3.16 Choice of Vocabulary
The greater part of academic writing concerns itself with the participants and processes of academic enquiry. As the writer is engaging in argument, it is essential that he/she makes appropriate choices of vocabulary to express accurately the processes in which the participants are involved.
Examples of Vocabulary describing participants and processes:
The particular researcher or philosopher or theorist or historian:
could be (in the view of the writer)
justifying, generalising or particularising, reconciling, comparing, conceding, refuting or dismissing, acceding or conceding (to name a few)
facts, evidence, data, ideas, concepts, theories, opinion, beliefs, explanation of some researcher’s (or the like) work or findings.
Academic writers should also take care not to relate the above abstract vocabulary to natural phenomena. These sensing words belong to the realm of the mind.
This evidence has an enormous effect on the loss of leaves on the trees. (Incorrect)
The evidence has affected the judgment of the lawyer. (Correct)
Writers should take care with subject/verb agreements. A singular subject requires a singular verb; a plural subject requires a plural verb.
Examples:
All the Senators agrees with the government’s decision to remove the trade barrier. (Incorrect. This is a plural subject)
becomes
All the Senators agree with the government’s decision to remove the trade barrier. (Correct)
The connections between the terror and its cause is difficult to prove. (Incorrect. This is a plural subject)
becomes
The connections between the terror and its cause are difficult to prove. (Correct)
The writer can easily allow an adjectival phrase to distract him/her from the true subject of the sentence/clause and so a plural verb is supplied when only the singular is needed.
Examples:
The sound of the sirens reverberate across the suburb. (Incorrect. The subject is “the sound”. The phrase, “of the sirens” is an adjectival phrase which extends the noun group but does not alter the fact that it is “the sound” that is “reverberating”.)
becomes
The sound of the sirens reverberates across the suburb. (Correct)
The writer needs to use collective nouns carefully. Is he/she intending to highlight the things or people included in the nouns as a single entity or as many individuals? If the writer wishes to treat the collective noun as a single entity, a singular verb will be used, if as many individuals, a plural verb will be used.
(Some collective nouns are: government, committee, peer group, tribe, community. There are many others.)
Examples:
The peer group among teenagers is often characterised by loosely organised groups called a “crowd”. (Here the collective noun, “peer group” is being used as a single entity so the singular form of the verb is used.
But
The peer group of teenagers have argued over every decision. (Here the collective noun, “peer group” is being used as many individuals so the plural form of the verb is used.