Formal or Informal?

Have you ever re-read something you wrote and thought it sounded too casual? Or written something carefully formal only to realise it felt stiff and unnatural? In academic English, the words you choose signal far more than their meaning alone. Choosing between "find out" and "investigate", or between "show" and "demonstrate", tells your reader exactly what kind of writer you are.

In this activity, you will study a set of verbs and phrases that appear frequently in academic English. For each one, you will see both the formal and informal version, practise recognising register in context, and work on selecting the right choice for academic writing and presentations.

By the end of this activity, you will be able to identify when a word or phrase sounds too informal for an academic context and replace it with a more appropriate alternative, giving your writing and speech a more professional and precise register.