A6-d: Becoming familiar with a discipline's language conventions

A6-dBecome familiar with a discipline’s language conventions.

Every discipline has a specialized vocabulary. As you read the articles and books in a field, you’ll notice certain words and phrases that come up repeatedly. Sociologists, for example, use terms such as independent variables and dyads to describe social phenomena; computer scientists might refer to algorithm design and loop invariants to describe programming methods. Practitioners in health fields use terms like treatment plan and systemic assessment to describe patient care. Use discipline-specific terms only when you are certain that you and your readers understand their meaning.

In addition to vocabulary, many fields of study have developed specialized conventions for point of view and verb tense. See the chart below.

Point of view and verb tense in academic writing

Point of view

  • Writers of analytical or research essays in the humanities usually use the third-person point of view: Austen presents . . . or Castel describes the battle as. . . .
  • Scientists and most social scientists, who depend on quantitative research to present findings, tend to use the third-person point of view: The results indicated. . . .
  • Writers in the humanities and in some social sciences occasionally use the first person in discussing their experience or in writing a personal narrative: After spending two years interviewing families affected by the war, I began to understand that. . . .

Present or past tense

  • Literature scholars use the present tense to discuss a text: Hughes effectively dramatizes different views of minority assertiveness. (See MLA-3b.)
  • Science and social science writers use the past tense or present perfect tense to describe experiments from source materials and the present tense to discuss the writer’s own findings: In 2003, Berkowitz released the first double-blind placebo study. . . . Rogers and Chang have found that. . . . Our results paint a murky picture. (See APA-3b.)
  • Writers in history use the present tense or the present perfect tense to discuss a text: Shelby Foote describes the scene like this . . . or Shelby Foote has described the scene like this. . . . (See CMS-3b.)