Exercise 2. Match the following colloquial expressions with their formal equivalents:

Colloquial Expression	Formal Alternative
a stumbling block	definitely
above board	intrinsic to
beyond a shadow of doubt	investigated alternatives
easier said than done	legitimate
explored every avenue	more difficult in practice
get through it	point of contention
got out of hand	reached an acceptable compromise
in recent years	recently
part and parcel	support through words but not through actions
pay lip service to	survive, penetrate
reached a happy medium	was no longer under control

Exercise 3. Edit the following text fragments according to the academic writing style:

1. If you fail the exam, you can’t enter the university.

2. The subjects didn’t have much difficulty with the task.

3. You can clearly see the difference between these two processes.

4. Nurses must take into consideration patients' dietary needs resulting from allergies, medication, medical conditions, and so on.

5. Public transport includes vehicles for public use on the roads, airways, waterways, etc.

6. These special tax laws have been enacted in six states: Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, etc.

7. A small bit of ammonium dichromate is added to the gelatin solution gradually.

8. OK, what are the causes of deformation? Many possibilities exist.

9. Industrial sites cause vast amounts of environmental pollution, so why do we still use them?

10. What is a team? A team can be one person but will usually end up including many more.

2. Levels of Formality

Academic writing is formal in style. It is not, however, possible to neatly divide English styles into 'formal' and 'informal' compartments. The relationship is more like a continuum with two extremes, as in this diagram:

For convenience, the continuum of formality can be cut up into various compartments in order to grade various texts and styles:

very informal

quite informal

neutral

quite formal

very formal

A large number of factors such as grammar, vocabulary, style, and punctuation contribute towards the 'tone' of a piece of writing.

Formality and informality are complex matters, but for general purposes the following scale of examples may be useful:

'This thing doesn't work right,' he told us.	very informal
He told us the thing didn't work right.
He told us that the machine wasn't/was not working or functioning properly.
We were informed that the machine was not functioning properly.
According to information received, the machine was defective.	very formal