At the C1 level, mastering formal and academic style is essential for professional and educational success. This involves specific grammatical choices, vocabulary selection, and a focus on objectivity and precision.
1. Key Principles of Academic Style
- Objectivity: Avoid using first-person pronouns (I, me, my) and emotional language. Use the passive voice or impersonal structures.
- Informal: I think the results are good.
- Academic: It is argued that the results are significant.
- Precision: Use specific verbs instead of phrasal verbs or general ones like get, do, make.
- Informal: Prices went up.
- Academic: Prices increased significantly.
- Nominalization: Turning verbs into nouns to sound more objective and dense (see our dedicated lesson).
- Hedging: Using cautious language (suggest, might, appear) to avoid over-generalization.
2. Avoiding Informal Features
In formal writing, you should generally avoid:
- Contractions: Write do not instead of don’t.
- Direct Questions: Use indirect questions or statements.
- Phrasal Verbs: Use their single-word equivalents (postpone instead of put off).
- Vague words: Avoid things, stuff, nice, big. Use elements, material, excellent, substantial.
3. Formal Linking Words
Use advanced connectors to structure your logic:
- Addition: Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally.
- Contradiction: Conversely, Nevertheless, On the contrary.
- Result: Consequently, Therefore, Accordingly.
À toi de jouer ! ✍️
Rewrite or choose the more formal/academic version of these sentences.
À toi de jouer ! ✍️
#1 Vague word: 'There are a lot of problems.' -> Academic: 'There are challenges.'
#2 Phrasal verb: 'They put off the meeting.' -> Formal: 'The meeting was .'
#3 Contraction: 'The data don't show much.' -> Formal: 'The data provide significant evidence.'
#4 Subjectivity: 'I believe this is true.' -> Academic: ' that this is accurate.'
#5 Phrasal verb: 'Scientists found out the truth.' -> Academic: 'Researchers the truth.'
#6 Connector: 'But the results were bad.' -> Formal: ' , the results were inconclusive.'
#7 Vague word: 'This thing is important.' -> Academic: 'This is crucial.'
#8 Hedging: 'This is the cause.' -> Cautious: 'This to be the primary cause.'
#9 Connector: 'So the project failed.' -> Formal: ' , the project was unsuccessful.'
#10 Precision: 'Prices went up a lot.' -> Academic: 'Prices .'