Formal Writing

LLD 100W: Writing Exercise #1--Formal Style Student Name:

Academic writers need to be certain that their communications are written in the appropriate style. The style of a particular piece must not only be consistent, but must also be proper for the message being conveyed and for the audience. A formal paper written in informal English may be considered too simplistic, even if the actual ideas and data are complex. A distinctive feature of academic writing style is choosing the more formal alternative when selecting a verb, noun, or other part of speech.

I. Verbs

English often has two (or more) choices to express an action or occurrence. The choice is between a phrasal or prepositional verb (verb + preposition: pick out , cut out ) and a single verb, the latter with Latin origins ( select, eliminate) . Often in lectures and other instances of spoken English, the verb + preposition is used; however, for written academic style, the preferred choice is a single verb wherever possible.

Reduce the informality of each sentence by substituting a single verb for the one in italics. The first one is done for you:

1. Researchers looked at the way stress builds up during periods of crises.

[examined] [accumulates]

2. Standardized testing cannot help out teachers in the diagnosis of learning problems.

3. This program was set up to improve access to higher education.

4. Research expenditures have gone up considerably.

5. The use of alternative forms of assessment should cut down the number of students who risk failure.

6. Researchers have found out that this method is the best.

7. Constant correction and feedback will not get rid of learner errors.

8. Researchers have been looking into this problem for 15 years now.

9. This issue was brought up during the investigation.

10. The College Board can come up with an improved SAT exam.

11. The test scores have been going up and down

II. Nouns and Other Parts of Speech

Replace the italicized word/phrase with one more suitable for an academic paper:

1. The school system has made good progress in mainstreaming children with special needs.

2. They got encouraging results.

3. The results of a lot of different projects have been pretty good .

4. A loss of self-esteem is one of the things that will happen if the child cannot use his or her mother tongue.

5. The reaction of the parents was sort of negative.

6. The academic outlook is mighty nice .

7. The future of bilingual education is up in the air .

8. I dealt with kids of all ages in my first job.

9. This was not real easy.

10. Soon, I had to figure out what major to pick in college.

11. Teaching young children is fun but also extremely hard.

12. Many researchers hit right on when they claimed that bilingual education works .

13. The conclusion drawn by the authors wasn’t totally unexpected.

14. When you think about it, earning a teaching credential in one year is challenging.

15. Unlike other writing classes, LLD 100W has no mid-terms . Plus , it also has few in-class writing assignments.

16. I know for a fact that teachers have a difficult time when students are disorderly in class.

17. I will graduate and be out of here in another couple of years.

III. Read the following paragraphs and rewrite them, using a more formal style. You may need to substitute words, replace contractions, and change sentence structures. Please do this assignment on a separate sheet of paper and staple this page to your rewritten version.

Parents Need to be Graded, Too

When it comes to schools, the “A” word looms large these days: accountability. We harp on teachers. We nag our kids. We throw out superintendents and grouse at principals over the latest test scores. Now for a little reality check. In one of the most awesome education ideas since the No. 2 pencil, the Chicago public schools this fall will start like a kind of a new report card. This one’s for parents. For every kid who has sweated out report-card day, there now will be a matching set of parents in Chicago with like the same angst. And why not? It’s pretty cool nowadays to finger the schools, but parents play a huge role in whether their kids are going to ace school or blow it.

Go ahead and ask teachers about their evolving job description, and you’ll get an earful. They’ll tell you about making calls like “wake-up calls” to households. About tutoring kids on teeth brushing and saying their “pleases” and “thank-you’s.” In Chicago, the one-way blame game is over. The idea is to give schools an extra bit of a tool for talking to parents outside of the parent-teacher conferences. If this parent report card deal works out it might be really fantastic for both parents and kids. The National Parent Teacher Association has a wait-and-see mind-set toward the program. Grading parents on their way of parenting is tricky because it goes into that ticklish place where public welfare and private lives crisscross. What is helpful to parents—and what is sort of like butting in? What is honest feedback—and what is awful criticism? Assuming that school districts draw up checklists that make sense—without being stupid or heavy handed—then maybe a few parents’ feathers need to get ruffled. In today’s “accountability” craze, it’s time everybody sweats.