General Rules of Academic Writing
“The most common DRP mistakes”
Grammar
Do not use expletives in your DRP. Expletive examples include: "there is," "there are," "there was," "there were," "it is," or "it was." These phrases mean nothing. Unless "there" or "it" is a place or a thing, your sentence must be rewritten to eliminate all such phrases. Additionally, never start a sentence with an expletive.
Numbers higher than 9 are expressed in numerals; i.e.: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13,……..
Using the second-person pronoun "you" is inappropriate in academic writing, except within a direct quote.
When using percentages, numbers 10 and above, attach the % sign to the number. I.E. 10% - 20% - 30%
Do not use the phrase and/or as these words are considered "legalese" and inappropriate in academic writing; remove the slash and write it out
No contractions (e.g., isn’t for is not) in academic writing
People with names are never "that" they are "who.”
Avoid beginning sentences with "also." Use however, additionally or another alternative. Please omit any other “also” from your document.
Do not use the word “but” in academic writing for this word is inelegant. Use however, therefore, or another word choice.
Words such as “actually" and “really” are non-contributory (non academic) words. The word actually literally means nothing more than "in point of fact." It must be deleted with no change in meaning or must be changed with a meaningful word. Really" is a non academic word whose literal word meaning "not imaginary." Use "truly" or another more descriptive word.
Eliminate clichés and colloquial (informal or slang) expressions for more effective academic writing. (See page 37 in the APA Publication Manual.)
Sentence / Paragraph Structure
Paragraph structure - Paragraphs in academic writing have a minimum of three and a...