1. 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

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

3. 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…

4. 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”)

5. 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?

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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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”)