12 Common Errors in Academic English – and how to fix them!

Hi. I'm Rebecca. And in today's lesson, I'll explain twelve common errors that students

make in academic English. Now, what's academic English? It's the English that you need to

use in school, college, or university when you're reading, writing, listening, and speaking

-- okay -- ideally, but most importantly, when you're writing. Now, what's the difference

between academic English and general English? Well, academic English in general -- there

are many differences, but in general, academic English is more formal; it's more objective,

and also, it has to use a lot of referencing. You always have to let people know where you

got your information from. You have to cite the source. You have to give the source. You

can't claim to write something and claim it as your own. Okay? If you do that, that's

called "plagiarism". It's a very serious offense in academic circles. But today, we're not

going to talk about how to reference a source. We're going to talk about the two other aspects:

How to write more formally and objectively, and what are the ten common errors that students

make when they are not formal enough. Okay? So not ten, twelve. Here we go.

So first of all, using contractions. All of these are what you should not do, okay? So

avoid using contractions. Sorry. In this case, don't use contractions at all. So don't say

"don't"; say "do not". Don't say "isn't"; say "is not". All right? That's academic English.

Next, avoid phrasal verbs. So for example, instead of saying "go up" -- "Prices went

up. -- say, "Prices increased." Instead of saying "take away", say "removed". Avoid these

multi-part verbs. All right? It's not as formal.

Next, avoid idioms. Instead of saying, "It was A1", say, "It was excellent." All right?

Avoid slang. Don't say "kids"; say "children". Use the proper terminology for various subjects.

Avoid pronouns. So for example, instead of saying, "You can see from the graph..." -- all

right. We use the pronoun "you". Instead of that, say, "The graph shows..." all right?

Next, avoid negatives. For example, instead of saying, "Something is not effective", just

say, "It is ineffective." Instead of saying something is "not positive", say, "It's negative."

So avoid these kinds of negatives.

Next, avoid clichés. Now, what are "clichés"? "Clichés" are a kind of idiom, basically

-- commonly used expressions. All right? And so on. Kind of a common wisdom about different

things. And so you want to avoid these kinds of expressions. For example, instead of saying,

"When all is said and done" -- all right? We use that in conversation, but you don't

want to use it in your academic writing. Instead of saying that, you'd probably use an expression

like "in conclusion". All right?

So next, there are certain kinds of punctuation -- there are actually lots of rules about

punctuation. And the kind of punctuation, the style of punctuation that you use in academic

writing depends on the style guide that you have been asked to follow in your school,

college, or university. Some very well-known style guides are the MLA or APA. These are

certain style guides, and they tell you everything about how you need to write, what rules you

need to follow, what are the rules of punctuation and of quotations marks, of this and that.

Okay? A lot more than what I'm covering here. But in general, I can just tell you that we

don't see that many exclamation marks in academic writing, okay? We do see a lot of semicolons.

All right? That's kind of -- when do we use a semicolon? Do you remember? Okay. What's

the difference between a period and a semicolon? A period clearly divides two sentences. And

a semicolon has one sentence which is a complete sentence; then you put the semicolon. You

do not capitalize the next letter, and the next sentence is connected, and you want to

show that it's connected to the first sentence, which is a very academic, intellectual, philosophical

thing to do. So learn to use semicolons if you're in university especially.

Next, avoid vague language. Don't say "a bit", "a lot", "kind of", "sort of". The days for

using that kind of language are over. The days are over once you've reached university,

right? So instead of that, say "a considerable number", "a considerable amount". Okay? That's

why sometimes they say that you can tell when someone has been to university because they

use higher-level language, which doesn't mean that you cannot use higher-level language

if you have not been to university. You can still learn to use excellent language.

Next, simple vocabulary. Don't use simple vocabulary. You want to use slightly more

sophisticated vocabulary. Instead of saying "a big difference", say "a major distinction".

Okay? Now, this is academic.

Next, avoid giving your personal opinion. Okay? In academic circles, they are not so

keen on knowing your opinion. Don't say "I think", "I believe", "in my view". Instead

of that, say "according to so-and-so", "according to this research study" and you mention the

particular research study. You have to always give credit to the source. Where did you get

your information? Who wrote that book? What happened? Okay? You have various styles and

ways in which you can mention that information, but you must always give credit to the source.

And don't really give your opinion, unless it specifically asked for it in a particular

assignment. Okay?

And last, don't use language which is too direct or too strong because then, maybe it

cannot be justified. So you can't make very broad claims about anything. You have to be

able to justify anything that you write especially. So in other words, in academic English, your

goal is to speak like your professor and write like your textbook. And if you can do that,

then you're probably going to do very well in the academic world and also out there in

your career. Okay?

If you'd like to do a quiz on this, please go to our website, www.engvid.com.

Thanks for watching. Good luck with your English.