Academic Writing – Formal Language

The following list of words and expressions would (and should) not be found in an MA thesis.
Explain why, and with what they should be replaced.

they’re
I’m
e.g.
etc.
have got
a lot/lots of
you
nice
thing
Well,...
Now,...
OK
Then,...
However,...
Also,…
So,…
I think...
What are the advantages of this scheme?
find out
look into
help out
set up
go up
get rid of
bring up
come up with
do over
good / pretty good
sort of
We didn’t have many problems.
The researchers didn’t have much money.
The analysis didn’t yield any new results.

CK / Academic Writing / MA Thesis Seminar I / Department of Design / School of Art and Design
Formal English http://einstein.sc.mahidol.ac.th/~scmal/acadwrit_howto/Formal_English.html

The English that you should use when writing a paper or thesis should be formal (like a legal
document) but also clear (unlike a legal document). There are certain things that can be done
in spoken English or in written English in newspapers, magazines, or lecture notes (or web
pages like this) which are not appropriate for formal writing.

• Don't start a sentence with `And', `Also', `But', `So', `Or', `Even so'. Instead use `In
addition', `However', `Hence', `Consequently', `Alternatively', `Nevertheless'.

• Don't start a sentence with `Therefore'. Instead write, for example, `We therefore...'.

• Don't start a sentence with `Then' or `Now' unless it is a command.

• Don't use `don't', or any other shortened negative such as `isn't', `hasn't', `wasn't', etc.
Use `does not', `is not', etc. instead.

• Generally try to avoid `'s'. E.g. Instead of `the wavefront's curvature' use either `the
curvature of the wavefront' or `the wavefront curvature'. There are exceptions to this.
There are some cases where they are always used such as Laws e.g. `Bedford's Law', or
where the alternative seems clumsy e.g. `today's stock market prices' is better than `the
stock market prices of today'.

• Don't use `!' or `&' or `/'. It is also very unusual to see `?' in a paper. Don't put questions
in a paper unless you really know what you are doing.

• Don't use e.g. or i.e. or etc.

• When referring to the number of countable objects, use words rather than figures when the
amount is less than twenty. E.g. Don't write ”we used 3 methods'' - instead write “we used
three methods''.

• Don't use `OK'. Use `acceptably', `permissible', `satisfactory', etc instead.

• Don't use `got'. Instead use `obtained'.

• If you can, try to use the passive voice for some of the time when describing your results.
Using `we' in every sentence is a bit boring.

• List things properly using `and' between the last two items. E.g. Don't do `we used three
methods A, B, C.' Instead you should write either `we used three methods: A, B, and C.' or
`we used three methods, namely, A, B, and C.'

• Use small letters for disciplines or theorems, e.g. mean-value theorem, `Unlike quantum
mechanics and relativity, nonlinear science covers systems of every scale' and not `Unlike
Quantum Mechanics...'.

• Don’t form paragraphs that contain just one sentence.

More on formal English

Export figures won’t improve until the economy is stronger.

è Export figures will not improve until the economy is stronger.

The analysis didn’t yield any new results.

è The analysis yielded no new results.

The government didn’t allocate much funding for the programme.

è The government allocated little funding for the programme.

This problem doesn’t have many viable solutions.

è This problem has few viable solutions.

Many urban areas do not have enough land to build new public schools.
è Many urban areas have insufficient land to build new public schools.

These semiconductors can be used in robots, CD players, etc.

è These semiconductors can be used in robots, CD players and other electronic devices.

You can see the results in Table 1.

è The results can be seen in Table 1.

What can be done to lower costs?

è We now need to consider how costs may be lowered.

Then the solution can be discarded.

è The solution can then be discarded.

Thus, the interview phase was concluded.

è The interview phase was thus concluded.

The government has made good progress in solving environmental problems.

è The government has made considerable progress in solving environmental problems.

The results of a lot of different projects have been pretty good.

è The results of numerous different projects have been encouraging.

A loss of jobs is one of the things that will happen if the process is automated.
è A loss of jobs is one of the consequences if the process is automated.

Expert systems can help out the user in the diagnosis of problems.
è Expert systems can assist the user in the diagnosis of problems.

In the past five years many studies have looked at the effect of different grassland
management practices.
è In the past five years many studies have investigated the effect of different grassland
management practices.

