Academic essays should be written in a formal, academic style. This style includes: 1.

Employing tentative rather than assertive language. Do this by: using possibly and probably in front of verbs and noun phrases; e.g. 'This is possibly caused by...' or 'This is probably the most important factor.' using the modal verbs may and might; e.g. 'This may be the most important factor.' using appears to and seems to; e.g. 'This appears to be the most important factor.' avoiding always and every, and replacing them with often and many/much . !sing formal vocabulary e.g. discuss rather than talk about. "ne way to do this is by replacing phrasal verbs with more formal ones. #. !se more formal grammar, for e$ample: !se 'There' as a sub%ect; e.g. 'There is a serious ris& of...' !se ''t' as a sub%ect; e.g. ''t is very difficult to...' !se '"ne' as a sub%ect; e.g. '"ne may as& whether...' ('"ne' is a formal version of ')ou' *plural+ in general, !se the passive voice; e.g. '-any things can be done in order to...' .. /voiding the use of personal pronouns such as you and we to address the reader 0. /voiding short, disconnected sentences 1. /voiding the use of rhetorical 2uestions such as 3Did you know that spoken and written languages are very different?4 5. /voiding the use of contractions such as wont, didnt, well 6. /voiding the overuse and misuse of certain logical connectors, especially besides, furthermore and moreover. Besides is too informal, and both furthermore and moreover mean that the following information is more important than the information before, which is usually bad organisation. !se In addition or Also instead 9. Ensuring that grammar is accurate, that ideas lin& together smoothly and that a full range of grammatical structures is employed, such as relative clauses 17. 8eferencing correctly, in both in9te$t references and bibliographical references.