Today we are going to present you with a simple guide for academic writing that will help you improve the quality of your academic writing.
Academic writing is a specialisation that involves writing techniques as well as academic research and proficiency in academic vocabulary and so much more.
Academic writing also means the best kind of academic grammar as well as overall academic integrity when it comes to the entire research paper.
Even after doing that, you need to keep in mind proofreading strategies and so much more. So let us understand how to improve academic writing.
These are very simple ways to improve academic writing so that you can evidentially become better at academic writing and excell at your profession.
SIMPLE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ACADEMIC WRITING
· PLANNING AND STRUCTURING
One of the most important things you can do that is going to be very helpful throughout the entire academic writing process is planning.
Academic writing is not creative writing and academic writing requires step-by-step analytical writing. It required the processing of a lot of information.
Academic writing requires writing clarity. Sometimes that clarity can get lost if you try to remember everything from memory, you need resources nearby. You need to structure those resources correctly.
That is when your planning and structuring come in because they will help you with your academic style and tone and also clarity.
· ONLINE PROOFREADING AND EDITING RESOURCES
Whenever we talk about tips to improve academic writing we cannot ignore online tools that are readily available at your disposal.
In 2023, you do not have to be good at everything. You can have reasonable grammar and you can have reasonable sentence structure. This is because you can utilise some of the best online tools in those aspects.
If you are having problems with grammar then you can utilise Grammarly. If you are having problems with your sentence structure then again you can utilise different apps.
If you are doubtful about the source of your academic writing then you can try out plagiarism detectors such as Turnitin.
Basically, all you have to do is take care of the quality of the content and worry about grammatical errors or simple syntax errors. Those can be fixed easily with any free tool online.
· KEEP THE READER IN MIND
Just like any other kind of writing, you must make sure that you keep the reader in mind when you are doing academic writing.
This is not because it is like a novel where you have to sell a lot of copies. But it is because you will need to utilise this academic writing to advance research on something important.
You must make sure that you keep in mind whether this academic writing is for professors only or if it is for your students.
You must make sure that you utilise technical terms and concepts and break them down according to the level of your readers. If you are writing for undergrad students then you cannot expect to utilise a lot of critical thinking.
However, if you are writing for writers like you as well as professors and researchers then you can hold no bars and write however you want.
· CONVERSATIONAL TONE
If you are new to academic writing and you want to know how to improve academic writing then you need to try this simple exercise.
Instead of trying to develop a style of academic writing, you should utilise what you already know and have. That is your style of speaking during any conversation.
When we talk about utilising the conversational style in your writing we do not mean that you write it informally.
What we mean is that you can utilise a similar tone and similar sentence structures because they are already familiar to you.
You can utilise the same style of simplifying ideas that you use daily when you talk to people and help people understand complex things.
· ALWAYS VALUE FEEDBACK
Feedback is something that is a necessity in academic writing. Academic writing is a special kind of writing where you need to accomplish certain tasks.
These tasks are about helping people with new ideas and complex ideas and simplifying them and doing something that contributes towards ideas.
In that scenario, you must get everything right from utilising strong evidence to having the best organisation along with clear arguments.
It might all be very new to you but these are quintessential factors of academic papers. It is not fiction where there is really no one to judge you because in academic writing they are a lot of people to judge you.
That is why you should always ask for feedback from your friends and your readers as well as colleagues. You must also make sure that you are on good terms with professors whom you can ask for feedback any time you want.
The sky is the limit when it comes to academic writing and you can improve it as much as you want.
· ALWAYS WRITE IN FORMAL
When you are writing an academic paper you must always keep in mind to use academic language.
There are certain things you should avoid and those are colloquial language or the language that you use to communicate informally with your friends.
You should also not use shortened words such as ‘don’t’ or ‘won’t’ etc. While we cannot tell you why this is the case but it is just something that is followed. These words are just considered informal.
You must also make sure to use scholarly language whenever you are writing an academic paper.
In order to do this you can look at academic paper examples but make sure these examples are modern examples.
If you would look at old examples then you might use old language that is not used nowadays.
· PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS
One of the most important things you must keep in mind is to pay attention to details. When we talk about details the first thing that can come to our mind is punctuation.
