Academic Writing for International Students of Business

rational irrational

reliable unreliable

relevant irrelevant

specific non-specific

subjective objective

theoretical practical orempirical orpragmatic

Inflation is an abstractconcept.

The metaphorical use of the word ‘key’ is probably more common than its literal one.

The study of mathematics is highly relevantto economics.

Her study of women in management roles was criticised for being too subjective.

In Europe, empirical research began in the sixteenth century.

5 Practice B

 Complete each sentence with a suitable adjective from the table in section 4.

(a) The teacher complained that the quotes were ___ to the title.

(b) His ___ approach led him to ignore some inconvenient facts.

(c) ___examples are needed to make the argument clear.

(d) It is sufficient to give ___ figures for national populations.

(e) Poverty is usually regarded as a ___ concept.

(f) They approached the task in a ___ way by first analysing the title.

(g) The students preferred examining case studies to ___ discussion.

(h) The results were ___: the new product range was a failure.

6 Practice C

 Underline the adjective in each sentence and write the related noun in brackets.

Example: Several steel producers are likelyto shut down next year. (___)

(a) The HR team have just completed a strategic review of pay. (___)

(b) Dr Lee adopted an analytical approach to the inquiry. (___)

(c) Nylon was one of the earliest synthetic fibres. (___)

(d) Her major contribution to the research was her study of coal mining.
(___)

3.3:Academic Vocabulary: Nouns and Adjectives 175

likelihood