Say you see a number of large yellow animals on the African plain. Without words, we might see the differences, but we could not talk about the differences. Finally, words enable us to talk about lions in general a day later, when the lions are no longer there. Academic v. Informal Discussion Academic discussion relies heavily on knowledge of relevant concepts and terminology. Informal discussion is commonly about specific events in the here and now.
Academic discussion deals with concepts and theories, hypotheses and ideas.
Academic writers talk more generally about the world. On the street, you might talk about your nineteen-year old cousin Vinny from Detroit taking a job at Mac Donald's. Academic discussion might talk about changing rates of unemployment, demographic factors affecting occupation selection, or the expansion of the service industry. The choice of word for any concept is essentially arbitrary. Words come to have meaning by how they are used by native speakers.