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Writing Formal Academic English

How formal or informal your writing should be varies with the type of writing you are doing. Academic writing requires a degree of formality which differs from the more conversational styles many writers are used to. Being able to write with sufficient formality is necessary for your writing to be successful.

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  Created by the writing tutors at ¹û¶³´«Ã½ library, this Canvas course introduces some of the main characteristics of academic English, including formality, clarity and conciseness. The individual modules also serve as a quick guide.
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  This film gives a quick overview; then focuses on when you should and should not write using the first person (I) or the second person (you) point of view.
  
  
  Luke Bailey, lecturer in English, ¹û¶³´«Ã½

Grammar and punctuation

Poor grammar, as well as poor spelling and punctuation, can create intelligibility issues. Even if errors don’t create comprehension problems, if they seem to dominate your writing, it will be considered unprofessional or sloppy and will not be successful.

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  This OWL guide will help you use correct grammar in your writing. (Purdue University)

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  This OWL guide will help you to clarify when and how to use various marks of punctuation. (Purdue University)

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are the building blocks of academic writing. Even if you have excellent ideas and have thoroughly researched your topic, you need to present them in well-sequenced, focused paragraphs to be a successful academic writer.

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  Advice from University College, Toronto, Canada

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  This short film explains the way a paragraph is organized in academic English.
  
  
  Luke Bailey, lecturer in English, ¹û¶³´«Ã½

Clarity and Cohesion

Clarity and cohesion are crucial for successful writing. Your reader must be able to follow the progression of your ideas clearly and understand how they connect or link to each other (cohesion). You will find discussions of clarity and cohesion in many of the other resource links as well, which is an indication of their importance. The following foreground some specific aspects.

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  This reviews the very common technique of placing old (known or less important) information at the beginning of a sentence and new (more important or unknown information) at the end as a way of making your ideas clear to your reader.

Creating Links between Paragraphs

Paragraphs do not function in isolation. Just as all the sentences within a paragraph fit together to form one unit of thought, your paragraphs should also fit together. The same techniques that you use to create cohesion within a paragraph are often used to create links between them.

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  Gives examples of using both signal phrases and key word repetition to link paragraphs.

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  Gives examples of using old/new information order to create coherence between paragraphs.

Pronoun Reference and Antecedent Agreement

In formal writing, pronouns like he, she, they, and it need to have a clear antecedent. This is very different from informal writing or conversation. Not using pronouns clearly can not only create comprehension problems, but is also unacceptable in formal writing.

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