Formal writing is essential to academic essays, a thesis, or a dissertation. Several issues may dent quality of your writing. This article covers some of the critical ones. What follows are what you should not do in academic writing. Avoiding these issues will make your thesis writing enjoyable and utterly rewarding.

7 issues to avoid in academic writing

1. Informal writing

Academic writing is substantially different from everyday English. Hence, it demands standard English spelling, punctuation, and grammar, simultaneously shunning informal English. The following points are relevant.

• Contractionsare not allowed in academic writing. Thus, words should be spelled entirely (e.g., “aren’t” and “can’t” should be penned as “are not” and “cannot”).

• An overly personal or chatty tone may dent your writing more than what you consider (e.g., overusing the first and second personin academic writing is problematic, and exclamation points should be avoided).

• Informal wordsdo not belong to technical language (e.g., instead of “did an experiment,” say “conducted an experiment” or “performed an experiment”). On top of that, slang or colloquial English should not be included (e.g., you would say “police,” not “cops”).

2. Inappropriate fonts and styles

Research papers should be direct and precise. Playing with fonts to make them more attractive should be the last thing to do. Remember, they are the ideas that should be given priority in your writing, not their beautification. Therefore, check your publication guide before deciding on the font type. Typically, Arial or Times New Roman in 12 points is what is preferred.

3. Changing the verb tenses

The time of an event can be in the past, present, or future, and it is the tense of a verb that determines it. Be it formal or informal writing, changing the verb tense randomly would dent your writing. However, most academicians are hard-working people. Therefore, when they pen their writing in overtime hours, they are prone to make tense mistakes and change them frequently. Here is where proofreaders are direly needed. They will ensure that you do not jump between the tenses.

4. Using personal language

Focusing on research, analysis, and communication in your scientific writing would be best. Therefore, you should be careful about using personal language in formal writing. However, for clarity purposes, you may need to use “I” or “We” in your writing. Nonetheless, writing objectively is critical, and avoiding “you” is recommended. APA 7 may be a practical guide in that regard.

5. Exceeding the word count

Word limits urge you to write concisely and eliminate any redundant information from your study. Thus, the word limit means higher accuracy and guarantees that your readers can avoid confronting unnecessarily lengthy paragraphs and excessive information. Word count is most critical when you write an abstract.

5. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the most important of all. Please remember that you must cite your sources. Suppose that you have failed to do so. In that case, you may face solemn allegations of plagiarism. To prevent plagiarism, cite every resource you have used, mark all the “quoted texts,” and list your sources in a reference list.

6. Redundant phrases

Redundant phrases are the number one enemy in thesis and dissertation writing. Moreover, using phrasal verbs inflates your writing. The rule of thumb is to be concise. Why should you need “due to the fact that” when you can simply use “because”? Another critical issue is the excessive use of unnecessary modifiers. Rest assured, “essential” will do the job as well as “most important.”

7. Biased language

Using bias-free language is recommended and encouraged. Gendered terms, stereotypes, and generalizations are critical issues to consider. You can use “humanity” instead of “mankind.” This usage prevents gendered term use. As suggested by the authors in APA 7, the gender-neutral term “they” should replace “he or she” in your academic writing. Even though “dehumanizing language” has not been accentuated, it can be a critical issue. “People with autism” sounds much better than “autistics.”

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This article explains 7 critical issues that may affect the quality of thesis and dissertation writing. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.