Avoid these common mistakes in English academic writing

We regularly see the same mistakes recurring in theses written in English. What goes wrong when writing in English for an academic thesis? We identify the most common mistakes for you, so you can avoid making them yourself.

In academic English, as in academic Dutch, you will come across many linking words. A common characteristic of English linking words placed at the beginning of a sentence is that they are usually followed by a comma. This is still often forgotten, so pay close attention to it. See these two example sentences, in which a comma after the first signal word is grammatically necessary:

However, this research was not conducted in the right way.

First, all participants answered five questions about their demographic characteristics. 

Note that some conjunctions cannot be used as the first word of a sentence in English, and work only when placed after a comma. This applies, for example, to 'and', 'but' or 'because'.

In e-mails and when using informal language in English, you often see contractions of person formsh. Think 'I wasn't' or 'it isn't'. This is informal language. In academic English, you have to write out these kinds of contractions. So in these examples, you get 'I was not' and 'it is not'. We regularly see this go wrong in when people write their theses.

In academic English, you do not address the reader directly as 'you'. Instead, write impersonally. You do this, for example, by using 'one' when talking about 'you' in the sense of the Dutch 'men'. 

See this example sentence: 

If one registers for the seminar, one may discover that...

Incidentally, overuse of the word 'one' does not read pleasantly. Therefore, it makes sense to redirect this type of sentence as much as possible to another sentence structure. For example, the sentence above can also be phrased as follows:

When registering for the seminar, visitors may discover that...

Unlike Dutch, in the English language you don't put a full stop at thousands, but a comma. For example, it is not '20.000', but '20,000'. 

Are you mentioning a monetaryamount? If so, the cents in the amount do get indicated by a full stop, whereas in Dutch we use a comma for that. For example, in English 'The price is €20,000.00' is correct, while in Dutch we would say '€20.000,00'.

In addition, some words are too colloquial to use in an English thesis. For this reason, avoid the following words, for example:

• 'like' (rather use 'for example' or something similar);

• 'things' (make this more concrete);

• 'a lot' (link a concrete number to it);

• 'nice', 'good', etc. (Stay objective in your descriptions, unless you cite other people's opinions);

• 'I' or 'we' (try to write impersonally, except in your preface, afterword, or reflection);

One last tip: make sure you are consistent in using American English or British English. Don't use the two interchangeably. Read our article on American vs British English to find out which variant of English you should use in your thesis. 

No matter how well you proofread your thesis, sometimes you become blind to your own mistakes. That is why the editors of AthenaCheck are here. They can help you too! They are experienced thesis reviewers and native English speakers. Let them remove the errors from your thesis and check it for proper academic use of English and sound structure. Then, you can hand in your thesis with even more confidence than you had before.