Effective Strategies for Academic Writing: Vocabulary and Grammar Tips

VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR FOR ACADEMIC WRITING

How to ensure a formal written work is --- effective, grammatically correct and free from mistakes: Appropriate vocabulary has to be used Avoid colloquial, slang terms, non standard diction and conversational style Variety of sentences have to be used length, word order and types of different types Wordy/redundant sentences to be avoided Parallelism can be used Tenses to be used with care Use strong verbs

VOCABULARY Academic word list to be referred Informal words/expressions to be avoided Discourse markers to link ideas and signal transition Writing- less wordy

Academic word list Averil Coxhead (Victoria Univ) first to compile such a list. Her list has 570 words Some of the frequently used words are- Analysis, assessment, benefit, consistent, create, data, derived, environment, function, indicate, involved, legal, method, response, section, significant, theory .. Other AWL- West s General Service List, Oxford 3000

Words and phrases to be avoided: Contracted forms-can t, doesn t Phrasal verbs- go on, put off, find out Intensifiers, emphasis words- a bit, a lot of, totally, really Informal transition- so, but, also, plus 1st/2ndperson point of view- I, me, us, we, you, your Run on expressions-etc, so on, so forth Unsophisticated/too simple expressions- bad, good, nice , cheap Absolute quantities all, every Superlatives- best, worst, most, always Informal expressions (used in letters) hi, cheers, yours truly Common abbreviations- ASAP, OK, TV, net, cell Slang terms- dude, cool, chap, lad Cliched expressions- last but not the least, time will tell, opposites attract

Subjective expressions- beautiful, ugly, wonderful, horrible, awesome Vague/impolite expresions- thing, stuff, sort of, more or less Ethnic slurs/racist expressions- nigger, Paki, ABCD, coloured, Madrassi Discriminatory words ( handicapped, crippled, autistic, imbecile, retard Words that are not gender specific- mankind, actress, female pilot, waitress, layman Approximations- nearly, almost, about, around, Texting language- asap, b4, btw Non standard language ain t, theirselves, hisself,

Filler words/ empty phrases just so, really, the fact that, at all times Redundant phrases-absolutely essential, each and every, advance warning, assemble together, completely destroy, future plans Excessive use of qualifiers appears, seems, indicates, might have been, probably, possibly, unlikely Absolutes- will, is, are, was, were, never Expressions showing personal judgement- I agree, I am convinced, I am sure that

Avoid Contacted forms full words Don t, won t, shouldn t do not, will not, Personal pronouns as in In this essay, I have argued . In this essay it is argued From the evidence, we can perceive some visible changes ..From the evidence, some visible changes can be noted Informal verbs/phrasal verbs ..formal verbs Bad, good, go on ..inferior, acceptable, Use instead

Colloquial expressions Formal words Sooner or later . inevitably part and parcel of intrinsic Run on expressions use conjunctions etc. .. And Redundant expressions remove unnecessary part .absolutely essential (essential), actual facts( facts), Vague expressions use clearer words Thing, stuff ..

Superlative expressions tone down phraseology perfect, best, worst, most (ideal, unfavourable, practically, consistently) Subjective expressions ..use alternatives Of course, obviously, beautiful (perceptibly, vividly, reasonable) Gendered expressions ..gender inclusive expressions( fireman, chairman ..firefighter, chairperson) Personal usage( I think, I believe .as shown in the table, it is evident from the text)

Use formal discourse markers instead of informal ones ( page 80, 81) Types of sentences (clause structure) Independent( main) and dependent(subordinate) Main clause can stand alone but subordinate clause cannot( page 83) Avoid use of fragments (84) Subject-verb agreement(85,86) Consistent use of tenses(87) Parallelism(88) Avoiding wordiness(89,90,91)