The high priests of education promote formalism because it seems more impressive and more authoritative. Students, however, live in their own world of distinctively informal language, and teenagers ...

Far too many students find schoolwork to be boring. There are multiple reasons, but a main one is that academic instruction is typically framed in "plain-vanilla," academic language and style. In the ...

Inter alia, the Media Observer had this to say in last week’s issue: “And now for the ban bin. This week, we are proposing a ban on the word ‘grilling’ unless we are referring to grilled chicken. Last ...

Biologists in particular are writing their papers in a less formal style. We are not supposed to use first-person pronouns, and contractions aren’t allowed. These rules also discourage unattended ...

Writing assignments at the university level often require an academic voice. There are certain aspects of academic voice that are more formal than every day, conversational speech. Typically, academic ...

If you walk into one of the smaller dining rooms in Thorne Hall at dinner time, there’s a good chance you’ll hear a language other than English being spoken. If you walk into one of the smaller dining ...