.

Here is an example of (very) basic guidance given to new students at one US college... (It is seriously basic: it is preceded by some guidelines including "For all course work use a Times New Roman 12 pt. font, or it will seriously affect your grade." )

I like "Do not quote the bible"... (lower case 'b' in original)

http://www.englishdiscourse.org/lecture.2.1301.html

SECTION 2: ACADEMIC PROSE:

I will grade all your course work, in part, on how well you apply these requirements to your prose:

Do not use contractions.

Do not use first-person pronouns such as "I" "me" "my."

Do not use second-person pronouns such as "you" "your" "yours."

Do not engage in personal stories, meaning stories of your own life experiences, or the experiences of friends, family, and so on.

Do not begin sentences with conjunctions: but, and, or, nor, for, so, yet.

Do not pose any questions in any assignments. This means, quite literally, not to use questions. Write sentences in the form of statements instead.

Do not quote the bible or make allusions to religion in any way.

Avoid any form of direct address to the reader, such as "think about the fact that . . ."

Avoid too casual a prose style, such as sentences that begin with words like "well, sure, now, yes, no."

Do not use phrases such as, "a lot," "lots" or "lots of," which can usually be replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much, often.

Do not use exclamation points, for they are almost always unnecessary.
Periods and commas should be inside of quotation marks, but other forms of punctuation go outside of quotation marks.

Do not use the word "okay" when words like "acceptable" could be used instead.

Do not use the word "nowdays," "nowadays," or any slight variation thereof.

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@contrex,

Another of your "educated folk", C?

Do not use contractions.

Scholar About 207,000 results for "they'll"

ScholarAbout 456,000 results for "we'll"

ScholarAbout 2,990,000 results for "can't"

ScholarAbout 486,000 results for "wouldn't"

Do not use second-person pronouns such as "you" "your" "yours."

ScholarAbout 6,290,000 results for "your"

ScholarAbout 701,000 results for "yours"

Do not use phrases such as, "a lot," "lots" or "lots of," which can usually be replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much, often.

ScholarAbout 2,100,000 results for "a lot"

ScholarAbout 1,100,000 results for "lots"

Do not use exclamation points, for they are almost always unnecessary.

This is a "scholar" that wants their students to be precise in their writing.

"Do not use exclamation points, for they are almost always unnecessary. But when they are necessary, do use them."

1 Reply

@JTT,

It may depend on the journal and field a person is in.

I used to type and edit manuscripts being submitted to science and geological journals for several geological professors and never did I see anyone use a contraction or exclamation point. They also never used 'a lot' or 'lots'... or personal pronouns. They were very careful to be as explicit as possible, and if they did use 'a lot', etc., it would come back from the reviewers X-ed out, with alternate suggestions.

1 Reply

More autistic bullshit from JTT.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Before I read your response, C, I said to myself, "Dollars to donuts, C won't in any way actually address the language issue".

Not that I'm prescient - you're just awfully easy to predict.

An English teacher, you say.

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@Mame,

Quote:

It may depend on the journal and field a person is in.

I used to type and edit manuscripts being submitted to science and geological journals for several geological professors and never did I see anyone use a contraction or exclamation point. They also never used 'a lot' or 'lots'... or personal pronouns. They were very careful to be as explicit as possible, and if they did use 'a lot', etc., it would come back from the reviewers X-ed out, with alternate suggestions.

Thanks for addressing this, Mame.

I would say that the standard for all academic fields and journals is pretty much the same. Granted, given that these are merely conventions, ie. not real rules of the English language, different groups/journals, magazines, ... have their own style guides.

There's a difference between one person's anecdotal evidence and that which is revealed in corpus studies.

And you're absolutely right that this particular register, academic prose, tends to be much more formal. That's understandable and sensible.

The only problem is that this particular person seemed to be just another hard case prescriptivist. We see that in the contradictions found within their lame, academically speaking, advice.

Do not use phrases such as, "a lot," "lots" or "lots of," which can usually be replaced with one of the following words: many, most, much, often.

The contradictions in "Do not" and "which can usually be replaced ..." should make these people blanch with shame.

Do not use exclamation points, for they are almost always unnecessary.

The same here - how is a sensible person to understand this;

Do not use them but use them when they are necessary!

I didn't attempt a Google Scholar search for that nonsense about not starting a sentence with a conjunction because it was impossible to filter out all ands, buts, etc.

There are very good reasons that we don't commonly find the usages contained in these admonitions in academic prose. But to prohibit them outright and totally, which this person does on one hand and allows them in the next breath is idiocy in the extreme.

This is simply another example of a person, an academic no less, that is ignorant of the larger picture of language use, so they resort to these narrow, contrived rules.

Chances are, a review of their own writing would find that they don't follow their own prescriptions.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Chances are, a review of their own writing would find that they don't follow their own prescriptions.

Contrex is not writing to a journal when he contributes here. Informal language is very different from formal, as you yourself has said. He was, I believe, quoting from a style guide in order to answer the question posed.

I have read journal articles from different areas of study (social work, psychology, arts, etc. ) than that which I was working in which used a more informal writing style so it does happen. If, however, a scientist, engineer, mathematician, say, used that kind of informal style in a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, it would be corrected if not outright rejected. I saw that happen quite often with new professors' submissions.

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@Mame,

Quote:

jtt wrote: Chances are, a review of their own writing would find that they don't follow their own prescriptions.

Quote:

Contrex is not writing to a journal when he contributes here. Informal language is very different from formal, as you yourself has said. He was, I believe, quoting from a style guide in order to answer the question posed.

My comment, above, had nothing at all to do with Contrex, nor was it pointed at him in any fashion.

And I'm not arguing that there are style conventions that some adhere to in academic prose. My point was that this particular fellow was misrepresenting the conventions in a terribly contradictory fashion.

Contractions do occur in academic prose though, admittedly, they are far from common. Why not simply explain that, and the reasons why, instead of ruling them as completely verboten?

These are, after all, college students.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Maybe he was feeling lazy and thought quoting the 'rules' would be easier. Again, the usage of contractions (personal pronouns, etc) is relegated, most likely, to non-science-related work, so it really all depends on the field of study of the OP.

Anyway, what's the point of continuing this?

1 Reply

That "style guide" that I posted was a very basic set of guidelines issued by a professor to begiining college students. I actually signalled (or I thought I did) that I didn't think much of it - the font, the bible etc. In fact, I edited a glaring solecism out of it. The original contains this gem:

Quote:

Avoid too casual of a prose style

I intended it to be seen as simply one example of a set of guidelines, of which there are many, to convey the idea that academic prose is fairly strictly defined.

1 Reply

@Mame,

Quote:

Maybe he was feeling lazy and thought quoting the 'rules' would be easier.

Do you think that that's what lecturers of any stripe ought to be doing, Mame?

Quote:

Anyway, what's the point of continuing this?

I made my point in my last post.

"Contractions do occur in academic prose though, admittedly, they are far from common. Why not simply explain that, and the reasons why, instead of ruling them as completely verboten?"

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@contrex,

Quote:

I actually signalled (or I thought I did) that I didn't think much of it

Quoting it in its entirety didn't lead me to think you signaled that, C, but your point is taken and acknowledged.

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@oristarA,

Can we take academic prospectuses in academic prose? please guide me

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What is difference between "academic prose" and "academic article"?

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