Formal Academic Style

Prefer

• • indicate / suggest / demonstrate
• • require / significant / approximately
• • objective wording

Avoid

• • kind of / pretty / stuff / a lot of
• • vague intensifiers
• • conversational fillers
• • unsupported certainty

الأسلوب الأكاديمي يكون دقيقاً وموضوعياً ويتجنب الكلمات العامية والمبالغة والعبارات غير المحددة.

Examples

• • Informal: The results kind of show the programme worked pretty well. → Formal: The results suggest that the programme was effective.
• • Informal: A lot of people didn't like the new rule. → Formal: Many participants expressed dissatisfaction with the new policy.
• • Overstated: This proves the method always works. → Better: The findings provide evidence that the method can be effective.

Practice

Quick check

1. 1. Choose the most appropriate sentence for formal academic writing: A. The results are pretty cool and show it worked. B. Basically, the study says more research would be good. C. The findings indicate that further investigation is warranted. D. The study kind of proves the idea.

You should now be able to:

• • identify fragments, run-ons and comma splices
• • punctuate complex sentences correctly
• • select transitions by logical relationship
• • recognise parallel structure
• • choose concise wording
• • resolve ambiguous pronouns
• • correct misplaced/dangling modifiers
• • distinguish formal academic style from conversational English