Words To Avoid In Academic Writing

verb to explain or discuss something in excessive detail or to excess

• The professor continued to belabor the point in order to ensure all students understood the concept.
• I wish my boss wouldn't belabor every minor detail during our team meetings.
• Stop belaboring the issue and just get to the point already.
• She belabored the painting until every stroke was perfect, not wanting to leave any detail unfinished.

verb to explain or go over excessively or to an absurd degree

• The professor belabored the importance of citing sources in academic writing.
• She really belabored the point about cleaning up after ourselves in the kitchen.
• He totally belabored the joke, it wasn't even funny anymore.
• The artist belabored over every brushstroke, ensuring the painting was perfect.

adjective showing an unfair preference for or against something; prejudiced

• The study was criticized for being biased towards a particular political ideology.
• I think the news report was biased against our team.
• The article was totally biased, dude.
• Her past experiences have made her biased against certain types of people.

adjective tending to depart from the main point or subject

adverb in a digressive manner

• The professor's lecture was very digressive, often going off on tangents unrelated to the main topic.
• I tend to get digressive when I tell stories, jumping from one detail to another.
• Stop being so digressive and get to the point already!
• Her mind was like a digressive maze, full of twists and turns that led nowhere.

adjective Erroneous is an adjective that describes something that is incorrect or mistaken.

• The report contained numerous erroneous data points that needed to be corrected.
• She gave me some erroneous information about the event.
• Don't listen to him, he's always spreading erroneous rumors.
• His belief in the conspiracy theory was based on erroneous assumptions.

adjective not able to be understood; nonsensical or unclear

• The professor's lecture was so incoherent that many students struggled to follow along.
• I couldn't understand a word he was saying, his speech was all incoherent.
• She was so drunk last night, her speech was completely incoherent.
• The plot of the movie was so incoherent, I couldn't make sense of any of it.

noun an inappropriate or awkward word or expression

• The infelicity of his remarks during the meeting caused tension among the team members.
• She couldn't help but cringe at the infelicity of his joke.
• His infelicity in handling the situation made things awkward for everyone.
• The infelicity of their relationship was like a dark cloud hanging over them.

adjective lacking in nutritive value; lacking substance or interest; dull

• The professor found the student's thesis to be quite jejune, lacking depth and originality.
• I thought the movie was pretty jejune, with a predictable plot and shallow characters.
• That new video game is so jejune, it's like they didn't even try to make it interesting.
• Her speech was jejune, failing to inspire or engage the audience in any meaningful way.

noun language or ritual that is meaningless or unintelligible

adjective used to describe something that is confusing or nonsensical

• The speaker's presentation was filled with technical jargon and mumbo-jumbo that made it hard to follow.
• I tried reading that contract but it was full of legal mumbo-jumbo that I couldn't make sense of.
• Don't listen to him, he's just spouting a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
• Her explanation was so confusing, it sounded like she was speaking in mumbo-jumbo.

noun excessive or exaggerated emphasis on something

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adjective none

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conjunction none

interjection none

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• The professor warned against the overemphasis on one particular aspect of the research study.
• Don't put too much emphasis on that, it's just one small part of the project.
• Stop overdoing it, it's not that big of a deal.
• She tends to blow things out of proportion, always making an overemphasis on minor details.

verb to state or represent (something) too strongly; exaggerate

• It is important not to overstate the impact of this new policy on the economy.
• Don't make it seem like the situation is worse than it actually is.
• Let's not blow this out of proportion.
• She tends to exaggerate things and always overstates the facts.

noun the quality of being pedantic

• His constant pedantry regarding grammar rules made it difficult to have a conversation with him.
• I can't stand his pedantry when it comes to correcting people's pronunciation.
• Stop being such a pedant with all your grammar pedantry!
• Her attention to detail bordered on pedantry, but it always resulted in flawless work.

adjective A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. In this case, 'simplistic' describes something as overly simple or naive.

• The design of the new building is very simplistic, with clean lines and minimal decoration.
• I like the simplistic style of this new phone, it's so easy to use.
• I prefer a more simplistic approach to cooking, just throw everything in a pot and see what happens.
• His argument was too simplistic, failing to consider the complexities of the situation.

adjective describing something that does not produce fruit or results

• The research project proved to be unfruitful despite months of hard work.
• I tried growing tomatoes in my backyard, but it was unfruitful because of the poor soil quality.
• I spent hours swiping on dating apps, but it was totally unfruitful.
• His efforts to mend their broken relationship were unfruitful as she refused to forgive him.

verb to describe or portray someone or something in a way that is not accurate or true

• It is important not to mischaracterize the facts in your research paper.
• Don't mischaracterize what she said, just tell the truth.
• Don't twist the story and mischaracterize what really happened.
• You can't mischaracterize a diamond as just a regular rock.

verb to speak or write in a roundabout way; to use many words when fewer would do; to avoid being direct or concise

• The politician tends to circumlocute his answers in order to avoid directly addressing the question.
• Just get to the point and stop circumlocuting!
• He's always beating around the bush and circumlocuting.
• Her words circled around the truth, like a bird circling its prey, never quite landing on it.

noun the state of lacking or being without context

• The concept of acontextuality in literature refers to the lack of specific context in a text.
• I don't understand this book, it seems to be written with acontextuality in mind.
• The meme was so random, it had acontextuality written all over it.
• Her painting had acontextuality to it, leaving the viewer to interpret its meaning on their own.