45 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality know what you’re talking about, of course, but it’s entirely possible to know your subject intimately and work very hard to express the most profound of thoughts about it only to fail because certain aspects of the language and phrasing you use come across to your readers as awkward, imprecise or unprofessional. Attending to all the issues raised above – accurate and effective punctuation, appropriate use of abbreviations, consistent adherence to British or American spelling, complete sentences organised into well- developed paragraphs, a well-planned paper using sound sources and methods to construct a meaningful argument, and so on – contributes to a written voice that speaks with professional authority, but there are a number of other matters, some of them seemingly small details, that often prove problematic and can literally make or break a paper by either engaging and convincing or losing and annoying readers. 4.4.1 Vocabulary: Formality, Precision and Variety A scholarly written voice is necessarily a formal written voice – not quite as formal as it once was, of course, but the principle remains. This means that everything about the language you use in a paper you’re preparing for publication in an academic or scientific journal should be absolutely correct, precise and professional in grammatical, syntactic and orthographic terms. Although once as basic as methods and results, formality has become especially challenging in a climate of digital social networking that encourages the use of informal (and often incorrect) language and tends to suggest particularly to younger scholars that such informalities are equally acceptable beyond the realm of tweeting and text messaging. They are not and should be strictly avoided in formal academic or scientific prose, including CVs, proposals and job PARt II: PRePARIng, PResentIng And PolIsHIng YoUR woRk