Academic writing has a 'style'. This is called Academic Style. Some examples of Academic Style are:

 

1. Use 'caution' -This means we have to be careful about what we say. For example, if I say: "Everyone spends a lot of money at Christmas." It may be true that many people spend a lot of money at Christmas, but maybe not 'everyone'. So, using caution, we could say: "Many people tend to spend a lot of money at Christmas."

2. Avoid repetition - This means if we have, for example, 'salary' 5 times in one paragraph, we try to think of different words with a similar meaning. For example, "wages", "income", "pay". Then we use these variations rather than the same word.

3. Avoid personal style - This means we try not to say things like: "What I want to talk about is..." We can change it to something more 'academic', like "This essay will discuss..."

4. Avoid certain words - There are some words that are used more in speaking than in writing. For example: Nowadays, lots and lots of, terrible, really, etc.