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Unit 6 Formality filter

Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit you should:

  • understand the importance of maintaining formality
  • know the three subcategories of formality errors
  • have practised using the formality filter
  • be ready to use the formality filter on your draft papers
Rubik

Activity 1

Read.

The formality filter is arguably the easiest filter to use. Academic, research and business writing uses a formal register. The belief is that formal writing is trustworthy. This is also why newscasters use formal language to read the news. Readers of research articles written using informal language and slang may not trust the content of the research. This view may be biased. However, the convention is not going to change soon, and so you are advised to write in a formal manner. When you check your draft using the accuracy filter, there are five error types to look out for. Each of the error types are listed below.

  1. Apostrophes
  2. Abbreviations
  3. Slang
  4. Informal terms
  5. Rhetorical questions

Activity 2 Apostrophes

Read.

  • Corpus example: To be more precise, XXX doesn’t directly cause the effect (E).

The first type of formality error involves apostrophes. There are two cases when the usage of apostrophes is rather informal. First, when they are used to mark the omission of letters within a word. Second, when apostrophes are used in conjunction with the letter s to indicate possession. Revisions are straightforward in both cases. Rather than using contractions, the full form should be used and so doesn’t should be written as does not. When apostrophes are used to show possession, the noun phrases can usually be reversed and the conjunction of inserted between. For example, the experiment’s rate becomes the rate of the experiment. Another apostrophe problem that affects users of scripts that use different character sets is the type of apostrophe. In the Japanese character set, the apostrophe is close to the western apostrophe, but differs in shape (i.e. ` cf. ’ ).

More corpus examples of inappropriate use

  1. ...audio activity is 6%. It's about five times as large...
  2. ...takes a time because it's bulky.

Suggested revisions

In each case apostrophes are removed.

  1. ...audio activity is 6%, which is about five times as large...
  2. ...takes a time because of its bulk.

Activity 3 Abbreviations

Read.

  • Corpus example: This is the RQ of this paper.

The introduction section of many research articles introduces the research question, hypothesis, purpose, aims and/or objective. Students and teachers of research methodology may refer to research questions as RQ, but this abbreviation is neither standard nor common. If the author introduces the abbreviation in brackets after the full form, then the abbreviation can be used later in the research paper. However, unknown or undefined abbreviations should be avoided. Research articles are written from experts in a particular field who share some basic background domain knowledge. This basic knowledge may involve the use of abbreviations. These abbreviations may be acceptable, but it is necessary to check the specific disciplinary discourse as there is significant variation. If there is no advice or precedents to the contrary, the safest option is to avoid using unknown or undefined abbreviations. It should be noted that there is no need to put abbreviations after terms that will not be referred to again later in the research article.

Activity 4 Slang

Read.

  • Corpus example: A bunch of IT engineers collaborated and launched…

Slang describes the type of language used only in specific social circles. These social circles may be related a range of demographic factors, such as age and social status. Slang may creep into scientific writing either through lack of awareness of the linguistic register or poor proofreading. Non-native English speakers who acquire language in Anglophone settings by focussing on improving their spoken communication skills, such as the author of the corpus example; may not realize the inappropriacy of their lexical choices, which in this case is the noun bunch. Slang and colloquial language was found by Hanauer et al. (2019) in official medical records. Examples of slang found included hell of a lot, waist deep in and boat loads. Slang errors are easily revised by substituting a neutral or formal term for the offending word. A suggested revision of the corpus example is given below.

A team of IT engineers collaborated and launched...

Activity 5 Informal terms

Read.

  • Corpus example: They launched the website right after the earthquake...

Informal terms differ from slang in that their usage is more widespread and not limited to particular social groups. A common example would be using the word yeah instead of yes. In the corpus example, the informal adverb right is used to mean immediately. Informal terms invariably can be replaced with more formal equivalent terms in the same way as slang errors are resolved. The resolution of the corpus example is given in a. To avoid any potential referential ambiguity with the plural pronoun they, passive voice could be used to rewrite the sentence as in b.

  1. They launched the website immediately after the earthquake…...
  2. The website was launched immediately after the earthquake...

More corpus examples of inappropriate use

  1. ...system error becomes more and more big...
  2. ...mounting lots of actuators is problematic.
  3. ...we found it a bit difficult to find out...

Suggested revisions

In each case the informal expressions are replaced.

  1. ...system error becomes increasingly larger...
  2. ...mounting many actuators is problematic.
  3. ...we found it a little difficult to discover...

Activity 6 Rhetorical questions

Read.

  • Corpus example: The key question to ask is: how can we XXX ?

Rhetorical questions are taught in many high school English classes as a way of interacting with readers. Magazine articles and blogs frequently make use of such devices. Rhetorical questions, however, are less common in scientific research articles, although they are used in editorials. Novice writers would be advised to avoid such techniques, but this is not to say that they are never used. Well established professors do make use of rhetorical questions to lead readers through arguments by encouraging readers to participate in thought experiments and consider options. Rhetorical questions are not commonly used as hooks to attract interest. Rather than posing a question, the author should state the answer to the question. Thus, the corpus example could be reworded as:

XXX can be achieved by XXXX.

Review

Make sure that you check your writing for the following types of errors:

  1. apostrophes
  2. abbreviations
  3. slang
  4. informal terms
  5. rhetorical questions