Appropriate level of formality and objectivity

 

 

In academic writing it is important to get the correct balance of how formal and objective the work needs to be. To try to improve the level of academic writing in this area, make sure the piece is written in the third person. 

 

e.g. The study found.. the author found… etc. It is important to give a balanced view, do not build the argument up in favour of a personal opinion but show all opinions that could be had of the topic.

 

Refer to extract 2.4  ‘Moreover, it could be suggested that…’

 

 

Extract 2:

There are three main psychological theories that examine humour, its comic nature and its quantifiable elements, insofar to say each theory proposes a different hypothesis to why we laugh. Most prevalent amongst these is the incongruity theory (Berger, 1994; Clark, 1970; Curco, 1996; Meyer, 2000 & Rutter, 1997).1 Schopenhauer’s interpretation of incongruity (2010) furthers Kant (2007) and is the most widely accepted theoretical basis for contemporary research on humour.2 Perhaps most important to denote in this theory is how recognition and understanding multiple sets of scripts and roles contribute to the presentation of the joke and the falseness  of the narrative congruence3, thus leading to the difference in expectation and the surprise effect (Shurcliff, 1968). This highlights a link that shows how a cognitive understanding of semantics (Giora, 1991; Grice 1975) can, in this sense lead to a better understanding of humour as a concept. Moreover, it could be suggested that the form of incongruence theory shares commonalities with the form of a joke, wherein there is a setup, expectation and twist; advocating evidence for why incongruence is the most popular humour theory.4