Academic Language

The words you choose to use in your work convey your tone, attitude and purpose. In this case, you are writing for an academic and professional audience and your word choice should match this. This short video will give you a few essential tips that are easy to implement in your own writing to ensure you maintain the appropriate register.

Below Par?

"The other day my essay was returned to me with the comment “not academic enough!”. That was it, no explanation.  But what does this mean and entail?  I thought I had written a clear story.  After visiting the website What is Academic Writing , I finally understood what the teacher meant."

Difficulty finding the right words?!

"In longer pieces of writing, I find it difficult not to continually use the same words over and over, such as ‘however’, ‘therefore’, ‘researchers claim’ and ‘research shows’. I wish there was a list of English phrases that I could have at my disposal while writing. Well, there is! The Academic Phrasebank has everything I am looking for!”

For more helpful tips

• Academic word list
• Concordance