Formal Academic Writing: Dressing Up Your Essays, Lecture notes of Voice

Download Formal Academic Writing: Dressing Up Your Essays and more Lecture notes Voice in PDF only on Docsity! Formal Academic Voice Essays you write in college are considered formal documents. Just like you would not wear the same shorts and t-shirt you might wear at home to go to a formal event, you should not be using the same casual conversational language you use when talking with or texting your friends when writing a formal academic paper. Formal academic writing assignments require you to write in a formal academic voice. Here are three things you can do to dress up your writing! 1. Spell out your words rather than using abbreviations or contractions Abbreviate is a fancy word for shorten. Therefore, abbreviations are shortened words. When talking, most people shorten words using abbreviations to save time. In formal writing, you want to spell out the words being abbreviated so that your reader knows exactly what you are saying. There are several different ways that a word can be abbreviated or shortened: • Contractions: These are the most common type of abbreviation. Contractions are a way to combine two words into one by using an apostrophe to stand in for letters left out in the combination. Here are some examples of common contractions and how to spell them out: can’t = cannot don’t = do not won’t = will not aren’t = are not isn’t = is not doesn't = does not hasn’t = has not haven’t = have not wouldn’t = would not didn’t = did not couldn’t = could not should’ve = should have that’s = that is what’s = what is there’s = there is they’re = they are he’s = he is she’s = she is they’ll = they will she’ll = she will let’s = let us • Initialisms and Acronyms: These both use the first letters of a group of words to create a shortened form of those words. The difference between an initialism and an acronym is that when we read an initialism, we read out every letter individually (e.g., FBI), but when we read an acronym, we read the letters as a new word (e.g., NASA). Here are some examples: Initialisms Acronyms ⸰ USA = United States of America ⸰ YOLO = you only live once ⸰ FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation ⸰ LGBTQ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning ⸰ BAE = before anyone else ⸰ NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration ⸰ CEO = Chief Executive Officer ⸰ URL = Uniform Resource Locator ⸰ AIDS = acquired immune deficiency syndrome ⸰ GIF = graphics interchange format ⸰ TV = Television ⸰ MADD = Mothers Against Drunk Driving You can use widely recognized acronyms or initialisms in your paper, but you must spell out the full name of the acronym or initialism the first time you use it in the paper and then include the acronym either in the same sentence or in parentheses right after the spelled-out words like this: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launches rockets in Cape Canaveral. • Shortenings: Shortenings are abbreviations where parts of the original word being shortened are left out. Some of these words are now treated as words on their own, and others are still read as a shortened form of the original word. These words should always be fully spelled out in your paper. Here are some common shortening examples: ad = advertisement app = application Oct. = October etc. = et cetera flu = influenza fan = fanatic Mon. = Monday vs. = versus photo = photograph phone = telephone in. = inch Ave. = avenue 2. Stay in objective third person rather than using first and second person pronouns Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns in your sentence so that you do not have to keep saying the same noun over and over. If you want to use pronouns in an academic essay, they should almost always be in third person. Third person pronouns help your writing to sound more objective and formal because it takes you and your reader out of your writing while focusing on the topics and people actually involved in what you are writing about. The chart below lists the different personal pronouns: Singular Plural First Person I, me, my, mine we, us, our, ours Second Person you, your, yours you, your, yours Third Person he, she, it, him, her, his, her, hers, its they, them, their, theirs There are problems associated with using first and second person pronouns in your writing: • First Person Pronouns: I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours These words are considered informal because they can make the author seem biased or not as objective as they would like to be. Often it is unnecessary to use first-person “I” unless you are including a personal anecdote, and if you decide to do that, you should check with your instructor to make sure they will allow it. The more common examples are using the plural forms of first person to discuss all people, called the editorial “we,” but it is often better to remove these uses of first person as they can be vague and confusing for the reader. Here are some ways to remove unnecessary first person from your writing: Informal: We learn best when we are allowed to learn from our mistakes. Formal: Students learn best when they are allowed to learn from their mistakes. Informal: In this paper, I will explore the following topics. Formal: This paper will explore the following topics. Informal: Let’s (let us) discuss alternatives to improve performance. Formal: Staff can discuss alternatives to improve performance. You should also avoid saying things like “I believe” or “I think” because as the author, everything that is not cited in the paper is assumed to be something you think or believe. Most of the time, the best way to get rid of these phrases is to just remove them from your sentence: Informal: I think the author’s arguments are clear and logical. Formal: The author’s arguments are clear and logical. Informal: In my opinion, Jane should have taken a more proactive approach. Formal: Jane should have taken a more proactive approach.