Scholarly Voice:

Using Academic Diction

The following guidelines clarify what types of words to avoid in academic writing, including in discussion board posts.

A colloquial word or phrase is one that is better suited for a familiar, face-to-face conversation than for scholarly documents. Many times, this is a common word or phrase that is being used in a nontraditional, informal way.

• Example: Debra could see that her student was fixing to disrupt the class.
• Example: Mart-Co would eventually dump Well-Health Management for another insurance provider.
• Better: Debra could see that the student was planning on disrupting the class.

Like a colloquialism, slang is better suited for a face-to-face conversation. The difference between slang and a colloquialism is that the latter could still be used in a more formal instance (Example: “The garbage was dumped in the harbor.”) Slang, on the hand, has no original meaning outside of its slang usage.

• Example: As expected, the company released a series of sympvertizements. [Someone outside of the advertising world might not realize that this term is a combination of "sympathy" and "advertisements."]
• Example: The nurses were concerned that the patient would be a bounceback. [Someone outside of the medical field may not know that this term is loosely defined as a patient who continually returns to a hospital to receive additional and perhaps unnecessary medical attention.]
• Better: The nurses were concerned that the patient would return in a few days.

Jargon confuses or muddles a word or expression, perhaps intentionally, with the purpose of swaying its reader towards a particular reading of the presented information.

• Example: McDonald’s eventually decided to right-size their employee-to-restaurant ratio. [The author seems to be downplaying the negative aspects of the situation. McDonald’s did not "lay off employees" (a negative); it "right-sized its employee-to-restaurant ratio."]
• Example: In 1998, Bill Symons made elective, body mass reallocation surgery a reality for those living in Alapaha, Georgia. [The author seems to be massaging the meaning of the sentence: Bill Symons did not make "cosmetic surgery" (a term with a stigma attached to it) available; he made "elective, body mass reallocation surgery" available.]
• Better: McDonald’s decided to lay off three employees at each restaurant location.

An inappropriate adjective or adverb would be one that holds little or no quantifiable meaning.

• Example: The teachers were very pleased with the results. [To what quantifiable degree is very modifying pleased?]
• Example: The students were really engaged in the activity. [To what quantifiable degree is really engaged more than engaged?]
• Better: The students enthusiastically participated in the activity by clapping their hands and stomping their feet at the appropriate times. [This sentence more precisely defines the students’ engagement.]

• Example: I believe that Washington (1993) misinterpreted the findings.
• Example: I feel that Proposition 8 is unjust. [A critical reader wants to know how you know something to be true, not why you believe or feel a particular way.]
• Better: Washington (1993), however, misinterpreted the findings. [This sentence would then be followed by supporting evidence.]

Difficult words force your reader to have a dictionary nearby.

Remember: Your reader should have to do as little work as possible to understand your writing.

• Example: Lynn (2003) blatantly defenestrated the survey results. [Clearer: Lynn (2003) dismissed the survey results.]
• Example: The students formicated around the teacher. [Clearer: The students gathered around the teacher.]

You will find that some words or phrases hold little meaning when you consider the potentially diverse backgrounds of your reading audience.

• Example: The daycare was affordable. [By whose standards? How are we defining affordable?]
• Better: The daycare charged $560 a month.
• Example: It took the Soviet Union a long time to recover from World War 2. [By what standards? What constitutes “a long time”?]
• Better: It took the Soviet Union over 20 years to recover from World War 2.

Metaphors are never precise; the strength of an academic document, meanwhile, is determined by its precision.

• Example: The purpose of Bill 774 was to use Medicare and Medicaid as economic soup strainers. [No matter what, Medicare and Medicaid cannot function exactly like soup strainers.]
• Example: Like George Washington, President Reagan could not tell a lie. [No matter what, Reagan cannot be exactly like Washington in his inability to tell a lie.]
• Better: President Reagan never lied.

A cliché is a phrase so often used that it has lost all meaning.

• Example: The employees at Mart-Co were hung out to dry. [What does this mean? Were they not paid? Were they fired? Were they left without health insurance?]
• Better: Mart-Co rescinded its employees’ health insurance.
• Example: A cutting-edge company like Mart-Co is always one step ahead of the competition. [What does it mean to be “cutting edge”? How specifically is someone or something “one step ahead”?]

Platitudes are clichés that also pretend to offer advice, lesson, or moral guidance.

• Example: Firming and Associates had proven that the early bird always gets the worm.
• Example: Toy-Max knew that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade!
• Better: Toy-Max was able to recycle the defective yo-yos and reuse them as wheels for their Charles the Truck line.

A pejorative is a word or phrase that expresses the bias of the author.

• Example: Herman and Dean (2003) surveyed 500 junkies in Southern California.
• Example: Scientology and other pseudoreligions are becoming more popular.
• Better: Herman and Dean (2003) surveyed 500 individuals suffering from heroin addiction in Southern California.