On Academic Tone

“Killer waves!” says Roxy.

“Gotcha,” says the dude.

Most of us have heard that we should write the way we talk, but the way we talk is often not what we need for college writing because we’re filling in blanks and using phrases or slang easily understood by our friends. Academic writing requires a different way of speaking, and there are conventions used for college essays that are not typical of everyday speech (or writing emails, letters, notes, diaries, or Tweets.)

The following ideas may help to transmogrify a paper from casual to college level.

1. Remove contractions – use do not instead of don’t, for example.

2. Replace slang with other words that have the same meaning.

3. Use third person pronouns (he, she, they, them, it, etc.) instead of second person pronouns (you, your, yourself).

4. Omit unnecessary words, filler: Well, as I was saying about extra words, it might be good to delete them. 

5. Triple check all punctuation. You may also need to review other grammar rules, which is worth the time it takes.

Translating from a casual style to a college level style may be simpler than it initially seems.

“The waves are suitable for surfing,” Roxy observed.

“I understand,” replied her friend.