Informal and formal words, in Academic Writing
| Informal | Formal |
| Contractions (i.e. it didn’t, won’t) | It did not, will not |
| “Well, you know…”“As you know…” “As it is known to all” | Do not use them |
| In a word | Do not use them |
| carry out | conduct |
| find out | discover |
| look into | investigate |
| Personal pronouns I, You, S/He, We, They, me, my, mine, your, his, him, our etc | Use impersonal verb phrases (It is indicated that), it, there, or one. |
| obviously/always | Do not use them |
| help | Lead to/ assist |
| now/today | Recently/ presently/ in recent years |
| want to | Desire to |
| a lot | Significant number of/ a large number of |
| big | large |
| let | allow |
| more and more | More/ increasing number of |
| Larger and larger | Larger/ increasingly large |
| suitable/ to suit | appropriate |
| To know | To be aware of/ to realize |
| good | Positive – positive effect/ positive aspect |
| bad | Negative, negative factor/effect |
| thing | Item (goods)/ factor/ aspect/ |
| try | Attempt/ make an effort |
| i.e. / e.g. | For example, (sentence) …….. , such as (nouns) |
| so on/ etc. | Do not use them. |
| What’s more | Furthermore |
| Think | Use cautious word (Presumably – I think) |