What to do & what not to do in Academic writing in English Survey of Literature ESL What to do & what not to do in Academic writing in English

What to do Indent every paragraph in an essay (leave an inch or two to signal the beginning of a paragraph)

What not to do Well, I think… (well , as a filler, is used only in conversation) “I think” – unnecessary – we know that you think because you are writing, speaking, breathing…

Don’t use: Slang (my crib, my ride, that’s so ghetto, you treated my life) Informal words: stuff, thing, thingy, kinda, sorta, kind of, sort of, OK, okay Really, actually, pretty good (say “very good,” “rather good,” “fairly good”)

Avoid the following: “In my country, we respect our religion.” What country? Name it? Who is we? Iranians, Iraqi, Mexicans, Ecuadorians… What’s “our religion?” Does it have a name? Islam? (not Moslem/Muslim)Christianity?

Common Spelling Errors writting  WRITING more better  BETTER Thanks God  THANK GOD englis, english, spanish English, Spanish

Common Grammatical Errors “I’m more advanced at English then at Spanish.”  THAN (comparison) “My English is well.” GOOD (with the verb “to be,” use ”good”) “I read and write good.” WELL (adverb)

Prepositions I read and write well IN English (not “at”) I am good AT reading and writing(not “in”) SO: To be good AT something BUT: 2) To read IN English, to write IN Arabic

Stay away from the following words in formal writing: Good, bad, happy , sad Stuff, thing, thingy Everything, everyone, everybody, anyone, anything People (unless NATION) You Awesome, cool, wonderful, great, amazing, great, nice Basically, actually, really A little bit, a bit (just use “a little”)