Writing · Writing: Research, Forms and Conventions

Spelling and Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Classical Plurals, Confusables and Precise Terms

3.1 3.2About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can spell and use the singular and plural forms of common Latin and Greek borrowings in academic writing.
I can choose correctly between confusable academic words such as imply and infer, fewer and less, comprise and compose.
I can use word families and morphemes to spell long academic words and choose the right part of speech.
I can use discipline-specific literary terms precisely and use Latin abbreviations correctly.
I can keep a personal word bank and error list that improves my writing over the year.

Words to know

classical plural
A plural form borrowed from Latin or Greek, such as criteria or theses.

confusable
A word easily mistaken for another with a similar sound or spelling but a different meaning.

word family
Words that share a root, such as analyze, analysis, analytical, analyst.

morpheme
The smallest unit of meaning in a word: a root, prefix or suffix.

register
The level of formality of language, chosen to suit the audience and purpose.

jargon
Specialized vocabulary that excludes readers who do not know it, especially when a plainer word would do.

Academic Word List
A list of word families that appear often across academic subjects, compiled by researcher Averil Coxhead in 2000.

liminal
In literary analysis, describing a threshold or in-between state, place or time.

Three errors in one sentence

The data shows that this criteria is a strange phenomena. Every word is spelled correctly, so no spell checker complains. But a university reader sees three errors: criteria and phenomena are plurals, and in many academic fields data is treated as a plural too. Corrected: The data show that this criterion is a strange phenomenon.

Grade 12 vocabulary errors are rarely about simple misspellings. They are about borrowed words with unusual plurals, confusable pairs that mean different things, and technical terms used loosely. The curriculum asks you to use spelling rules, resources and strategies to correct errors (3.1) and to build vocabulary by confirming word meanings and refining word choice (3.2). This lesson focuses on the vocabulary of academic writing.

Remember from Grade 11

You learned Canadian spelling patterns (colour, centre, travelled, organize, practice/practise), the doubling rule, the confusables complement/compliment, discreet/discrete, elicit/illicit, allusion/illusion, cite/site/sight, council/counsel, emigrate/immigrate, how to use an etymological dictionary, words that came into English from Indigenous languages, and how to keep a word log and personal error list. This lesson adds the vocabulary of university writing.

Classical plurals

Many academic words came from Latin or Greek and kept their original plurals:

-on → -a: criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena.
-um → -a: datum → data, curriculum → curricula (curriculums is also accepted), medium → media (for communication; people who claim to contact spirits are mediums).
-is → -es: thesis → theses, analysis → analyses, hypothesis → hypotheses, crisis → crises, parenthesis → parentheses.
-us → -i: stimulus → stimuli, alumnus → alumni (alumna → alumnae for women).
-ix/-ex: appendix → appendices or appendixes; index → indices (in mathematics and science) or indexes (in books).

Data deserves a note. In everyday English, data is often used as a singular mass noun (the data shows). In many scientific and academic fields it is treated as plural (the data show). Either can be acceptable; follow your teacher or discipline, and be consistent.

Learn the four endings and you can handle most classical plurals. When in doubt, a good Canadian dictionary lists both forms and says which is preferred.

Confusables at the university level

imply / infer. A writer implies (suggests without stating); a reader infers (draws a conclusion). The ending implies that she survives; most readers infer it.
fewer / less. Fewer for things you count (fewer sources); less for amounts (less evidence, less time).
comprise / compose. The whole comprises the parts (The anthology comprises twelve stories); the parts compose the whole (Twelve stories compose the anthology). Careful writers avoid is comprised of; use consists of.
affect / effect (the hard part). Affect is usually the verb; effect the noun. But effect as a verb means to bring about: The council effected change (it made change happen) differs from The council affected change (it influenced change already under way).
disinterested / uninterested. Disinterested means impartial, with nothing to gain (a disinterested judge); uninterested means not interested.
flout / flaunt. You flout a rule (ignore it openly); you flaunt a possession (show it off).
precede / proceed. Precede = come before; proceed = go forward.
ensure / insure / assure. Ensure = make certain; insure = buy insurance; assure = tell someone confidently to remove doubt.
adverse / averse. Adverse = harmful (adverse effects); averse = unwilling (averse to risk).
eminent / imminent. Eminent = distinguished; imminent = about to happen.
censor / censure. Censor = suppress content; censure = officially criticize.
regardless, not irregardless, which dictionaries label nonstandard.

The meaning travels from writer to reader. If you are describing what a text suggests, use imply; if you are describing what you or other readers conclude, use infer.

Words that build words

Word families help you spell and choose the right part of speech. If you know analyze (verb), you can build analysis (noun), analyses (plural), analytical (adjective) and analyst (person). The same works for interpret, interpretation, interpretive; signify, significant, significance; argue, argument (the e drops), argumentative.

Long academic words are easier to spell by morphemes: ac + com + mod + ate (two c's, two m's); oc + cur + rence (double r, -ence); in + de + pend + ent (ends -ent); sep + a + rate (a rat in the middle); priv + i + lege (no d); ne + ces + sary (one c, double s). Judgment is the usual Canadian spelling, though judgement is also seen.

The Academic Word List, compiled by the researcher Averil Coxhead in 2000, gathers word families that appear across many university subjects: analyze, approach, assess, concept, consist, context, derive, establish, evident, interpret, significant, structure, theory, vary and hundreds more. They are worth knowing precisely, because you will meet them in every course.

One Greek root produces five useful words. Choose the form your sentence needs: you analyze a passage, write an analysis, compare two analyses, and take an analytical approach.

