Successful academic writing requires precise academic English expressed concisely or economically. It uses accurate and exact words and phrases, and avoids wordiness (verbosity), and redundant or unnecessary words.

For further assistance, advice or tutoring/coaching in these skills contact Dr Bill Wrigley.

Use precise words in your descriptions that avoid vague, imprecise or overly general language

Example:

✖ It’s was around about 1923 that he moved house to some other part of the country.

✓ It was in approximately 1923 that he moved to another region of the country.

✖  We mailed about 50 questionnaires to everyone.
✓ The questionnaire was mailed to each of the 50 participants in the study.

Avoid wordy sentences that contain unnecessary words

(such as the sentence in the title above – “contain unnecessary words”  = wordy).

Example:

✖ The inventors came up with a better method for solving the puzzle that got rid of the need for going back over the ideas they came up with before.

✓ The inventors discovered a better method that eliminated the need to review their previous ideas.

Avoid using redundant words that show unnecessary repetition

The table below lists some of the most common redundant words and their correct use:

Redundant*	Correct
They were both alike	They were alike
six different groups	six groups
It has been previously found	It has been found
a total of 68 participants	68 participants
The reason is because	The reason is that
very close to significance	non significant

^*Parts of this table were adapted from American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th ed.). Washington. DC: Author.

Avoid using redundant categories

The table below lists some of the most common redundant words used to express categories and the correct use:

Redundant categories*	Correct
at an early time	earlier
brown in colour	brown
economics field	economics
extreme in degree	extreme
heavy in weight	heavy
honest in character	honest
in a confused state	confused
large in size	large
modern in design	modern
of an uncertain condition	uncertain
of cheap quality	cheap
often times	often
round in shape	round
small in size	small
unusual in nature	unusual

^*Parts of this table were adapted from American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th ed.). Washington. DC: Author.

Avoid using redundant pairs

The table below lists some of the most commonly used redundant pairs and their correct use:

Redundant pairs*	Correct
basic fundamentals	fundamentals
both of these	both
combine together	combine
consensus of opinion	consensus
continue to remain	remain
completely unanimous	unanimous
each individual	individual
each and every	each
end result	result
established fact	fact
final outcome	outcome, result
free gift	gift
future plans / prospects	plans /prospects
important essentials	essentials
in close proximity to	in proximity to
one and / exactly the same	the same
past history	history
past experience	experience
past memories	memories
period of / in time	time
random chance	chance
reason why	reason
rough estimate	estimate
separate out	separate
sudden crisis	crisis
sufficient enough	sufficient
sum total	total
terrible tragedy	tragedy
true facts	facts
unexpected surprise	surprise
various differences	differences
whether or not	whether

^*Parts of this table were adapted from American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th ed.). Washington. DC: Author.

Avoid using verbose language – unnecessary words

The table below lists some of the most commonly used unnecessary words and their correct use:

Verbose	Concise
at the present time; at the moment	presently, currently, now
a great number of times	often
a lot of	many, several
along the lines of	similar to
a majority of	most
a number of	some
are /were able to	can / could
as a matter of fact	(delete)
as the case may be	(delete)
based on the fact that	because
basically,	(delete)
being used	incorporated in
being used more and more	being increasingly used
by and large	mostly, (or delete)
by means of	by
decreased number of	fewer
despite the fact that / in spite of the fact that	although
due to /in view of the fact that	because
during the course of	during
extra yields	benefits
for all intents and purposes	(delete)
for the purpose of	for
has been shown to be	is
has / had the ability to	can /could
in order to	to
in other words	thus / hence / therefore
in the event that	if
is /was able to	can / could
it is interesting to note that	eliminate
it is possible that	may
it may seem reasonable to suppose that	eliminate
last but not least	finally, in conclusion
longer time period	longer
modern day	contemporary
on a daily basis	daily
on account of the fact that	because
plays an important role	is important (because)
through the use of	through
with the exception of	except for