Understanding register is the first real step in academic writing
Fatima handed in her first university essay feeling confident. Her tutor handed it back with one note scrawled at the top: too informal. She had no idea what that meant.
The gap between everyday English and academic English
Most beginners write academic essays the same way they write messages to friends. Short sentences. Contractions like don't and can't. Phrases like a lot of or stuff like that. These feel natural because they are natural — in conversation. Academic writing operates by a different set of expectations, and nobody tells you that clearly enough at the start.
Three patterns that signal casual writing
- Using contractions instead of full forms: write
do notinstead ofdon't - Starting sentences with
AndorBut— save these for spoken explanation - Vague quantifiers like
manyora lotwithout any supporting data
The fix is not about memorising fancy vocabulary. It is about understanding that academic writing signals careful, measured thinking. When you write this suggests instead of this shows, or however instead of but, you are not being pretentious — you are meeting a genre expectation.
One practical habit that helps
After drafting a paragraph, read it aloud and ask: would I say this in a seminar presentation? If it sounds like a text message, revise it. Fatima started doing this after her second essay. Her tutor noticed the change by the third one. Small adjustments in register make a bigger difference than adding longer words.