Precise literary terms and Latin abbreviations

In literary analysis, technical terms show precision only when they are used correctly:

motif (a recurring element that develops a theme) vs symbol (an object or image that stands for something beyond itself).
juxtaposition (placing two things side by side to invite comparison).
verisimilitude (the appearance of being true or real).
liminal (in-between: a threshold, a transition, a state between two others).
ambivalence (holding mixed or opposing feelings at once), not indifference.
unreliable narrator (a narrator whose account the reader has reason to doubt).

If a simpler word says the same thing just as precisely, use it. Jargon that hides meaning is a weakness, not a strength.

Latin abbreviations are useful in parentheses and notes, but MLA style generally prefers words in your running prose:

e.g. = for example; i.e. = that is (restating, not giving examples). Follow both with a comma in Canadian and MLA usage: (e.g., the rink, the river).
etc. = and so on; never after e.g. (the e.g. already says the list is incomplete).
et al. = and others (for authors).
cf. = compare, not see.

Worked example

Let's edit an ISU paragraph for spelling and vocabulary

Draft: The anthology is comprised of twelve stories, and less critics have studied the later ones. Okafor infers that the final story is a crisis for the narrator, i.e. the rink, the river, the school etc. all fall apart. This phenomena effects the readers ambivilence, which is evident irregardless of their background.

comprise. is comprised of → comprises (or consists of).
fewer / less. Critics can be counted: fewer critics.
imply / infer. Okafor is the writer making a suggestion: Okafor implies, or, if Okafor draws a conclusion from the text, Okafor argues.
i.e. / e.g. / etc. The list gives examples, not a restatement: (e.g., the rink, the river and the school), with a comma after e.g. and no etc.
classical plural. This phenomena → this phenomenon (singular).
affect / effect. The phenomenon influences the feeling: affects.
possessive, spelling and usage. the readers ambivilence → readers' ambivalence (plural possessive; spelled ambi + valence); irregardless → regardless.

The anthology comprises twelve stories, and fewer critics have studied the later ones. Okafor implies that the final story marks a crisis for the narrator, as everything familiar (e.g., the rink, the river and the school) falls apart. This phenomenon affects readers' ambivalence, which is evident regardless of their background. (A further revision might also ask whether affects readers' ambivalence says precisely what the writer means; perhaps deepens readers' ambivalence.)

Hands-on activity

Build a Grade 12 word bank and error search

You need: a scholarly article or long feature article, your last two marked essays, a document or notebook.

Read two pages of the article. List ten academic words you would like to use. For each, write the sentence you found it in, a dictionary definition, its word family and your own sentence.
Find any classical plurals in the article. Write singular and plural.
Go through your marked essays. Add every vocabulary or spelling error to your error list.
Open your current draft and use the Find function to search for each confusable in this lesson (infer, imply, less, comprise, effect, i.e., etc., data, criteria, phenomena). Check every hit.
Teach a family member one confusable pair with an example sentence. Explaining it fixes it in your memory.

What to look for: definitions checked in a dictionary, not guessed; correct word-family forms; a searchable error list; at least three real corrections in your own draft.

Just for fun

The plural of octopus is usually octopuses. Octopi is common and dictionaries now accept it, but it was built on a Latin pattern even though the word comes from Greek, so a show-off can say octopodes. The octopus, which has eight arms and no interest in grammar, has not expressed a preference.

Your turn

Give the plural of criterion, thesis and stimulus.

Correct: This criteria is the most important.

Choose: The poem (implies / infers) that the speaker has left home.

Choose: There are (fewer / less) scholarly sources on recent novels.

Correct: The collection is comprised of nine essays.

What is the difference between e.g. and i.e.?

Use effect correctly as a verb in a sentence.

More practice: warm-up

What is the singular of data?

Give the plural of analysis.

What does disinterested mean?

Is irregardless standard English?

Spell the word that means to provide room for: a-c-?-o-m-?-d-a-t-e.

More practice: on your own

Correct every error: The media is a important medium, and it's affects on teens are imminent in many studies.

Write a sentence using flout and one using flaunt.

Explain why ambivalence is more precise than mixed feelings in a literary essay, or whether it is.

Write the word-family forms of interpret (noun, adjective, person).

Correct the punctuation and usage: Several symbols e.g. the rink, the river, the snow etc. recur.

Challenge

Write three sentences about a novel you know, using juxtaposition, motif and liminal precisely.

A classmate writes The data shows throughout a science-themed report, and the teacher writes The data show in the margin. Explain the disagreement and what the student should do.

Explain the difference between The council affected the new policy and The council effected the new policy, and invent a context where each would be accurate.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which sentence is correct?

Which sentence uses infer correctly?

Which is correct?

Which sentence uses e.g. correctly?

A judge with nothing to gain from a case is:

What is the plural of hypothesis?

Which uses fewer or less correctly?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: at Grade 12, spelling and vocabulary (expectations 3.1 and 3.2) are mostly about academic precision: classical plurals (criterion/criteria), confusable words (imply/infer, fewer/less, comprise), word families, precise literary terms, and correct use of abbreviations such as e.g. and i.e. Spell checkers do not catch most of these errors.

How to help: play a dinner-table game with confusables: one person gives a sentence, others decide imply or infer, fewer or less. Encourage your teen to keep a personal error list from marked work and to search drafts for those words before submitting.

Common difficulties:

Using criteria and phenomena as singulars.
Writing infer when the author or text is suggesting something.
Is comprised of, less with countable nouns, and e.g. followed by etc.
Using impressive literary terms loosely (ambivalent to mean uninterested).

Some usage questions (such as data as singular or plural) depend on the field. Consistency and following the teacher's guidance matter most.