Seven Words You Can Never Say – in an Academic Paper

I make my living with words.

I decorate my house with words.

Okay, so my wife decorates our house with words.

I love to surround myself with words in my office or study.

I’ve been known to write or speak a few words.  Okay, a lot of words.

Words are fun and useful. Where would we be without them?  Not only do they communicate, but your choice of words reveals a lot about you – sometimes things you may not want someone to see or think.

Because I also work in the world of education, I see literally thousands of words every week.  Sometimes I see words from students that I have to stop and look up in the online dictionary.  For example, not long ago I had a student who loved to use the word “ken.”  For all I knew, she was using a man’s name.  Turns out, “ken” means “know” – and every single time you would have used the word “know,” she used the word “ken.”

Now I ken.  And you ken, too.

Anyway, in all the myriad of word possibilities, I have found seven words you should never use in an academic paper.

Only seven?  Far as I can tell.

All seven?  Definitely.  Use any of these and they say some things about you that you may not want to be said.

Now what’s tricky about these seven is that they’re common, ordinary words that you could use in conversation, blogs or magazine articles, fiction or popular writing, and they’re actually expected and complimented.  Use them on a research paper and someone will express their displeasure.

(Shhhh!  What’s that falling-in-a-hole sound I hear?  It’s your grade, sinking into the abyss, because you used one of the Seven Words You Can Never Say in an Academic Paper.)

Okay here they are… and if you don’t write academic papers (hey… who was that that said “hallelujah!”?), share this with somebody who does.  Or file it away for a couple of years, for when you go back to school.

1.  You/your

I have already used the word “you” 13 times in this little article.  It’s personal. Conversational. Totally fair game for informal writing.  But never – ever – EVER use the words “you,” “your,” “yourself” or any other member of the “second person” family in formal writing.

Count the stars in the sky if you can, and you’ll see how many papers I have read that start with something like, “Have you ever wondered…”

Okay I’m back.  I just went and beat my head against the brick wall of our back porch to relieve some of the frustration.

You are not writing your paper to your grandma, your teacher, or your friends.  Technically you’re writing it to the research community.  And they’ll think you’re less than intelligent if you address them as “you.”

Are there exceptions to this?  Only one – when you’re quoting someone verbatim and they use it.  That’s pretty much true of all these words.

2.  We

Some more traditional styles also forbid the use of any kind of first person, which includes “we” and “I.”  They do this sometimes to the point of absurdity, forcing people to refer to themselves as “the learner” or “the writer” or something. APA papers are the exception that this rule – refer to yourself as “I” all you want.

That, however, is not what I’m referring to.  What I mean is, never refer to yourself as “we.”

Seriously?  Would people do that?

Yep. Happens all the time.  Since I teach for Christian universities, I like to blame the preachers for this because preachers frequently refer to themselves as “we.”  Or when they teach/preach, they may say something like, “Today we’re going to look at some of the most beautiful words ever written – the 23^rd psalm.”

In that setting, they’re correct.  But when a student sends me a paper that refers to one author (namely themselves) as “we,” the penalty flags will start to fly.  WHO is WE?  Unless you’re submitting a group project, never refer to yourself as more than one person.

Exception:  If you are presenting a group project of some sort, you may certainly refer to the group is “we” in an APA paper.  The Chicago/Turabian folks still need to get a life in this regard.

3. Say/Discuss

“As I said before…”

“In this paper I am going to discuss…”

Okay, call me picky.  I’m calling you names, too, and my names are meaner.

This is not as hardcore an error as the previous two, but your paper is a paper, not a talk.  You are presenting, not discussing.  Your paper may explore, examine, analyze, consider, evaluate, report, reflect, or a host of other things.  But it doesn’t “talk,” “say” or “discuss.”  If you are repeating a previous point, it’s ok to write something like, “as I mentioned previously” or “as stated earlier.”  It’s also OK to refer to an author’s work as speaking. (Example:  “Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is greater than any spiritual gift.”)  But try to be as precise as you can with your language. I think it’s better to word it:  “Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is greater than any spiritual gift.”

4.  In… It

This one’s hard to catch.  It’s not a death knell to your paper, but if you can avoid it, I promise you somebody will be impressed with the quality of your work.

Here’s how this one works.  Two examples…

“In Ephesians 1:3 it says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

“In The Great Gatsby it says, ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one… just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”

It makes the point, and can even make for good preaching because it flies by so quickly, but it’s terrible writing.  “IT” doesn’t say anything.  People do.  Or the work does.  Far better to write:

“Ephesians 1:3 says…” or “Paul writes in Ephesians 1:3…”

In Fitzgerald’s opening to The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway says, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

5. Author  

I’ve been seeing this a lot in the last year or two. I blame the media.  If I’m a news reporter and I am introducing someone I have interviewed or researched for a general quote to a general audience, it’s totally appropriate to say, “Author Ken Blanchard…” or “Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager…”

But if you are citing someone in a paper, guess what?  Everybody already knows they’re an author, and it’s silly and redundant and redundant (couldn’t resist) to refer to someone as “Author” anybody.  Just name him or her. Oh, and if it’s an APA paper, they don’t even want to know the author’s first name. There you would simply write something like, “Blanchard and Johnson (1985) refer to three simple management practices anyone can perform.”

6. Article/Book  

Never, ever write in a formal paper, “In an article…” Name the author and move on. For that matter, only in the rarest of occasions (and then only once, please!) should you name the title of a book or article.  Just author and date.

If you want to send your teacher into muttering hysterics, put this in your paper:  “In an article I read in the library…”

Yes.  Yes.  I have seen that.  More than once.

7. Assignment

Want to turn your name into a flashing neon sign that says, “ROOKIE”?  Start your paper with the words, “For this assignment…”

First of all, of course it’s an assignment unless you’re a Ph.D.-type publishing your own research.  And you already know this stuff, so why are you still reading this?

Second and more importantly, anything you write should make sense to some degree to a general audience. And guess what?  Most people don’t know what the assignment is and don’t care. But you may actually be surprised that they may care about the content of your paper.

Again, I know this may be in the “picky” zone.  But I promise if you want to be taken seriously as a student, researcher, or grad-school candidate, you will shoot yourself in the proverbial foot if you use this word.

Well, there they are… the Seven Words You Can Never Say In an Academic Paper.  Just one more thing, as a special added bonus…

Steer clear of contraction action.

Never – yes never – use contractions.

Never?

Never.

Tagged as: Academic Writing, Writing