Many scholars I work with look to elevate their language to a more academic tone, which can be accomplished with the right choice of words (also called diction). See the sentences below for an example!
Sentence: These national initiatives CAME ABOUT DUE TO educational legislation in Western states, mostly California.
Edited Sentence: These national initiatives RESULTED FROM educational legislation in Western states, mostly California.
Explanation: In the first sentence above, nothing is wrong with the phrase “came about due to” from a grammar perspective. However, the phrase is a bit cumbersome and has an informal connotation.
So, in the edited sentence, I deleted replaced those words with a more concise, research focused term (“resulted from”). Learning to maximize words in academic writing not only produces a more sophisticated level of writing results, but it also creates in conciseness.
When editing your academic documents, you can achieve a more academic tone by simply finding places to elevate the use of words.
Until next week, Happy Writing!!!
Dr. V Writing Coach-Editor-Speaker Author of I'm Not a Writer...I am Just in Graduate School (order your copy at https://www.amazon.com/Not-Writer-Just-Graduate-School/dp/1533392919)
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