Dr. James C. (Jim) Lane
Associate Professor of Education

When writing formal papers for my classes—and even in less formal kinds of writing assignments—you will want to keep in mind the following advice: 

• Avoid confusing pronoun references. Make sure that each pronoun refers clearly to the appropriate person being discussed in your paper.

• Use formal terms in all writing, unless otherwise noted. “The guys” is not an appropriate substitute for the phrase “the students.” Use specific adjectives that conjure up images for the reader rather than saying, simply, “the room was cool.”
  
  
• Don't use abbreviations in your narrative unless the instructor tells you to do so. Some examples would be using “vs.” instead of “versus,” “edu” instead of “education,” and “elem” instead of “elementary.”