Academic Writing
Academic Writing
Academic Spanish combines nearly everything from this level — nominalization, the ser passive, hedging language — into the most consistently formal register you'll encounter.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Hedging softens claims with structures you already know
podría argumentarse que (it could be argued that) — conditional + passive-like se, softening a claim without fully committing to it
it could be argued that — the same hedge
Academic writing rarely states claims as flat fact — podría argumentarse que, cabe señalar que, and se podría sugerir que all soften an assertion using tools you already have (the conditional, the impersonal se) recombined for a new rhetorical purpose. Recognizing these as hedges, not genuine uncertainty, is part of reading academic Spanish fluently.
First-person plural stands in for 'I' in formal papers
en este artículo, analizamos... (in this article, we analyze...) — nosotros, even for a single author
in this article, we analyze... — English academic writing does the same thing
Even single-author academic papers conventionally use nosotros instead of yo — the so-called 'academic we' — to sound less personally assertive, exactly mirroring the same convention in English scholarly writing. This isn't a grammar rule so much as a genre convention worth recognizing so you're not confused when a solo-authored paper keeps saying 'we'.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- it could be argued that
- English
- it should be noted that
- English
- in this article, we analyze
- English
- the hypothesis
- English
- the theoretical framework
- English
- the results suggest that
- English
- in conclusion, it is shown that
- English
- it's worth noting the limitation of
- English
- the sample
- English
- the state of the art / literature review