Academic writing: 30 usual mistakes and how to tackle them

Abstract

On this paper I discuss 30 usual mistakes found in academic writing within texts written by students, master or PhD candidates and junior academics. From a theoretical standpoint, I tell self-consciously disobedient-to-norms writing (that can be considered a political statement) from simply improper writing (that signals ignorance of such norms). I argue that, given the lack of training in academic writing in the course of most college careers, such ignorance should not come as a surprise. Both as a political statement and as a symptom of ignorance of linguistic norms and from an epistemologically antirealist standpoint, I argue that since theories (and, therefore, the world as something scientifically conceivable and actually conceived) exist within and through academic writing, every effort towards proper writing is valuable. Finally, I list and discuss 30 usual mistakes taken from the casuistry that I have gathered over the years and from books on normative talk and writing.