8 Ways to make your IELTS essay more academic or formal

Your IELTS essay must have an academic feel to it. That means it must be written using the right sort of language. How do you accomplish that? There are several ways to make your writing academic or more formal. Here are some important tips.

Points to avoid in academic writing

Most English words are neutral. That means they can be used in both formal and informal situations. However, some words are mainly used in informal situations. An example is the word OK. In order to make your language more academic or formal, you must avoid using a lot of informal words and expressions.

Avoid contracted auxiliary verbs and negatives. These are very common in informal speech and writing, but are considered inappropriate in academic writing.

Non-academic: I don’t think that I’m working hard.
Academic: I do not think that I am working hard.

Determiners like each, every, either and neither are singular. They should be followed by singular verbs. Of course, in an informal style, you can put plural verbs after them, but if you do that in your IELTS essay, the examiner will not be too happy with you.

Non-academic: Neither of us like him.
Academic: Neither of us likes him.

English is highly idiomatic, but idiomatic expressions are not always considered appropriate in academic writing. Of course, it is not easy to avoid all of them and it is not necessary either. You can use some idioms, but you must avoid the more ‘colourful’ ones like ‘raining cats and dogs’, ‘hit the nail on the head’ or ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’. Some idioms, on the other hand, are perfectly acceptable in all kinds of writing.

Starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’ is sometimes considered inappropriate. A few decades ago it was considered totally unacceptable. Even today you can find several grammar books that advise against starting sentences with these conjunctions. However, the truth is that more and more academic writers now begin sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’. You must, however, make a conscious effort to avoid them just to be on the safe side.

You cannot avoid all of them in your writing. It is not necessary either. Just make sure that you do not use a large number of phrasal verbs in your essay.

Academic writing tends to be impersonal. That means you have to limit the use of personal pronouns. However, sometimes you may want to show that something is your personal opinion. In that case, it is perfectly all right to use I or my.

Passives without ‘agents’ are common in academic and scientific writing. By using passive structures we will be able to limit the use of personal pronouns. Passive structures are also preferred when we want to talk about an action, but are not interested in saying who or what did / does it.

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