PAE Professional Academic EnglishChapter 19
Polish · Chapter 19

Do's &
don'ts.

The small habits that mark a draft as serious, or unserious. The difference between a reader who keeps reading and one who has decided you aren't careful.

Matthew Clement · Careercomms.comWorkbook pages 83 to 86
PAE Professional Academic EnglishCh 19 · Why this matters

Academic isn't stiffer. It's more precise.

Register isn't grander vocabulary. It's saying exactly what you mean, with nothing conversational getting in the way of the point.

The strongest academic sentence is often the shortest one that still says it.

The reframe

“It was very important” is weaker than “It mattered because…” Cut the qualifier; name the reason.

Part one

What not
to do.

Eight conversational habits that leak into first drafts. None is a crime; together they tell the reader you wrote the way you'd text.

Workbook · Chapter 19Page 84
PAE Professional Academic EnglishCh 19.2 · Eight don'ts

Eight things to cut.

  • No contractions — write do not, not don't
  • No slang — if you must, quote it
  • No invented verbs — check the dictionary
  • No clichés — “at the end of the day” signals a phrase, not a thought
  • No empty qualifiers — very, really, basically
  • No direct questions — make them declarative
  • No transition overuse — vary; don't open with And/So/But
  • No first or second person — name a defined subject
PAE Professional Academic EnglishCh 19.4 · Conversational → academic

Strip the habit, keep the meaning.

ConversationalAcademic
AI's gonna totally change how we study.Generative AI is likely to reshape study practices substantially.
You can clearly see Coupang is winning.The market data indicates Coupang's continued lead.
The government doesn't really care about young people.Policy responses to youth unemployment have so far been limited.
So basically we need to deal with this.These findings indicate a need for intervention.
People say K-pop is just a fad, but they're wrong.The claim that K-pop is a transient trend is not supported by the export data.
Talk about it · 5 minutes

Which conversational habit shows up most in your own writing?

  • →  Contractions, “I think,” or empty qualifiers like very?
  • →  Read a partner one sentence. Can they hear the spoken tic?
  • →  What's the academic version, said in fewer words?
Part two

What to
do.

The flip side: eight habits that make a draft read as careful, and one that matters more than the other seven.

Workbook · Chapter 19Page 85
PAE Professional Academic EnglishCh 19.3 · Eight do's

Eight things to do.

  • Give it a real title — never the word “Essay”
  • Say exactly what you mean — define your terms
  • Numbers — words to nine, numerals from ten
  • Teach something new — one line only you could write
  • Spell out abbreviations on first use
  • Write better than you speak
  • Mind SI units (Chapter 18)
  • Submit clean — PDF, named, spell-checked
“In every mistake there is the potential for growth.”
PAE Professional Academic EnglishPrecision, not stiffness

Cut three words, lose nothing.

The best edit usually removes. Empty qualifiers, hedges you don't need, throat-clearing openers, strip them and the sentence gets stronger, not poorer.

Talk it out
  • Take one sentence from your draft. Can you cut three words and lose nothing?
  • Is the verb the strongest one available, or a limp “is” / “has”?
PAE Professional Academic EnglishIn class · Exercise
EX. 19.1

De-conversationalise

Revise · 10 min

Rewrite each to remove contractions, slang, first/second person, and empty qualifiers, keeping the meaning.

  1. “I think AI is gonna change everything we do at uni.”
  2. “You can really see how Coupang has totally crushed it in Korea.”
  3. “Honestly, the data isn't really that surprising.”
Then a title

Rescue one dull title too: turn “Essay on the K-pop Industry” into something specific enough to preview the argument.

PAE Professional Academic EnglishChapter 19 · Recap

The chapter in one slide.

  • Academic register is precision, not stiffness
  • Cut contractions, slang, clichés, empty qualifiers
  • No direct questions; no first or second person
  • Give it a real title; say exactly what you mean
  • Teach one thing only you could have written
  • The shortest sentence that still says it usually wins
In the workbook

Chapter 19, pages 83 to 86, including the worked do/don't pairs, the ten-row conversational-to-academic table, and Exercises 19.1 to 19.3.

Write better
than you speak.

Chapter 19 · Next, writing in the age of AI