Skip to Main Content

Mini-module: Quick Guide to Critical Writing

The top ten tips for showing critical thinking in your writing. This mini-module is for you if you are being a critical thinker, but you are not sure how to show this in your writing.

Tenth Tip: 
Use academic style and vocabularyPage 12 of 13

Decorative

Academic vocabulary and style are often different from normal everyday English. Why is this? Because at university, we go deep into details, and everything starts to look complicated.

Being precise
Normal, everyday words are often too general or vague for academic purposes. We need to use more technical or more exact words so that we can be as clear as possible. This means we have to choose words carefully. Compare:

  • Informal: "Smith's results are rubbish." [Not precise; not giving a clear reason; too emotional]
  • Academic: "Smith's results are statistically insignificant." [Precise; giving a clear reason; more objective]

Being cautious
It is also a good idea to be cautious or thoughtful before you write so that you avoid saying more than you intended. This is a feature of academic style, often called "hedging". For example:

  • "Nowadays, everyone knows that the world is a sphere." [This is rather too general. Is it really true that everyone knows this? It would be difficult to support this with evidence.]
  • "Nowadays, most adults believe that the world is a sphere." [This is better. You could probably find evidence to support this.]

How does this show critical thinking? 
It shows your reasoning more clearly. In other words, it shows that you are thinking clearly and carefully. It shows that you know that things are complicated and that you understand that it is important to think carefully and express yourself clearly.

 

Quick practice activity for topic sentences

[Click Next to see the next tip, click Previous to go back]