Academic Bios- Tips and Connecting Expressions Practice

Academic bios tips and connecting expressions practice

Ask your partner for their advice on writing your academic bio (e.g. a personal profile to accompany a paper you wrote for an academic journal).

Possible questions How can I…? In your experience…? Is it better to… or…? Is it normal to…? Would you recommend…? Possible answers … might be worth a try. Have you thought about…? Have you tried…? I don’t have any personal experience of this, but… I have found that… generally works/ is generally the case. I’d (generally) recommend… If I were you… My recommendation is…

Possible topics

Places

• Academic journals
• Academic books (e.g. collections of papers)
• Your blog (on the “About” page)
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• On your university’s website (staff profiles)
• With a conference talk

Other topics

• Aims/ Ambitions/ Plans
• Being unprofessional
• Career changes/ Changes in academic interests
• Cultural differences
• First person/ Third person
• Language abilities
• Making new contacts
• Making your profile interesting/ Making your profile stand out
• Achievements
• Modesty
• People googling your name
• Stages of planning, writing and checking (research before writing etc)
• What readers want to know
• Word limit

Would you change or add anything to the advice below? Discuss in pairs until you agree, not writing anything down at this stage.

 

1. British people tend to be shy about boasting of their achievements

 

2. your LinkedIn profile will probably come top of a Google search for your name.

 

3. personal information in an academic bio like hobbies and having kids can make people feel more connected to you and so take more interest in your ideas

 

4. you should usually write your bio using the third person.

 

5. you’ll need to look at other bios in the place you want to put yours (or similar places) to see what is usually included.

 

6. you should think about who might view it and what you want to achieve by them doing so.

 

7. most publications have an official or unofficial limit on the length of academic bios that you can include with your paper

 

8. it is probably worth explaining why your present research and past studies don’t match

 

9. one of the most important things to mention is your achievements

 

10. it’s probably not worth including information on your language abilities unless it is particularly connected to your research

 

11. it’s impossible to know for sure what will come up when someone googles your name

 

12. it is probably worth mentioning something about your future ambitions or plans

 

13. two questions that might pop into someone’s head when first reading the topic(s) of your research are “Why on earth did they choose that topic?” and “Why should I be interested?”

 

14. you will need to plan before writing an academic biography

 

Add linking expressions to each of the tips about academic bios below. The same word might fit in more than place, and more than one answer is often possible in each gap.

1. British people tend to be shy about boasting of their achievements, ____________________________ Americans tend to be more comfortable with it.
2. Your LinkedIn profile will probably come top of a Google search for your name. ______________________________________________________, you can change your privacy settings so that people who you haven’t friended can’t view your profile.
3. Personal information in an academic bio like hobbies and having kids can make people feel more connected to you and so take more interest in your ideas.____________, some personal information might seem unprofessional and be unsuitable in some situations.
4. You should usually write your bio using the third person.__________________, bios in some places like blogs usually use the first person.
5. There are three main stages to writing an academic bio.___________________, you’ll need to look at other bios in the place you want to put yours (or similar places) to see what is usually included. ____________________, you need to write a similar example about yourself.________________________________, you should make a couple of changes to your bio to make it stand out in some way from the crowd.
6. ___________________________________________________ writing your bio, you should think about who might view it and what you want to achieve by them doing so.
7. Most publications have an official or unofficial limit on the length of academic bios that you can include with your paper, _____________________________________ you’ll need to find that out before you send your paper and bio.
8. It is probably worth explaining why your present research and past studies don’t match ____________________________________________________ that is the case.
9. One of the most important things to mention is your achievements. _______________________, you could write about scholarships and other awards.
10. It’s probably not worth including information on your language abilities unless it is particularly connected to your research. ___________________________________ it looks like “padding” your profile or pointless boasting.
11. It’s impossible to know for sure what will come up when someone googles your name.___________________________________________________, you should make sure that all your online profiles can be suitable for a variety of purposes.
12. _______________________________________________ your present and past, it is probably worth mentioning something about your future ambitions or plans.
13. You can include information on the reasons why you are interested in your research topic(s) and what the implications of that research could be __________________________ answer two questions that might pop into someone’s head when first reading the topic(s) of your research: “Why on earth did they choose that topic?” and “Why should I be interested?”
14. You will need to plan before writing an academic biography _______________________________________ each paragraph has a different topic.

 

Use these mixed answers to help with the previous task.

• also
• although
• and
• as a result
• as well
• as well as
• because of this
• before
• but
• consequently
• despite
• etc
• finally
• first
• first of all
• firstly
• for example
• for this reason
• furthermore
• however
• if
• in addition
• in addition to
• in contrast
• (in order) to
• in spite of
• last(ly)
• last of all
• moreover
• nevertheless
• nonetheless
• on the contrary
• on the other hand
• second
• secondly
• so
• so that
• such as
• the reason for this is that
• therefore
• this is because
• thus
• to give an example
• when
• whereas
• while

Suggested answers

This should be all the possible answers, so please check if you wrote something different.

1. British people tend to be shy about boasting of their achievements, but/ whereas/ while Americans tend to be more comfortable with it.
2. Your LinkedIn profile will probably come top of a Google search for your name. However, you can change your privacy settings so that people who you haven’t friended can’t view your profile.
3. Personal information in an academic bio like hobbies and having kids can make people feel more connected to you and so take more interest in your ideas. On the other hand/ However, some personal information might seem unprofessional and be unsuitable in some situations.
4. You should usually write your bio using the third person. However/ In contrast, bios in some places like blogs usually use the first person.
5. There are three main stages to writing an academic bio. First of all/ First/ Firstly, you’ll need to look at other bios in the place you want to put yours (or similar places) to see what is usually included. Secondly/ Second, you need to write a similar example about yourself. Finally/ Last/ Lastly/ Last of all, you should make a couple of changes to your bio to make it stand out in some way from the crowd.
6. Before writing your bio, you should think about who might view it and what you want to achieve by them doing so.
7. Most publications have an official or unofficial limit on the length of academic bios that you can include with your paper, so you’ll need to find that out before you send your paper and bio.
8. It is probably worth explaining why your present research and past studies don’t match if that is the case.
9. One of the most important things to mention is your achievements. For example/ To give an example, you could write about scholarships and other awards.
10. It’s probably not worth including information on your language abilities unless it is particularly connected to your research. This is because/ The reason for this is that it looks like “padding” your profile or pointless boasting.
11. It’s impossible to know for sure what will come up when someone googles your name. Because of this/ For this reason/ Therefore, you should make sure that all your online profiles can be suitable for a variety of purposes.
12. As well as/ In addition to your present and past, it is probably worth mentioning something about your future ambitions or plans.
13. You can include information on the reasons why you are interested in your research topic(s) and what the implications of that research could be (in order) to answer two questions that might pop into someone’s head when first reading the topic(s) of your research: “Why on earth did they choose that topic?” and “Why should I be interested?”
14. You will need to plan before writing an academic biography so/ so that each paragraph has a different topic.

Make sure that you understand the similarities and differences between all the connecting expressions in this lesson, then test each other by choosing two for your partner to compare each time.