Things not to write in Delta Background Essays

angry

If you want to avoid the marker's ire, try not to include these in your writing. Anywhere.

This paragraph contains an example of many things you should avoid in your writing. They are in black type. Can you see what's wrong with them?
Click here when you have an answer.

Clearly, there is a distinction between I'm going to go to London and I'm going to London (continuous tense) but for Germans who don't use a progressive, it is invariably unclear. The usage of the first is to express intention and the second to indicate an arranged event. I have found that pictures and charts clarify the concepts and are especially appealing to visual learners. I recently taught a difficult class containing a mix of young Taiwanese girls (who were, of course, shy and reluctant to speak) and some typically vocal and forthcoming Spanish young men. For the former, in particular, the visual element was useful but the latter needed to set the language in context and use it to communicate.
Naturally, it doesn't materially affect the meaning if one says, I am going to London and have my ticket already. or I have my ticket and I am going to London. It is important, however, to note that the forms are only ever used with dynamic, progressive verbs and it is never possible to say I am thinking, he will be thinking, he's going to be thinking etc. to refer to the future.

Clearly, Obviously, Certainly, rightly, unarguably, definitely etc.
Adding adverbials like these just invites the reader to disagree with you. It can also make you sound arrogant and opinionated.
Here are two (real) examples:
1. Ellis rightly points out that ...
  This makes you sound as if you are more of an authority than the writer and in a position to evaluate the writer's work. You aren't; you are supposed to be using the writer's work as authority for your work, not the other way around.
  If you want to make your view clear, couch it in terms like:
  I agree with the point that Ellis (date: page) makes when he asserts ...
2. Clearly, students are unaccustomed to dealing with weak forms.
  Your students may be but many are not. Sweeping generalisations like this (with the added challenge to the reader to think of all the times you are wrong) will not help.
  Soften your assertions with something like:
  It is arguable that many learners ...
  In my experience, it is often the case that ... etc.
always, never, invariably etc.
Before you assert that something is invariably true, you need to think long and hard. All languages are littered with exceptions and irregular forms and speakers often distort the conventional grammar to suit their meanings.
Assertions of this sort don't have to include an adverb. Just using the present simple is enough to imply that something is invariably true so soften what you say with something like almost, usually, often etc.
Asserting that something is always or never true invites the reader to think of a counter example.
My students are / Maria is / most of the group is / this material will appeal to visual learners etc.
There are two problems with uncritical statements like those:
1. Learning styles theories are just that – theories. They are controversial and not without severe and eminent critics. Theorists in the area also disagree among themselves.
2. Even if you accept the validity of any of the theories (multiple intelligences, VARK etc.) the theorists will tell you that there is no such thing as a visual learner, an activist, a person of musical intelligence etc. It is the proportions of various styles or intelligences that make up an individual's profile that matter and everyone has a mix of these.
  For more, go to the guide to learning styles.
Asian / European / Russian / German etc. learners often produce + error ...
Nationality, much less continental provenance, is not a good way of trying to categorise learners or their languages. If, by Asian learners, for example, you mean those with particular languages, then say so and exemplify what you mean. Asia covers all the territory from the Urals to Japan and Northern Siberia to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. That's over 4.4 billion people and something like 2000 different languages. Europe is also very populous and home to 250 or so languages. The Russian Federation alone has over 30 official languages (depending on region) and another 100 or so minority languages, many of which bear no relation at all to Russian. There is some doubt whether any country on earth is actually monolingual whatever the official line may be.
To avoid making silly statements like these, use the formulation speakers of ... and exemplify what you mean.
Stereotyping
Not all Japanese girls are quiet and shy, not all male, Italian teenagers are talkative and forthcoming and so on. Casual, thoughtless national stereotyping has no place in our profession.
Ordering of elements in sentences doesn't affect meaning
It most certainly does. There are good reasons why you might prefer to say
    I did the shopping after I had finished the work
rather than
    Before I did the shopping I had finished the work
or
    I had finished the work before I did the shopping
Equally,
    The ball was kicked by the girl
is not the same as
    The girl kicked the ball
and
    If you want to come, I'll give you a lift
is not the same as
    I'll give you a lift if you want to come.
Speakers fit the grammar and form to the meaning and not the other way around and decisions are not usually random. There are, among other things issues of fronting for emphasis, end focus and endweighting to consider.
See the guide to fronting and it and there for more.
Writing (or saying) usage when you mean use (and the other way round)
Usage is not a fancier way of saying use. In our profession:
1. Usage means focusing on the meaning attached to something as an instance of language isolated from context. It is its signification (what it means).
2. Use refers to the meaning of something when used for communicative purpose. This is its value (what it does).
  For example:
  A: Why don't you see a doctor if you are feeling so ill?
  B: Mount Everest is very high and Mercury is the nearest planet to the sun.
  B's statement has significance (we know what is meant) but no value (it communicates nothing useful).
  (Widdowson, HG, 1978, Teaching Language as Communication, London: Oxford University Press.)
Stative and dynamic verbs
Grammarians will use these terms but you should know that they are shorthand for stative and dynamic uses of verbs and make it clear that you do.
Many verbs normally called stative verbs can be used dynamically. For example, the verbs appear as homonyms in
1. I think he's going to be late (stative use)
2. Please be quiet, I'm thinking (dynamic use)
3. He was feeling ill (stative use with progressive form)
4. He felt the richness of the material (dynamic use with simple form)
Ignoring the effect that meaning has on syntax is never a good idea. For more on that, see the guide to lexicogrammar (new tab).
Confusing tense and aspect
English exhibits a number of aspects (progressive, continuous, durative, repeated, habitual etc.) and two of these (progressive and perfect) are marked in the form of the tense. Be careful to avoid things like the progressive tense, therefore, and prefer tense XXX in the progressive / perfect aspect. For more, go to the guide to aspect.
This would / might / could / may be a good teaching solution for the issue of ...
When you evaluate a teaching solution you need to show either that you have done what you suggest and have reflected on its success or that you can work from your teacherly intuition and experience concerning its effectiveness and any drawbacks. Avoid too much modality, therefore, and be more confident and less tentative. For example,
This is an effective solution for the problem of avoidance because ... although it also ...

For much more, see the guide to writing style for Delta.

There is a similar guide to things to avoid in the classroom.

There is one more area worth avoiding in writing for Delta (or anyway) and that is not to fall for a specious, superficially scientific or apparently plausible theory or hypothesis. Most are baloney.
For more, see the guide to mythology in ELT.