Business paper 1500 words 18 hrs

2) Contractions should not be used, e.g. “do not” instead of “don’t”.

3) Direct questions should not be used, e.g. “what can be done to lower costs?” could be rewritten as “It is necessary to consider how costs may be lowered”.

4) Vague language, such as people, things etc. should be avoided and more precise terms used, e.g. instead of “people are spending less due to the recession” you could use “consumers are spending less due to the recession”.

5) Emotional or extreme language, such as “huge”, “fantastic” etc. should be avoided. “Significant” and “considerable” are acceptable alternatives.

7) Phrasal verbs should be avoided as much as possible (unless there is no formal equivalent).

8) Informal verbs like “get” should be avoided and formal equivalents like “become” and “obtain” should be used.

9) Nominalisation: Noun rather verb phrases can make your writing sound more academic, e.g. “Studies were increasing and the researchers were becoming more and more interested in the field” could be rewritten as “the rapid increase in studies indicated a rise in interest among researchers in the field”.

10) Introductions to essays should include a clear thesis statement or purpose statement. A thesis statement should not be too general and should show a clear stance on the subject. For example: “this essay will argue that there are some advantages and disadvantages to renewable energy” is too vague and unlikely to support a clear position. In some cases, essays may have a statement of purpose rather than a thesis statement. For example, “this essay will examine/ analyse A and evaluate B”.

11) Paragraphs should include topic sentences which identifies the central idea of the paragraph which develops this idea. There should be clear linking within the paragraph and also to the previous paragraph(s).

12) Where it is required to use sources in writing tasks, students should use the same referencing system consistently throughout your work, such as the Harvard referencing system or APA. In GIC we have the GIC referencing guide which needs to be followed.

13) You always need to provide the sources and reference the origins of the information and ideas you present in your essay. However, information considered as common knowledge don’t need to be referenced To identify whether this applies to the information you present you need to apply the “Byres Road Rule”: If you could ask ten random people on Byres Road and they would know the information you present, you may not need to reference it.