Academic and Technical Vocabulary

An academic word is a word you use in school writing across many subjects, like "analyze," "evidence," or "conclude." A technical word is even more exact. It belongs to one subject and names a specific part, tool, or process. In science, "evaporation" is a technical word. In math, "perimeter" is a technical word. A general word like "big" could mean almost anything, but a technical word like "magnitude" tells your reader something exact.

Look at the table below. It shows how the same idea can be written three different ways.

Informational writing explains facts to a reader. If you are writing about the water cycle, you want to use technical words like "evaporation" and "condensation" instead of "the water goes up" or "it turns back into water." Technical words are shorter and more exact, so your reader learns the correct term for each step. You can check a science Domain-Specific Vocabulary list to find the right term for your topic.

Try this: read your sentence and ask, "Could this word mean something else?" If a word like "thing" or "stuff" could mean many different objects, replace it with the exact name. Instead of "the thing in the cell," write "the nucleus."

Persuasive writing tries to convince a reader to agree with an idea. Strong academic words make your argument sound confident and clear. Instead of writing "recycling is good," you could write "recycling reduces waste and protects natural resources." Words like "reduces" and "resources" are academic words that sound more convincing than "good" or "bad."

When you want to sound even more confident, you can borrow words from an Advanced Academic Vocabulary list, such as "essential," "significant," or "beneficial." These words help your reader take your argument seriously.

Academic word: A formal word used across school subjects, such as "analyze" or "conclude."

Technical word: A word that names an exact part, tool, or process in one subject, such as "evaporation."

Informational writing: Writing that explains facts or teaches the reader something true.

Persuasive writing: Writing that tries to convince the reader to agree with an idea or opinion.

Precise: Exact and clear, with no room for confusion about the meaning.

Context clues: Hints in nearby words or sentences that help you figure out what a new word means.

Take a plain sentence like "The animal made noise." Now make it precise for a subject. In a science report you might write "The frog croaked to attract a mate." Notice how "croaked" is a precise, almost technical word, and "attract a mate" adds an academic reason. Try this with three of your own sentences: one about weather, one about an animal, and one persuasive sentence about a rule at school.

Related lessons

• Precise Terms and Academic Words