Psychological perceptions

There are times when the way that an individual writer thinks about something ('perceives it') interferes with the rules of formal grammar that readers may expect. This is particularly true of the perceptions of some student writers when they do not meet the expectations of their teachers and markers. There are some areas where usage seems to be changing - where the way that most people normally talk (using slang, casual expressions and informal grammar) is not the way that most academics like to write.

One of the tasks of a student writer is to learn the appropriate way of addressing an audience. In academia, the appropriate audience is that of lecturers and professors who are themselves careful to write clearly - the best reason for most concern about 'poor writing skills' among students - allied with a respect for, and deep knowledge of, the rules of traditional formal grammar. It is often because of these that academics often correct, amend or even reject students' writing. The rules are often conservative by nature, traditional in transmission, and formal. Their great strength is that they form one register, or 'social dialect', which in broad terms makes it easier to express meaning accurately and clearly. That is why it is valuable for students to master this particular code.

(Of course, as with all registers and genres of writing, academic English has variation. Different writers have their own styles; advanced students should be well on the way to evolving their own styles. Some, mostly younger, academic teachers affect a loose style in their speaking, e.g. of lectures, and even in their writing. Older academics may well frown on this kind of thing, as 'pandering to the young [not, note, 'kids']', or 'trahison des clercs' (betrayal of the learned community). Students, like all writers, should study their readers. Write in the style most likely to please, or at least be acceptable to, the people who are going to assess your papers. Within this, develop your own personal style.)

Notice some of the articles in the category:psycholpercepts for examples of places where usage is changing, and where variation happens because of individual ways of thinking about the language used.