ACADEMIC ENGLISH

FORMAL AND INFORMAL REGISTER

Find more formal equivalents for the words in italics.

1. These changes are the result of later additions to the text.

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2. I will do without their services.

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3. Writing a book means doing lots of work.

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4. Any further discussion is unneeded.

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5. Pollution is a big problem.

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6. We resented the restrictions a lot.

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7. A lot of methods have been adopted to solve the crisis.

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8. They are always critical.

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9. The book is too long.

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10. That seems to be the right conclusion to draw.

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11. The situation is very dangerous.

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12. The players know all the rules.

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13. We must take into account many things.

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14. American power is becoming smaller.

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15. The conflict has become worse.

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Change the sentences completely to make them more formal.

1. Whenever I'd visited there before, I'd ended up feeling that it would be futile if I tried to do anything more.

Every previous visit had left me with the sense of futility of further action on my part.

2. The cities in Switzerland had once been peaceful, but they changed when people became more violent.

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3. Because the technology has improved it's less risky than it used to be when you install them at the same time, and it doesn't cost so much either.

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4. The people in the colony rejoiced when it was promised that things would change in this way.

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WATCH AND WRITE

A final warning on overusing nominalizations: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/beware-of-nominalizations-aka-zombie-nouns-helen-sword/review_open#question-7

Before you watch make sure you understand the following words:

implacable crony to impede commensurate to teem with

Watch a short animated talk about nominalizations and write a summary. It should be as short and concise as possible containing about three or four sentences.

Step one: write the key words/ideas and describe/draw/note down the connections between them. (a more graphic form)

Step two: use the notes from above to write your summary

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