Thursday Thoughts: Thinking about Word Choice

Your 15-page essay may seem like a single, gigantic document, but in reality it’s a lot of sections, which are made up of a lot of paragraphs, which are constructed from a lot of sentences, which are collections of a lot of words. Word choice the smallest building block of your writing, and in academic forms there are a few things to consider.

Academic writers have to consider how to use professional language while keeping it accessible and without relying on jargon. They have to choose words and phrases that are specific and accurate, while being sure not to misrepresent any ideas or present an inappropriate tone. Balancing all of these things at once can be difficult, but here on the blog we have shared some tips for addressing word choice concerns and helping you build your academic vocabulary:

• Commonly misused words

• Catch your reader’s ear: A five part blog series on scholarly tone and voice   

• Revision by subtraction: Creating clear ideas by considering word choice

• The art of imprecise word choice: Using pronouns for clarity and concision

• For the good of all humanity, imperatives must be abolished!

The Walden Writing Center provides writing resources and support for all student writers including paper reviews, a podcast, live chat, webinars, modules, and of course a blog.

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