Academic writing style

• ‘A lot’ or ‘not much’ can be changed to more formal expressions of quantity, depending on whether it is countable or uncountable:
  • Countable – a few, a (small/limited) number of, several, many
  • Uncountable – a little, a great deal, a large/small amount of, much
• ‘Pros and cons’ – advantages and disadvantages/benefits and drawbacks
• ‘Talk about’ – discuss
• ‘Chat’ – discuss/talk/have a conversation
• ‘Says’ – use a reporting verb, e.g. states, argues

• It may be acceptable in some circumstances (reflection for example), and is becoming generally more acceptable (e.g. Tang and John, 1999)
• It also depends on the subject being studied, so best to ask your Tutor
• It is better to avoid it if possible – it’s easy to change back to ‘I’ if it’s acceptable but not the other way around
• It generally becomes more acceptable for those ‘higher up’ in academia

• Use of passives, e.g. ‘we can avoid this by…’ could be ‘this can be avoided by…’
• ‘I’m going to write about…’ becomes ‘This essay will discuss/argue that…’
• Say who, e.g. ‘We can learn better by…’ becomes ‘Students can learn better by…’

These may be acceptable once or twice for effect, for example, if you have a section of longer sentences and want your reader to pay close attention, it may be beneficial to introduce a short sentence which disrupts the flow of the paragraph.

Try to connect sentences using relative clauses, for example:

‘X states that there are four different learning styles. These are…’

‘X states that there are four different learning styles, which are…’

But don’t over-complicate things, or this could be confusing.

These are easy to change:

• it’s = it is
• can’t = cannot
• don’t = do not

Don’t address the reader by use of ‘you’ or giving commands, e.g. ‘Listen to the radio to improve your English’

You can use ‘should’, e.g. ‘Students should listen to the radio to improve their English.’ OR ‘Listening to the radio could help to improve the English language of students’

You should keep a distance between you and the reader

This may be good for presentations, but is not appropriate in an academic essay

Make statements, rather than ask questions e.g., ‘Do you know what the four learning styles are?’ could be: ‘This essay will outline the four learning styles, which are…’

Academic English should be precise, phrases like ‘someone’ and ‘etc.’ are vague and should not be used.

‘Someone’ could be changed to name who you are talking about, e.g., a named author you are citing, or generally ‘experts’, ‘academics’, ‘scientists’, ‘students’ or ‘the general public’.

Do not use etc. or ‘so on’, simply list the number of examples (as above).

These are often assumptions, which may be incorrect e.g. ‘Everyone knows’ – maybe not everyone knows.  You could use ‘It is common knowledge that…’ OR ‘It is a widely known fact that…’

‘All over the world’ could be changed to ‘some countries’ or ‘the majority of the population’ – better still to state exactly what, where or who you mean.

Multi-word verbs, such as ‘turn up’, ‘put up with’ and ‘give away’ are used frequently in spoken English and written English of a less formal nature but are generally not recommended for academic writing.  Most have a one-part verb equivalent: for example, ‘turn up’ could be ‘arrive’, ‘put up with’ would be ‘tolerate’, and ‘give away’ should be donate.

This can be effective in some styles of writing but should be avoided in academic essays. Remember when writing academically it is best to be as clear as possible and the use of idioms or colloquialisms may detract from the intended argument.

DON’T DO IT!

In academic writing capitals should only be used when necessary, for example abbreviations (the UK).

Exclamation marks should not be used (unless in a direct quotation).

1. The reader is being addressed directly; a more succinct alternative would simply be ‘for example’.
2. ‘Trash’ is very informal, a more suitable work would be ‘refuse’ or ‘waste’. The writer should also consider being more specific about who ‘people’ are, are they referring to the general population?
3. ‘Lots of parents’ would be better rephrased as ‘many’ or ‘a significant number’.
4. ‘Pros and cons’ could be replaced with ‘advantages and disadvantages’ or ‘benefits and drawbacks’ for example.
5. Avoid using the personal pronoun ‘I’ as well as the less formal ‘going to’, instead ‘This paper/essay will discuss…’.
6. Here the reader is being addressed directly with a rhetorical question, in a more journalistic style of writing this would be acceptable, however in an academic essay it is better to make statement rather than asking a question and use more literal terminology, for example ‘Alternatives to the fast fashion industry will be considered.’