Introduction
Writing is the main way that academics talk to each other, so academic writing is probably the most important skill in academic settings. Additionally, it is the most challenging skill for the majority of students to acquire. This page talks about what academic writing is, going into detail about its most important parts and offering tips on how to improve your academic writing. At the end, there is a list for you to check your understanding.
What does it mean to write academically?
Writing that shares ideas, information, and research with the larger academic community is called academic writing. There are two main types of academic writing: student academic writing, which is used to test students at university and in schools to get them ready for university study, and expert academic writing, which is writing that is meant to be published in an academic journal or book. Students and experts are both expected to follow the same rules when writing academically, which can be hard for students to do. Academic writing is different from other types of writing because it has the following traits:
structured; based on evidence; critical; balanced; precise; objective; and formal.
What makes academic writing unique
Structured
There should be a clear structure to academic writing. The structure will usually come from the type of writing. An essay will have an introduction that includes a thesis statement, clear body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion. A report will have an introduction that includes the aim or aims, a method section, a discussion section, and so on. The writing should make sense and flow logically, and the different parts should be clearly linked. Before you start writing, you need to plan carefully to make sure that the final product will be well-organized, with a clear focus and a logical flow of ideas.
Based on Evidence
In academic writing, you should back up your opinions and arguments with proof. Because the writing is often based on information from experts in the field, it will be important to cite the information correctly, such as by using in-text citations and a reference section.
Critical
Academic writing does more than just tell what happened. You should not just believe everything you read as an academic writer. Before you decide whether and how to use the information you are writing about in your own work, you need to look at it critically and make judgments about it. This is what critical writing is. In order to be truly critical about something, a writer needs to do a lot of research so that they can really understand the topic.
In a balanced way
Writing for school should be fair. This means not being biased and thinking about all sides of the issue. As mentioned above, any research, evidence, or argument can be questioned. It is important for the academic writer to make their position clear on a specific topic, or how strong their claims are. You can do this with hedges, like saying “the evidence suggests…” or “this could be caused by…” or with boosters, like saying “clearly” or “the research shows.”
Precise
To make sure the reader understands what you mean, academic writing should use clear and precise language. This includes using technical (i.e. subject-specific) words when they make the meaning clearer than a similar non-technical word. In some cases, it may be necessary to define technical terms, but only if the term is not commonly used by others in the same field and the reader will not easily understand it.
Objective
Writing for school is objective. To put it another way, the focus is on the facts and arguments, not on the writer. Because of this, academic writing tends to use more nouns and noun phrases than verbs and adverbs. It also tends to use more passive structures, like “The water was heated” instead of “I heated the water.”
In a formal way
Lastly, academic writing is more formal than writing you do every day. It tends to use longer words and more complicated sentences, and it doesn’t use contractions or slang or informal words or phrases that people might use in everyday speech. Researchers have made lists of words and phrases that are used more often in academic writing than in non-academic writing. These lists are meant to help students of academic English, such as the Academic Word List, the Academic Vocabulary List, and the Academic Collocation List.
Conclusion
Improving your writing for school
When you first start writing for school, it can seem scary because it’s a very specialized field. You can get better at academic writing by paying attention to what your teachers or classmates say and looking for specific things you can do better. Reading more is another way to improve your academic writing. Reading academic journals or books can help you learn more about what makes academic writing different from other types of writing.