Unprofessional Words to Avoid in Writing

You know that swear words and texting abbreviations (LOL) should not appear in your school reports, of course. But there are other types of unprofessional words that can sabotage your work when writing a research paper or resume. Many should be avoided in professional and technical writing.

Yet we can get so comfortable with some words that we don’t realize that they are offensive or unpleasant to readers.

Abbreviations should not be used in professional or academic papers, for example. These sound too lazy or slouchy for serious work, so they can affect your grade in a bad way. This is a short list of the abbreviations you should avoid.

are not instead of aren’t
cannot instead of can’t
could not instead of couldn’t
did not instead of didn’t
does not instead of doesn’t
do not instead of don’t
had not instead of hadn’t
has not instead of hasn’t
have not instead of haven’t
can not instead of can’t
could not instead of couldn’t
do not instead of don’t
does not instead of doesn’t
he does instead of he’d
he would instead of he’d
he is instead of he’s
he will instead of he’ll
I would instead of I’d
I will instead of I’ll

Other words we use can seem unprofessional for many reasons. Some are childish, some are slang, and some just make us cringe for unknown reasons. Consider this list of cringe-worthy words the next time you polish a draft of a report or an essay.

Note: Writing a short story or personal experience essay with quotes? Many of these words are much more acceptable in creative writing.

airhead
ain’t
amped
anyhow
anyways
armpit
awesome
babe
bag
barf
bash
bling
bonkers
booze
bummed
bummer
buzz (as in good feeling)
call (as in judgment)
cheap
cheesy
chow
con
cool
cop
corny
crack open
crabby
cram
crap
crappy
croak
crush (as a noun)
cushy
dead (use deceased)
dinky
dirty
ditch (as a verb)
dope
dork
dump
earful
eye candy
fart
flip out
freebie
fuzzy
goof
gross (as in unpleasant)
grungy
guts
hairy
hang out
hot (as in attractive)
hurl (as in throw up)
hyper
i.d.
jerk (as a noun)
knockout
kook
laid back
loser
max
maxed out
mega
nark
neat (as in likable)
nuke
nuts
party (as a verb)
piece of cake
poo
poop
poot
pro
psycho
puke
punk
rag
screw up
smash
snooze
snow job
stink
stinky
sucker
sweaty
throw up
veg
vibe
whiz
yo
zap