You must understand the proper use of punctuation because commas are not the same as semicolons. Full stops are not the same as commas.
Using proper punctuation is not just cosmetic but it can actually be beneficial for you to help the readers understand your tone of writing and can add depth to the paper.
Additionally, there are other details such as the sentence structure. If you decide to keep the sentence structure similar throughout the academic paper then it will become boring.
Readers might lose their attention and that is why you should keep it interesting by mixing up complex sentences with simple sentences and even using compound sentences sometimes.
Try playing with the rhythm of the sentence. You should also make sure that changing the sentence structure does not happen between ideas.
You must make sure that Idea transitions happen smoothly. Accordingly, you must make sure to utilise transitional words properly to connect ideas.
· USE ACTIVE VOICE ALWAYS
You must make sure that your writing style is always engaging with the readers as directly as possible.
This is because that can have a very profound psychological impact on the readers.
For example, if you take two sets of writing that express the same ideas, the readers will connect more with the writing that is written in an active voice.
It might be difficult for you to write in active voice sometimes but you must keep on practicing until you write in perfect active voice.
Active voice will help you write in a more clean way that is simple and more direct as compared to passive voice.
You can give more life and make the sentences more dynamic when you write in an active voice. This will make sure that your ideas get through to the readers more effectively.
· VOCABULARY PRACTISE
One of the most important tools you have is your vocabulary. If you do not use it wisely then it can distance your readers from your ideas.
If you use it correctly then it can be very effective for you to express your ideas perfectly. But the question is how do you train your vocabulary?
In order to do that, the first thing you need to do is simply read a lot. You should read research papers that are similar to your topic so that you can get an idea of the commonly used vocabulary.
This will give you a basic idea. You must then implement this idea in the form of practice. Try writing regularly and try finding out if the vocabulary that you are reading is actually going into the writing.
Let us now look at a few commonly asked questions regarding academic writing.
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING ACADEMIC WRITING
· Why is it important to improve your academic writing?
- It is important to improve your academic writing simply because if you want to shine and prosper in your professional development. If you want to improve your academic situation then you need academic writing.
If you are a researcher that needs to publish the results of your research then you need academic writing. Is a professional tool that will help you convey your ideas to the people.
Academic writing can be utilised in any kind of field as long as this field has critical thinking in it. Academic writing is very much important if you want to secure funding for your research work.
If you want your research to go global and if you want to publish them then the formal way to do it is to publish academic writing.
· What are examples of academic writing?
- Academic writing comes in all shapes and sizes. Academic writing can be anything such as research papers that follow every standard structure and methodology.
Academic writing also includes essays that form analysis on a particular topic. These are more common and you can find them throughout higher education in any subject.
Then we come to literature reviews because these are analyses and reviews of existing pieces of literature and are usually critical analyses.
Academic writing also includes dissertations and theses. These are the kind of academic papers that people submit when they present their PhD papers.
Then there are other things like journal articles that are for research findings and then there are conference papers. You can also find case studies and so much more.
· How academic writing is different from other writing?
- Academic writing is different from other types of writing and we can see that when will look at some of the reasons why.
The most important point of difference is the purpose. You can text your friend and that will be called writing but that does not have any educational purpose but when you engage in academic writing then that has a higher purpose.
The second point of difference can be something like the audience because you can expect regular writing or perhaps the writing on a Facebook post to be read by everyone. But when it comes to academic writing you know that it will only be read by researchers and people who are experts in the field and are interested. That does not mean that others do not have the right to read it but that it is highly unlikely that members of the general public will read it.
Then we can talk about things like evidence and arguments where you need to have perfect arguments and evidence. Along with that, other important supporting things when it comes to academic writing along with following a rigid structure and organisation.
You must also have excellent clarity and it is a basic requirement of academic writing. You have no such requirements when it comes to regular writing of any other kind.
· Can academic writing be done with AI?
- The answer to this is yes and no. Yes, any AI can mimic researchers and write academic papers for you. But the question is not whether it can write it but whether those papers can be legitimate.
One of the prerequisites of academic writing is that the writing should be original. It should be the original research of the academician. The paper should use the original logic and arguments of the academician.
An AI can easily do that with enough data but the answers from an AI will not be accepted as academic writing.
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