VOCABULARY CHOICE: Adjectives   VOCABULARY SHIFT Many of the most common English adjective sound childish when used in a formal text. When in doubt, use a thesaurus or a search engine, such as Google, to search for more formal equivalents. Informal: This kind of approach has led to big changes in human-machine interaction. Formal: Such an approach has led to major changes in human-machine interaction.   The following table gives further examples: Informal   Formal (written) a lot of, lots of many, numerous, a large number of big large, great, high, major small, tiny minute, insignificant hard difficult, arduous, laborious good suitable, appropriate, effective, efficient, beneficial, advantageous bad poor, inappropriate, unsuitable, ineffective, inefficient, unsatisfactory, defective this kind of this sort of a these kinds of such (a/an/Ø) different various, a variety of; separate, individual; other   AVOID COLORFUL LANGUAGE Other adjectives may seem inappropriate because they are too dramatic, colorful or idiomatic, and are therefore more appropriate in spoken rather than in formal, academic English. The table below lists some common examples of informal adjectives and their more formal equivalents. Slang: Impact occurred at a huge velocity. Formal: Impact occurred at a high velocity.

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