The researchers first interviewed 9 people.

è The researchers first interviewed nine people.

Swales, John M. & Feak, Christine B. (1994) Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
FORMAL AND IMPERSONAL LANGUAGE

In order to put some distance between what you’re writing and yourself as writer, to be
cautious rather than assertive, you should:

• avoid overuse of first person pronouns (I, we, my, our)

• use impersonal subjects instead (It is believed that ..., it can be argued that ...)
• use passive verbs to avoid stating the ‘doer’ (Tests have been conducted)
• use verbs (often with it as subject) such as imagine, suggest, claim, suppose
• use ‘attitudinal signals’ such as apparently, arguably, ideally, strangely, unexpectedly.
These words allow you to hint at your attitude to something without using personal
language.
• use verbs such as would, could, may, might which ‘soften’ what you’re saying
• use qualifying adverbs such as some, several, a minority of, a few, many to avoid making
overgeneralisations.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Replace the phrasal verbs in the sentences with a more appropriate verb from the list below.
Don't forget to keep the same tense.

fluctuate investigate eliminate raise reduce propose intervene establish

1 Researchers have been looking into the problem for 15 years.

2 This issue was brought up during the seminar.

3 It is assumed that the management knows what is happening and will therefore step in if
there is a problem.

4 Schools cannot altogether get rid of the problem of truancy.

5 The number of staff has been cut down recently.

6 It was very difficult to find out exactly what happened.

7 House prices have a tendency to go up and down.

8 A potential solution was put forward two years ago.

Exercise 2
Replace the following phrasal verbs with a more formal single word.

1 The locals could not put up with the visitors from the city.

2 The decline was brought about by cheap imports.

3 The university is thinking about installing CCTV.

4 Sales are likely to drop off in the third quarter.

5 He went on speaking for over an hour.

6 The meeting was put off until December.

7 The cinema was pulled down ten years ago.

8 People have cut down on their consumption of beef.

Exercise 3
Use a more formal word or phrase to replace those in bold.

1 The reaction of the officials was sort of negative.

2 The economic outlook is nice.

3 Car manufacturers are planning a get together to discuss their strategy.

4 The resulting competition between countries is good.

5 The economy is affected by things that happen outside the country.

6 She was given the sack because of her poor record.

7 The examination results were super.

Exercise 4
Replace the contractions in the following sentences with full forms where necessary.

1 The results weren't very encouraging.

2 We'll have to conduct another experiment.

3 She's been all around the world.

4 It's the best solution to the problem.

5 Our questionnaire shows that teachers aren't paid what they're worth.

6 His response was, "A job's a job; if it doesn't pay enough, it's a lousy job'.

7 He'd rather announce the findings at the conference.

8 The department's approach didn't succeed.

Exercise 5
Suggest improvements to the following sentences to avoid use of “you” and “we”.

1. You can apply the same theory of learning to small children.

2. You can only do this after the initial preparation has been conducted.
3. The figures are accurate to within 1%, but you should note that local variations may apply.

4. In the second section of the report, we will consider the environmental consequences.

Exercise 6
Suggest alternatives to the following to avoid use of personal language.

1 In this essay I will discuss the main differences between the English and Scottish legal
systems.

2 I have divided my report into five sections.

3 I will conclude by proposing that all drugs should be legalized.

4 The opinion of the present author in this essay is that the importance of the monarchy should
be reduced.

5 In the third part of the essay, we will look at the reasons for public hysteria over the SARS
virus

6 Although I am not an expert in the field, I have tried very hard to understand the main ideas.

Exercise 7
Make these statements more cautious so they do not appear as overgeneralisations.

1 Today everyone uses credit cards for all their shopping.

2 Drinking wine is bad for you.

3 Global warming will have disastrous consequences for the whole world.

4 Teleworking leads to isolation.

5 Women are worse drivers than men.

Exercise 8
Rewrite the following in a more formal style.

1. The positive feedback made up for the problems we came across during the trials.

2. You can clearly see the differences between these two learning processes.

3. The subjects didn't have much difficulty with the task.

4. We found example after example of autonomous systems in lots of countries.

Academic Writing Style, UCE Birmingham

http://www.ssdd.uce.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.20.htm