Academic Writing in English: The Most Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Nominalisations: When Verbs Are Better

German academic texts are full of nominalisations -- nouns formed from verbs. In German this sounds professional; in English it makes the text heavy and impersonal.

Typical German pattern: 'The conduct of the investigation yielded...'
Better in English: 'We investigated and found...'

Articles -- the Invisible Trap

The German article system differs fundamentally from English. Particularly problematic areas include:

• Zero article with abstract nouns: 'Research shows...' (not: 'The research shows...' when speaking generally)
• Definite article for specific references: 'The results of our study...'
• Indefinite article for first mention: 'A new method was developed...'

German academics often overuse definite articles because in German almost every noun has an article.

Hedging: The Art of Qualification

German academics tend to make overly direct claims. In English-speaking academia, hedging -- the careful qualification of claims -- is essential.

Too direct (typical German style): 'Our results prove that...'
Appropriate (academic English): 'Our results suggest that...' / 'The data indicate that...'

Important hedging expressions include: suggest, indicate, appear to, seem to, may, might, could, it is possible that, it is likely that, tend to.

Tense Consistency

Another common error is inconsistent tense switching within a section. Academic English has clear rules:

• Present simple: Generally accepted facts and theories
• Past simple: Describing your own methods and results
• Present perfect: Summarising research gaps and the current state of knowledge

Subject-Verb Distance: Keep Them Close

In German, it is common to separate subject and verb with long insertions. The bracket structure of German allows this. In English, however, a large distance between subject and verb causes confusion.

Poor: 'The participants, who had been recruited from universities in three different cities and who had all passed the initial screening test, completed the survey.'

Better: 'The participants completed the survey. They had been recruited from universities in three cities and had all passed the initial screening test.'

Comma Errors: Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices

In German, you can often connect main clauses with a comma. In English, this is a comma splice -- a grammatical error. Two independent clauses need either:

• A full stop: 'The results were clear. They confirmed our hypothesis.'
• A semicolon: 'The results were clear; they confirmed our hypothesis.'
• A conjunction: 'The results were clear, and they confirmed our hypothesis.'