Academic vocabulary · Register

Register in academic English

This is the language that does one job: it keeps every sentence at the formality the task expects. All the time, and especially in the last paragraph, when time is short and spoken English starts leaking in. Register is the cheapest thing to fix and the easiest to lose: one “kids”, one “a lot of”, one “don’t”, and a paragraph that was otherwise controlled reads as careless.

6 itemseach with the pattern it requires

2 worked exampleswith the word doing the work marked

2 common mistakeswith the repair

4 exercisesrecognition first, then production

Start here · the long version

What register really asks you to decide

Register is the level of formality the task expects, and it is lost one word at a time by choices that are all grammatically correct.

Correct English in the wrong room

Nothing in “Lots of kids these days don’t get enough exercise” is a grammar error. That is exactly why it survives proofreading: you are looking for mistakes and there are none. What there is instead is four choices that belong to speech — an empty quantifier, an informal noun, a contraction, and a vague judgement — and the corrected sentence reads as though a different person wrote it.

The leaks cluster predictably. They appear in the final paragraph, written fastest, and in the sentences where the writer felt strongly, because that is when the voice in your head is a speaking voice. Knowing that is most of the fix: the last paragraph is where to look first, and it takes thirty seconds.

What is not a register problem is a short sentence. Simplicity is not informality, and replacing a clear short sentence with a long one at the last minute is the most reliable way to introduce a grammar error into a paragraph that did not have one. The hunt is for spoken choices, not for brevity.

Contractions

“Do not”, not “don’t”. The cheapest fix in the paper and the most visible failure.

Not every phrasal verb

“Carry out” and “point out” are fine. “Sort out” and “put up with” are not.

Rhetorical questions

They hand the argument back to the reader at the moment you should be making it.

Where to look

The final paragraph. It is written fastest and it is the last thing the examiner reads.

What it costs you to skip this

Register is judged separately from grammar, so a response can be error-free and still lose on it — and because the leaks cluster in the conclusion, they land on the last thing read. Each one is also free to fix: the neutral word is usually shorter than the informal one and always available.

Where it stops applying

Formality is not the goal in itself. An essay written entirely in impersonal constructions has hidden its author, and Task Response wants a position it can see. And no amount of register work rescues a response that did not answer the question — this is a polish pass, not a repair.

Examples · why precise words score better

The same idea, twice

Lexical Resource is one of the four criteria, and it is not a count of long words. What it rewards is whether your word choice adds information — and the fastest way to see that is to watch one sentence become precise. Nothing was added below except accuracy.

Vague

Lots of kids these days don’t get enough exercise, which isn’t great for their health.

Precise

A substantial proportion of children now take insufficient exercise, with measurable consequences for their health.

Four separate drops in one sentence: “lots of”, “kids”, the two contractions, and “isn’t great” as a judgement. None of them is a grammar error, which is why they survive proofreading — and why the corrected version reads as a different writer.

What the precise version earns
register · precision · range. No page here promises anyone a score: these are the things the criterion actually looks at, and they are the things you can control.

The language

Each item, and the pattern it demands

Knowing a word and not its pattern is exactly what produces a sentence that reads like a translation. The preposition, the verb form and the article are the part that carries the marks.

Write out the full form

Safe to use

“do not”, not “don’t”; “cannot”, not “can’t”. Contractions belong to speech, and the fix costs one keystroke.

Write out abbreviations

Safe to use

“for example”, not “e.g.”; “that is”, not “i.e.”; “government”, not “govt”. Only universally known initialisms stay, and even those are written in full on first use.

Prefer a single verb to an informal phrasal

Safe to use

“resolve”, not “sort out”; “reduce”, not “cut down on”; “tolerate”, not “put up with”. Not every phrasal verb is informal — “carry out” and “point out” are fine.

Name the group, not the crowd

Watch the pattern

“children”, not “kids”; “people”, not “guys”; “older adults”, not “old folks”. The neutral word is almost always the shorter route as well.

Impersonal constructions

Watch the pattern

“It is often argued that…” instead of “Lots of people say…”. Useful, but a whole essay of them hides your position, which Task Response penalises.

Exclamation marks and rhetorical questions

Costs you marks

Neither belongs in an academic response. A rhetorical question in particular hands the argument back to the reader instead of making it.

Watch two · then do three

See the word doing its job in a real sentence

Worked example · a substantial proportion · children · insufficient

A substantial proportion of children now take insufficient exercise, with measurable consequences for their health.

Why it works: The same claim as the spoken version, at the register the task expects. Nothing was added — four informal choices were simply replaced with neutral ones.

Worked example · It is frequently argued that

It is frequently argued that such measures penalise the households least able to absorb the cost.

Why it works: The impersonal construction reports a widely held view without inventing a source. Used once it is precise; used in every paragraph it hides the writer.

What goes wrong

The mistakes this function produces

Most are collocation errors, not grammar errors — which is why no spell-checker will ever flag them.

The govt should sort out this problem ASAP, don’t you think?

Four drops and a rhetorical question. The question is the worst of them: it hands the argument to the reader at the exact moment the essay should be making it.

Repaired: The government should resolve this problem without further delay.

This essay will talk about the pros and cons of nuclear power.

“Talk about” belongs to speech, “pros and cons” is conversational, and announcing what an essay will do wastes a sentence the introduction needs for the position.

Repaired: Nuclear power offers clear advantages in output, but its disadvantages in waste and cost are equally significant.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

Find every leak and fix it — without rewriting the sentence.

The material

Your conclusion reads: “To sum up, I reckon the govt needs to sort out this problem ASAP, don’t you think?”

Step 1List the leaks

There are five, and not one of them is a grammar error. Name each and what kind it is.

Your version0 words · minimum 10

10 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Name the replacement for each

Step 3Write the repaired sentence

Exercises · step 1, recognition

Before you learn the words, learn the job

A word list memorised before you can see what it is for is a word list that gets used in the wrong place.

Step 1 · the job

How many separate register problems are in that sentence?

The situation: To sum up, I reckon the govt needs to sort out this problem ASAP.

All three are grammatical English. Only one of them does the job this function exists for.

Exercises · step 2, production

Choose the item that does the job and takes the right pattern

Every wrong option is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Nothing here is scored automatically.

Which version keeps the register an academic response expects?

Choose an option first

Which single verb replaces the informal phrasal verb in “the government should sort out the problem”?

Choose an option first

Which opening belongs in an academic response?

Choose an option first

The other functions

Seven more jobs for words to do

Hedging

It lowers the temperature of a claim, so you only have to defend what you actually said.

6 items · 3 exercises Asserting

It raises the temperature of a claim, so the reader knows which points you are prepared to stand behind.

6 items · 3 exercises Attributing

It makes clear whose claim each sentence is — yours, the prompt’s, or somebody else’s.

6 items · 3 exercises Quantifying

It says how many or how much, at a level of precision you can actually defend.

6 items · 3 exercises Causing

It names which way the arrow points between two things.

6 items · 3 exercises Evaluating

It says whether something is good or bad, and in what specific respect.

6 items · 3 exercises Proposing

It names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening.

6 items · 3 exercises