Commonly Confused Words in Academic Writing

When writing, there are words that you simply must avoid. However, for some of these words, the problem is in their use. Misusing or misplacing a word can confuse your readers and reduce the quality of your work.

Learning to distinguish between commonly misused or confused words in the English language can not only improve the quality of your work but make it clearer. In case you are unsure about the use of a certain word, it’s advisable to use a professional proofreading service to help you.

This article discusses some of the commonly confused words in the English language as well as how you should use them.

Table of Contents

1. Researchers
2. However
3. This/these or that/those
4.  Who vs that
5. Who vs whom
6. Which vs that
7. Affect vs effect

Researches

The word ‘’research’’ functions as both a noun and a verb.

                         I must conduct ‘’research’’- Noun

                         I ‘’research’’ amphibians- Verb

Research is frequently misused as a plural noun. However, there is no plural form of the word research. It can only be used as a third-person verb.

                         He ‘’researches’’ amphibians- Correct

                         I must conduct ‘’researches’’- Incorrect

The word ‘’research’’ is an uncountable noun and as is with most uncountable nouns, it does not come in plural form. While writing, ensure you use the singular form of research or use an alternative word like study.

However

The word ‘’however’’ can be used in two different ways. Firstly, to express contrast or in place of the word but. Secondly you can use ‘’however’’ to show disregard or regardless of how or in whatever manner.

To tell the difference between the two you must understand that the first one is followed by a comma while the second one is never followed by a comma. The first form of ‘’however’’ is described as a transitional or conjunctive adverb while the second one is a plain adverb.

This/These vs That/Those

These two sets of words are known as demonstrative pronouns. Their difference is the distance they are used to describe. ‘’This’’ and ‘’these’’ are used to indicate closeness while ‘’that’’ and ‘’those’’ show more distance.

You use these words in academic writing to refer to something you have just mentioned. Since you are referring to words that you have mentioned not long ago, the most appropriate pronouns to use are ‘’this’’ and ‘’these’’.

For example,

        The experiment was incomplete. ‘’This’’ means we will have to go over it again.

Using ‘’that’’ in place of ‘’this’’ in this context will give the impression that you are referring to information you highlighted a long time ago.

Who vs That

‘’Who’’ is a word used to refer to a person. It’s frequently misused when writers use it to describe a thing and not a person.

            The writer ‘’who’’ wrote a book on world peace won a Nobel Peace Prize- Correct

            The writer ‘’that’’ wrote a book on word peace worn a Nobel Peace Prize- Incorrect

It would be wrong to replace the word ‘’who’’ with ‘’that’’ in this context as we are referring to a person and not a thing.

Who vs Whom

To remember the difference between these two words, you must understand that ‘‘who’’ is used in cases where ‘’he or she’’ would be appropriate. ‘’Whom’’ is used where pronouns ‘’him or her’’ would be appropriate. It’s also important to note that ‘’whom’’ appears only after prepositions such as in, around, upon etc.

Below are examples of sentences whereby the words ‘’who’’ and ‘’whom’’ replace the pronouns ‘’she’’ and ‘’her’’.

        ‘’She’’ left her garden unattended- The lady ‘’who’’ left her garden unattended left town.

          It was the armed robber that robbed ‘’her’’- There is the old lady ‘’whom’’ the man robbed.

Grammatically, ‘’who’’ is considered a subject or the word doing the action. ‘’Whom’’ is the object or the word being acted on.

Which vs That

To understand the difference between these words, you must understand the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. A restrictive clause refers to a set of words that determine the meaning of a sentence and when removed, it changes the meaning of the sentence. The word ‘’that’’ signifies a relative clause.

A nonrestrictive clause on the other hand, refers to words that add extra information. These words are not of primary importance and are not significant to the meaning of a sentence. In US English the word ‘’which’’ marks the beginning of a nonrelative clause; The information that follows is not of importance.

It’s important to note that nonrestrictive clauses are set off with commas. In UK English, the word ‘’which’’ can be used in a restrictive clause as well as a nonrestrictive clause. However, the word that only applies to restrictive clauses. The use of commas applies the same in both UK and US English.

Affect vs Effect

In speech, ‘’affect’’ and ‘’effect’’ sound very similar. This makes it easy to confuse the two while writing. Both words can function as both nouns and verbs. However, you must be careful as they have two completely different meanings.

Most of the time ‘’affect’’ is used as a verb while ‘’effect’’ is used as a noun. For example;

              Although the civilians were not ‘’affected’’, the floods had an ‘’effect’’ on the building.

From the above example, ‘’affect’’ is used to mean to have an effect on while ‘’effect’’ means the result of being affected.

The word effect is mostly preceded by the article a/an. However, there are some cases that require you to use ‘’effect’’ as a verb. In these cases, you want the word ‘’effect’’ to mean to cause or bring about effects. For example;

           The drug has already ‘’effected’’ positive results on the patients.

In other cases, ‘’affect’’ can also be used as a noun. This is especially in psychology and other academic fields. In these fields, ‘’affect’’ is commonly used to refer to feelings or emotional responses. For example;

             Experts are interested in the role of ‘’affect’’ in political decision-making.