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Write Issues Formality Confused Words

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5 views

Write Issues Formality Confused Words

Uploaded by

Karolina Kosturkiewicz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Formality/Informality

Here are some words/usages that are usually too informal for essays and other academic writing tasks. Think of
another way to phrase the examples.

a lot of/loads of/plenty of This museum has a lot of Renaissance paintings.


awful, terrible She lives in an awful neighbourhood.
etc. (especially as an abbreviation) Walbrzych has many attractions, such as the castle, mining museum, etc.
(Before revising this sentence, note that it is also illogical.)
fine (used as a predicate adjective, The baby’s doing fine.
except to refer to the weather) (Okay): It is fine outside.
great (meaning “good”, “impressive”) His lasagna is really great.
guess, reckon, suppose I reckon that marijuana is safe. I suppose that it’s harmless.
(meaning “think”) (This suggests that you have no basis for the claim.)
kind of/sort of The audience was kind of old. Charles II was sort of like his father.
mighty, really, pretty (adverb) The pollution figures are really high. The economy is pretty advanced.
okay or OK It is okay to leave the camp without asking permission.
plus She has her Spanish exam tomorrow, plus she’s trying to pass her driving test.
pros and cons/pluses and minuses One pro is that ice hockey is healthy… A con is that the sport is very
expensive.
quote Another quote by Chomsky emphasizes this.
Stuff, thing Besides high inflation, another thing bothering voters is immigration.
They’re tired of the stuff going on at the border.
you If you were a soldier at that time, you had to live on hardtack.
Words Frequently Confused

accident, incident Three cars were damaged in an accident on the A-4.


Police were called after an incident at a bar on San St. A fight had broken
out.
adapt, adopt She left her home town, and adapted to life in Wrocław very quickly.
The company adopted a production plan.
affect, effect The virus has affected every aspect of our lives. Its effect has been huge.
(Rare and formal: The parties worked to effect a compromise.)
complementary, complimentary They have complementary roles: she looks after the garden, and he cooks.
In his report, her supervisor was very complimentary (praised her work).
differ from; differ with Scotland differs from England, in that most of its citizens are pro-EU.
Most Scots differ with the English about the European Union.
uninterested; disinterested Don't talk to us about politics; we're just uninterested!
We need a disinterested judge, without anything to gain or lose herself, to decide.
farther; further She lives farther/further away from work than she used to: a longer commute.
We'll need to meet tomorrow to take this discussion further.
imply; infer She implied that she would be changing her job, but did not say it directly.
We inferred from her remark that she would be changing her job.
lose; loose The tyre is too loose! If it comes off, you'll lose it.
among; between Between you and me, I don't think the plan will work.
There was goodwill among everyone working in the office.
amount of; number of Bob ran into a number of problems. He had a fair amount of difficulty.
principle; principal In principle, the principal wouldn't interfere with her teacher's methods.
respectively; respectfully She told her boss, respectfully, that she felt the plan was wrong.
Poland’s largest cities are Warsaw and Kraków: three million and one million people, respectively.
Make the following passages more suitable for academic writing, such as an essay.

Things are also lousy in the States. There’s still a lot of hangups about terrorism, so once you get into the airport, the
immigration guys may really bug you with tons of questions. The President has promised to make big changes to the
system, but don’t hold your breath.

They say that if you hear a lot of language around you, you get “input” and that this pretty much accounts for the
language that’s really “acquired”. Stephen Krashen says that no matter how much you learn from textbooks,
teachers etc. it can’t take the place of this “comprehensible input”. He even says that formal learning does nothing
for true, honest-to-goodness acquisition.

When you’re little, you pick up plenty of words without thinking about them. Around five, you’ve got more of what
language is about: the sound system, the syntax, etc. Once you get to be twelve, it’s really hard to learn another
language. I suppose that it all depends on your aptitude. Hopefully, you can learn a language irregardless.

After the Reform Bill (1832), lots more folks had the vote, plus you didn’t have any more “rotten boroughs”. The
House of Lords went along with the bill only because they were totally scared by street mobs. They reckoned that,
hopefully, they would quit protesting, irregardless of their lousy economic situation: high prices, no jobs etc.

Vocabulary: Decide on the best word for each of the following.

This poem makes many __________________________ to the political situation in the poet’s country.
___ allusions ___ illusions ___ occlusions ___ elusions ___ obtrusions

By saying “Maybe not tonight,” she ___________________ that she really wasn’t interested in going.
___ inferred ___ intuited ___ impressed ___ implied ___ intoned

The football fans were generally well behaved; there were few _________________ of violence.
___ incidents ___ happenings ___ accidents ___ events

It was some time before she _______________________ to university life. It was different from what she had
known.
___ accepted ___ adapted ___ adopted ___ acceded

It is said that television negatively _______________________ the minds of young children.


___ infects ___ affects ___ effects ___ refects ___ defects

Mr. and Mrs. Smith are very different, but his serious demeanour and her energy ___________________ each other.
___ complement ___ compliment ___ implement ___ implement

She ________________ __________ her husband about many issues, but they do agree on how to raise their kids.
___ distinguishes from ___ distinguishes with ___ differs from ___ differs with

He hasn’t studied for the exam because he is ____________________; he finds the subject dull.
___ disinterested ___ disinteresting ___ uninterested ___ uninteresting

Instead of just presenting the material to her pupils, she asked questions and __________________ a response.
___ illicited ___ allicited ___ felicited ___ elicited

You’ll need to do more research if you want to take your investigation


___ further ___ farther ___ thusly ___ thoroughly

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