Chapter 8 page 4

THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 8 page 4

DO’S AND DON’TS LIST EXPLANATION

WORDS NOT TO USE IN FORMAL WRITING

(Continued)

#8 JUST: This is another of those little words that has many, many meanings. There is only one meaning of the word ‘just’ that you should use in formal writing, and that is

· when the word is used as an adjective. ‘Just’ can mean ‘fair’, ‘impartial’, ‘honest’, ‘honorable’, ‘righteous’, ‘moral’, or ‘truthful’, as in the sentence:

Formal: “The student felt that the grade he received was a just one.”

All of the other meanings of ‘just’ are adverbial (‘just’ is used as an adverb) as in the following sentences:

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘a minute ago’, ‘a moment ago’, ‘only this minute’, ‘in the past few minutes’, ‘a short time ago’, ‘recently’, ‘lately’, or ‘scarcely’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “Didn’t that just happen?”

Formal: “Didn’t that happen a moment ago.”

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘now’, ‘immediately’, or ‘presently’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “The student just came into the classroom.”

Formal: “The student immediately came into the classroom.”

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘only’, ‘merely’, ‘simply’, or ‘solely’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “The student just peeked at the answers once.”

Formal: “The student only peeked at the answers once.”

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘barely’, ‘hardly’, ‘scarcely’, or ‘slightly’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “The student had just peeked at the answers when the teacher came back to the room.”

Formal: “The student had hardly peeked at the answers when the teacher came back to the room.”

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘really’, ‘truly’, ‘definitely’, ‘empathically’, ‘clearly’, ‘entirely’, ‘absolutely’, ‘completely’, or ‘perfectly’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “It was lucky for the student that she had just finished peeking at the answers when the teacher came back to the room.”

Formal: “It was lucky for the student that she had completely finished peeking at the answers when the teacher came back to the room.”

· ‘Just’ can mean ‘exactly’, ‘precisely’, or ‘right’, as in the sentence:

Informal: “The student had just enough time to peek at the answers before the teacher came back to the room.”

Formal: “The student had precisely enough time to peek at the answers before the teacher came back to the room.”

#9 SINCE: there are two uses of this word and only one is acceptable in formal writing:

‘Since’, when used as a conjunction, can mean ‘as’, ‘because’, ‘given that’, ‘seeing as’, ‘in view of the fact that’, or ‘while’, as in the following sentence:

Informal: “Since the student peeked at the answers, the teacher thinks he should take the test again.”

Formal: “The teacher thinks he should take the test again because the student peeked at the answers.”

As you can see, I have ‘turned the sentence around’ in order to use the word ‘because’.

DO NOT use the word ‘since’ to mean ‘because’ in formal writing.

· Since’, when used as an adverb, can mean ‘from the time when’, or ‘ever since’, as in the sentence:

Formal: “Ever since the student peeked at the answers, the teacher does not trust him.”

This is the only acceptable usage of the word ‘since’ in formal writing.

#10 DO: you will need to use this word frequently. It is acceptable to use this word in formal writing and speaking. However, whenever possible you should substitute with a more specific alternative:

The verb ‘to do’ has three meanings:

· ‘Do’ can mean to ‘accomplish’, ‘complete’, ‘engage’, ‘perform’, ‘act’, ‘achieve’, ‘complete’, ‘execute’, or ‘make’.

· ‘Do’ can mean to ‘see to’, ‘fix’, ‘prepare’, ‘organize’, 'sort out', 'look after', or 'make sure of'.

· ‘Do’ can mean to ‘solve’, ‘work out’, ‘resolve’, figure out', or 'puzzle out'.

A final note on vocabulary: I have found that many students confuse one word with another because they have only heard the words used and pronounced by someone else. The first thing to realize is that many people mispronounce words. Therefore, when you learn a word by listening to someone else use it, you cannot always learn the proper spelling of the word.

This is yet another reason for you to own your words and look them up! Know their pronunciation and spelling. The spelling of words will help you to recognize the different words you see. Many words in English have only one letter that is different from another word, but the meaning is entirely different.

You should photocopy the following list of “Do’s and Don’ts” and use it whenever you write:

Do’s and Don’ts List

Don’t use Do Use

Get Obtain, buy, purchase, acquire,

Catch, contract,

Become, grow,

Move, progress,

Understand, comprehend, grasp, follow, perceive,

Accomplish

Like For example, such as (not ‘sort of like’, or ‘kind of like’),

Fond of, enjoy, be partial to,

Similar to, akin to, approximating, reminiscent of, resembling,

Similar, comparable

So Extremely, very, an abundance of,

Therefore, consequently, as a result, for this reason, thus, accordingly, hence,

in accordance with, subsequently

Too And, also, as well, in addition, besides, moreover, additionally, furthermore,

Very, excessively, overly, exceedingly

A lot of Many, numerous, countless, several, various, scores of'

(Plenty of)

Use these words as little as possible Do Use these substitutes:

and certainly don’t overuse:

And, also, as well in addition, besides, moreover, additionally, furthermore

But, yet, still, however, although, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, nonetheless, conversely, then again, in spite of this,

other than, except, excluding

Just now, immediately, presently, only merely simply solely,

barely hardly, scarcely, slightly, simply really, truly, definitely, empathically, clearly, entirely, absolutely, completely, perfectly,

exactly precisely, right

Since because, as, given that, seeing as, in view of the fact that, while,

from the time when, ever since

Do accomplish, complete, engage, perform, act, achieve, complete, execute’, make, see to, fix, prepare, organize, sort out, look after,

make sure of, solve, work out, resolve, figure out, puzzle out

END OF CHAPTER 8 GO TO CHAPTER 9