How to Write Great Essays

HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS
CHAPTER 3
Word Choice
32
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Don’t use 
courageous
to describe a person with a disability unless the context
allows the adjective to be used for all. Someone is not courageous because
they are deaf, but they may be because they swam the English Channel.
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Always put the person ahead of the disability, as in 
person with impaired hear-
ing
, rather than 
hearing-impaired person
.
A
V O I D
O
V E R LY
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N F O R M A L
A N D
O
V E R U S E D
L
A N G U A G E
Colloquialisms are words and phrases appropriate for speech and very informal or casual
writing. They don’t belong in your essay unless you are trying to imitate speech or assume
a very informal tone for effect. Colloquialisms include vulgarisms (obscene or offensive
words), clichés, and slang.
Your reader is not going to consult a dictionary to understand what you’ve written, nor
will he or she be impressed with stale, highly unoriginal language. Eliminate any words or
phrases that are overused, or that might be unfamiliar to your reader. A word or two in a
foreign language, which you translate immediately, is ok. The use of confusing technical lan-
guage or buzzwords is not.
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Vulgarisms—
the last thing you want to do is turn off or offend your reader.
Since you do not know your audience, you do not know exactly what kinds of
language they may find offense or in poor taste. Err on the side of caution by
not including any language considered even mildly obscene, gross, or other-
wise offensive. This includes scatological and sexual terms, and words such as
bitch (as in “life is a bitch”), hell (as in “hotter than hell”), God (as in “oh,
God!”), and damn.
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Clichés—
clichés should be avoided not only because they are too informal,
but also because they are overused. Your essay must not rely on stale phrases
such as:
one step at a time; no news is good news; don’t worry, be happy; when
life gives you lemons, make lemonade;
and
no guts, no glory.
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Slang—
slang is non-standard English. Its significance is typically far-removed
from either a word’s denotative or connotative meaning, and is particular to
certain groups (therefore, it excludes some readers who won’t understand it).
Examples include:
blow off, canned, no sweat,
and 
thumbs down (or up).
It is
also inappropriate and in poor taste to use slang terms for racial or religious
groups.