Avoid colloquialisms in your thesis

In your thesis, you should avoid colloquialisms as much as possible. This is because you write your thesis in an academic writing style. This means you write differently than you would in an informal e-mail, for instance. This also means that it is better not to use certain words or sentence structures. In this article, we provide some examples of colloquialisms and help you avoid them in your thesis.

Conversational language is the type of language you use when talking to people outloud or during informal online communication (such as through apps or emails). It is often less professional in tone. Below, we discuss a few examples of colloquial language and alternatives for it to use in your thesis. 

Informal language

In general, you should avoid informal words and sentence structures in your thesis. You can read more about this in our "forbidden words" article. 

A few examples are:

• "Well it is the case that..." → rather: "However, it is the case that..."

• "This calls for action." → rather, "Based on these outcomes, it is important to take action."

• "They have five TVs hanging in the building." → rather: "There are five televisions hanging in the building."

• "It is mainly in..." → rather, "The main cause of the problem is..."

• "The results are slightly different from expectations." → rather, "The results are slightly different from expectations."

• "The situation looks a lot less favourable than it did a year ago." → rather: "The situation looks less favourable than a year ago."

Addressing the reader

In your thesis, you want to avoid using 'you', 'your, and 'yours'. You are not addressing the reader directly. See if you can phrase this in another way (impersonally). 

So not: "You can read more about this in section 2.4."

But instead: "Section 2.4 discusses this in more detail."

Fillers

In colloquial language, we use a lot of padding words in sentences. The sentence still means the same even without those words; they are only meant to fill empty space in conversation, or as stop words. In a thesis or other academic text, you want to avoid such words. 

Examples of filler words are:

• actually;

• therefore;

• actual;

• well;

• like

For instance, in colloquial language, it's fine to say "It's actually true that the economy went backwards last year." In an academic text, you would be more likely to phrase it as "The economy deteriorated in 2022."

Proverbs and expressions

Do not use proverbs in your thesis. They too are colloquial language. It is important to phrase things as concretely as possible. 

For example, try not to say, "The organisation has worked with all its might to..."

Rather, say, "The organisation has already taken many measures to..."

Do not use the I form

The I form is another example of colloquial language to avoid in your thesis. You don't usually write from a first person perspectivein an academic text, except when talking about your own experiences (e.g. in the preface and in the reflection). Make the rest of the text in your thesis more impersonal. 

So not: "In this chapter, I'm going to discuss how..."

But instead: "This chapter addresses..."

Not: "Based on this research, I conclude that..."

But instead: "Based on this research, it can be concluded that..."

Read more about how to avoid "I", "you" and "we" in your thesis in our other article.

First, it is good to keep the guidelines above in mind when writing your thesis. If you know which types of colloquialisms to avoid, you can pay better attention to them while writing. Do you find it difficult to find an alternative (more formal) word? Then, you can search for a suitable synonym via Synonyms.net. 

Furthermore, try to express all information as clearly and concretely as possible. It is also important tobe brief and to the point with your phrasing. Figure out if a sentence could be shorter by omitting words that may be unnecessary to see if it changes the sentence’s meaning. This will make sure your thesis reads clearly and smoothly.