Do you know what colloquial words are? Do you have an idea of how important it is to avoid using such words in your academic writing? Maybe not, because you use such words so much in your daily conversation that you forget that they are informal and are not part of academic language. The academic language of academic papers is more formal, professional, and analytical. Thus, most writers avoid using colloquial words in academic writing. But why is it important to do so? This question is the primary question that today’s article is going to answer. However, I will start the article by defining such words and giving some examples. So, let’s get started with today’s discussion.
What Do You Mean By Colloquial Words? Explain With Examples.
Colloquial words are expressions or phrases used more often in relaxed conversations than in
formal academic language. Such words develop in a language through years of casual communication between the speakers of that language. These words are not substandard, but they are phrases that, as a writer, you must avoid in academic language. The main reason behind this is that academic writing has its own language, which is more formal, professional, and analytical. Moreover, this word is derived from the Latin word “colloquium”, meaning “conversation.”
Colloquial language is sometimes termed chatty language. Some examples of this language are: “y’all”, “gonna”, “wanna”, “kinda”, “ain’t”, etc. You may have used such words in your daily conversation before and not seen them in academic writing. In academic writing, these words will come in their original form as “you all”, “going to”, “want to”, “kind of”, “is not.”
Why Is It Important To Avoid Colloquial Language?
From the discussion above, you have a good idea of what colloquial language is and what its examples are. It is a chatty and routine life conversation that has no place in academic language. So, why is it important to avoid this? A brief description of the points explaining this point is as follows: 1. Maintaining Clarity And Focus
Colloquial words are unnecessary cliches in your academic language. Such cliches and routine life conversation sentences disturb the flow of information and harm the clarity of the ideas. Reading from the start and suddenly encountering a colloquial word can potentially harm the focus of the reader. The reason is that the reader reads with a set mindset. The use of colloquial language disturbs that focus and mindset. Therefore, it is important to avoid using such words in academic language. You can also hire a reliable
academic writing service to maintain the clarity in your academic writing.
2. Limit The Readership Of Academic Writing
Colloquial words are known to only a limited number of people or the residents of a particular area. For example, the words “wanna” and “gonna” are mostly used by Americans. However, the other world outside America does not know such words. So, it affects the readership of academic writings very badly. It is because a reader sitting in a remote area of Africa does not know the use of such words. Therefore, if you want to enjoy a good readership, it is important that you avoid using colloquial language.
3. Make The Writing Too Vague
Another good point to support the proposition that colloquial language must be avoided in the academic language is that it makes the writing too vague. The excessive use of such words makes the writing lose its actual meaning. Also, the use of colloquial words in academic language makes your writing imprecise and causes the readers to interpret it differently as per their understanding of the sentence. So, try to be formal in your academic writing as much as possible if you want your writing to be clear in its meaning.
4. Exaggerates The Meaning Too Much
It is important to avoid colloquial language in academic writing because it exaggerates the meaning of the words too much. On the other hand, academic writing is usually unadorned and direct in its meaning and use. The informal intensifiers like emphasis, really, wow etc., exaggerate the meaning of the sentences too much. For example, a sentence with colloquial language is that “ researchers always argue that..” Now, the word “always” exaggerates the meaning of the sentence. Conclusion
Colloquial words or language are
expressions and phrases that are part of a routine life conversation. They are informal words and cannot be a part of academic writing at any cost. Academic writing is simple, formal, and straightforward. So, keeping in view the points mentioned above, you must avoid using such words in your writing anymore.
