Use idiomatic language

Ways to make your writing more academic

This lesson looks at 10 different ways to make your writing academic or more formal. I talk you through some of the more important dos and don’ts to help you write essays that use the right sort of language. You will also find a sample essay on transporting food to download and write yourself in an exercise to help you use this language.

Academic/formal and IELTS

How important is it to be academic in IELTS? Well. You need to write an essay and the convention is that essays use “academic” language. So your goal should be to reasonably formal/academic. That said, conventions vary around the world and there is nothing specifically in the marking criteria about formality of language. What you really need to do is make sure you avoid being too informal/non-academic.

In practice, this means you need to follow most of the guidelines below, but you shouldn’t become obsessive about it. These are guidelines and not rules.

Test yourself first

This quiz gives you 10 sentences. 5 of them are more academic and 5 are less academic. Your job is simple – decide which is which. The goal is to get 10 out of 10.

Points to avoid in academic writing

This is a short form guide to some of the “don’ts” in academic writing.

Short forms of verbs

We don’t use short forms of verbs (don’t/can’t etc) when we write more academically. So this example doesn’t work:

I don’t think it’s very important for small kids to learn English.

Imprecise language

When we write academically, we tend to use more precise language. So these examples don’t work:

I don’t think it’s very important for small kids to learn English.

This is the best thing to do.

Use idiomatic language

This is not a rule – there are sometimes when you will find idiomatic language in academic writing. However, there are idioms and idioms and idioms. The more “colourful” the idiom, the less likely you are to use it in academic writing. So, this idiom is inappropriate:

If we do that, then we might throw the baby out with the bathwater.

while this idiom is much weaker and acceptable

On balance, this would seem to be the most appropriate course of action.

4. Start sentences with “and” and “but”

A difficult one. If you read almost any language course book, you are almost certain to find sentences that begin with “and” and “but” in the reading texts. Language changes and it is becoming more and more acceptable to do this. However, in academic writing for second language speakers, this should be avoided. So this is unacceptable for most teachers: and people like me who were educated at ‘ENGLISH GRAMMAR’ schools.

But the most important thing is that the government find outs what the real needs are.

And needs to be transformed into:

The immediate priority, however, is for the government to conduct a needs analysis.

5. Phrasal verbs (2/3 word verbs)

Phrasal verbs (a species of idiom) are an important part of the language, but we tend to avoid them where we can in academic writing and choose a different verb. So

But the most important thing is that the government find outs what the real needs are.

needs to be transformed into

The immediate priority, however, is for the government to conduct a needs analysis.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13