The following is a list of solutions to problems I have encountered repeatedly in my students’ formal writing, such as coursework, research papers, and literature surveys.

It is a long list. People have a lot of problems.

Some of the items sound picky or trivial, even to me. Yet bad grammar, bad style, and poor organization will make it very difficult for you to convey your ideas clearly and professionally, and will limit your academic and professional success. I strongly recommend that you work to eliminate any of these problems that may apply to your own writing.

— Dr. James A. Bednar

General guidelines

Rules for formal writing are quite strict, though often unstated. Formal writing is used in academic and scientific settings whenever you want to convey your ideas to a wide audience, with many possible backgrounds and assumptions. Unlike casual conversation or emails to friends, formal writing needs to be clear, unambiguous, literal, and well structured.

Formal writing is not just dictated conversation

In general, it is inappropriate simply to write as you would speak. In conversation, the listener can ask for clarification or elaboration easily, and thus the speaker can use imprecise language, ramble from topic to topic freely, and so on. Formal writing must instead stand on its own, conveying the author’s thesis clearly through words alone. As a result, formal writing requires substantial effort to construct meaningful sentences, paragraphs, and arguments relevant to a well-defined thesis. The best formal writing will be difficult to write but very easy to read. The author’s time and effort spent on writing will be repaid with the time and effort saved by the (many) readers.

Make your thesis obvious throughout
Read more...