Academic Writing for International Students of Business

 Complete each sentence with a suitable noun.

(a) The enquiry found no ___ of corruption in the tendering process.

(b) The tutor asked the class for their ___ for next semester’s topics.

(c) Many great discoveries were based on ___ rather than logic.

(d) Due to the rising birth rate, ___ was made for more school places.

(e) The study suggested a weak ___ between juice sales and hot weather.

2 Using nouns and adjectives

It is easy to confuse the noun and adjective form of words such as ‘possible’ and ‘possibility’.

 Compare these sentences:

The efficiencyof the machine depends on the precisionof its construction.

Precise construction results in an efficient machine.

The first sentence uses the nouns ‘efficiency’ and ‘precision’. The second uses adjectives: ‘precise’
and ‘efficient’. Although the meaning is similar, the first sentence is more formal. Effective
academic writing requires accurate use of both nouns and adjectives.

 Complete the gaps in the table below.

3.3:Academic Vocabulary: Nouns and Adjectives 173

Noun Adjective Noun Adjective

approximate particular

superiority reason

strategic synthetic

politics economics/economy*

industrial cultural

exterior average

high reliable

heat strength

confident true

width probability

necessary long

danger relevance

approximation