: Re: Do academic papers have to be necessarily grammatically correct? I notice that a lot of beautiful literature contains sentences that are not grammatically correct. Here are some examples:

@Debbie451

While this belongs on academica.SE, I'd like to say this: most thesis writers are not linguistics, and don't have dedicated editors to revise their texts. You can't expect a computer engineer, or a chemist to speak perfect English.

As mentioned above, as long as they communicate their message, with the appropriate structure and coherent arguments, they have done their job.

Some additional notes

And while you are strictly asking about grammar, I would also like to mention jokes and unprofessionalism is also welcome, to a certain degree. You are allowed to make your readers enjoy your thesis, too. Some people might not like this, though, and you might get critique for it.

I can't find the source, but I remember reading that thesis papers strictly did not include images/graphs/illustrations back in the day, but this changed some decades ago, and was very well welcomed. Innovation won!

Who makes the rules, anyway? It's your thesis, and as long as you get people to read it, and your university to publish it, you've won!

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