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• contracted forms: doesn’t, can’t, we’ll etc.

• informal nouns: kids (rather than children )

• informal adjectives: trendy ; prefer topical

• informal expressions of quantity / size / appearance: a lot, big, tiny, nice

• informal conjunctions and adverbs: so, till, like ; prefer thus, until, such as
• informal phrasal verbs: check out, get around, work out ; prefer examine, avoid,

resolve
• going to when will or the present tense could be used

• use of you

See 15.9 in English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style.

20.11 Don’t underestimate the importance of spelling
mistakes

I cannot overestimate the importance of doing a final spell check as the very last
thing you do before submitting your manuscript.

A variation of Murphy’s law predicts that last-minute revisions to your work will
inevitably contain typos!

Referees have been known to initially reject a manuscript on the basis of incorrect
spelling alone (though I suspect that sometimes this is for political reasons!).

In any case, referees do not like to see spelling mistakes, and some may think that
there is an implicit relation between not taking time to check your spelling and pos-
sibly not checking your data! Make sure you choose the correct version of English –
US or UK – corresponding to your chosen journal. Their style guide for authors
should in any case tell you which spelling system they require.

Spelling checkers only pick up words that are not contained in their dictionaries.
Mistakes and typos like the ones below would not normally be found because they are
words that are in the dictionary (though not with the meaning that the author intended).

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