Style Recommendations

Don't overuse complicated words and phrases, but avoid slang and abbreviations. In general, try to write short, simple sentences, occasionally diluting them with longer ones. The goal is to state the essence clearly and distinctly, so that the reader can easily follow the course of brillassignment review and not be distracted by extraneous reasoning (also about styles in English, read our article).

Style when writing an essay

Recommendations for formatting

Needless to say, there should be no grammatical and spelling mistakes in the essay - make every effort to do so. In addition, you need to remember that you are not writing for yourself, but for another person, so punctuation, division into sentences and paragraphs, overall structure - all this should help the reader.

Avoid elements of colloquialism:

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  don't use abbreviations (don't, they're, it's), always use the full form;

  
  


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  avoid slang and colloquialisms (kid, a lot of/ots of, cool);

  
  


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  write substantively and stay on topic;

  
  


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  try to avoid phrasal verbs (get off, get away with, put in - read more about phrasal verbs in our article), use single word synonyms;

  
  


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  avoid too general words (all, any, every), be specific and precise;

  
  


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  do not abuse parentheses, exclamation marks.

  
  

Stick to an academic style:

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  avoid first-person personal pronouns (I, my, we, our) whenever possible;

  
  


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  avoid overly categorical judgments and generalizations;

  
  


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  back up what you say with quotations and citations of sources;

  
  


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  in English, gender equality is important: if you are talking about an abstract person, use person instead of man. If possible, put the subject in the plural and use the pronoun they instead of he or she;

  
  


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  use the active voice if possible, don't make sentences too complicated. For example, instead of "Crime was increasing rapidly and the police were becoming concerned," write "The rapid increase in crime was causing concern among the police. 

  
  

Learn more about the active and passive voice in English.

Strive to give the text objectivity:

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  Use impersonal constructions: It is believed that... It cannot be argued that... ("Undoubtedly, ...");

  
  


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  use the passive voice if you do not want to identify the doer of the action: Tests have been conducted ("Tests have been conducted...");

  
  


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  use noncategorical verbs, e.g., suggest, suppose, state an opinion, claim, suppose, believe, assume;

  
  


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  To show your attitude, but to avoid personal judgments, you can use adverbs: apparently, arguably, ideally, strangely, unexpectedly;

  
  


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  use modal verbs would, could, could, might to soften categoricality;

  
  


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  Use the modal verbs would, could, may, and may to soften categoricality; to avoid generalizations, use qualifying adverbs: some, several, a minority of, a few, many.

  
  

Related Resources:

How is an essay different from an essay?

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY IN ENGLISH

How to overcome the «fear of a blank page» when writing an essay

Preparing to write an essay in English