Characteristic of Formal "Academic Style"

Question 1

I / we

(first-person subject pronoun)

Answer 1

DESIRED AND UNDESIRED (depends)
some new authors reluctant to use I
we is commonly used in co-authored papers

Question 2

contractions

Answer 2

UNDESIRED
not common in most fields

won’t –> will not

Question 3

more formal negatives

Answer 3

DESIRED

Not any –> no
Not much –> little
Not many –> few

Question 4

etc. and so forth, and so on

Answer 4

used sometimes.

are imprecise, reader has to fill in knowledge gap

Question 5

addressing the reader as you

Answer 5

AVOID. UNDESIREABE. (in most fields)

Question 6

indirect questions

Answer 6

DESIREABLE
more common than direct, but direct can be used to draw your reader’s attention to a point

INDIRECT QUESTIONS HAVE A FULLSTOP AT THE END NO QUESTIONMARK.

Question 7

mid-position adverbs

Answer 7

happens often

“She will consider the options CAREFULLY”
–>
“She will CAREFULLY consider the options.”

Question 8

split infinitives

Answer 8

sometimes desired to avoid ambiguity or awkwardness
(to + verb)
- placing an adverbial modifier between to and the infinitive

Tina hopes TO RAPIDLY COMPLETE her physics homework
–>
Tine hopes TO COMPLETE her physics homework RAPIDLY

Question 9

passive & active voice

Answer 9

both active and passive voice is good,

Although grammar checkers may caution against using passive voice, it is commonly used in academic writing

Active: Liz played the piano.
Passive: The piano was played by Liz

Question 9

too many words to make a point

Answer 9

UNDESIREABLE

Question 10

may, appear to, or other language that softens a point

Answer 10

Commonly used, we can never be 100% sure something is actually 100% of the time truly happening