British and American academic English differ in predictable ways, including -our/-or, -re/-er, -ise/-ize, -yse/-yze, doubled consonants and noun-verb pairs.
Discover the ideas, history and language behind this featured subject.
Read the featured articleReplace vague claims about helping with verbs that show the contribution: assist, support, enable, facilitate, guide, advise, mentor, coordinate or resolve.
Choose reporting verbs that match the strength of the evidence. Distinguish what a source argues from what data suggests, supports, demonstrates or establishes.
Clinical and psychological terms often broaden when they enter everyday conversation. That can improve awareness, but it can also flatten important distinctions.
Persuasion is shaped by framing, certainty, pronouns, specificity and verbs. Small linguistic choices can make a claim sound transparent, evasive, collaborative or coercive.
Why careful researchers hedge claims, how words such as may, suggests and likely differ, and how to sound appropriately cautious without becoming vague.
Academic English is not simply ordinary English made longer. Its vocabulary developed to show evidence, limits, relationships, definitions and degrees of certainty with unusual precision.
Professional disagreement should be clear, evidence-led and proportionate. Learn language for clarifying, qualifying, countering, challenging and rejecting an idea without attacking the person.
Important is useful but vague. Choose a more precise alternative by deciding whether you mean necessary, influential, urgent, relevant, prominent or likely to have serious consequences.
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