Academic writing is an essential skill said that the students require to be successful in the world of academia. Whether you are a student, researcher, teacher or employed at any other position in school or university, the quality of your writing determines your success or failure. You can have excellent empirical content and evidence but if you are not able to put it in words in a presentable fashion, you cannot succeed in this domain. Academic writing is also very different from writing for other purposes, as its goal is generally to inform. It sometimes becomes difficult to keep this writing intriguing and engaging. It is also not very easy to condense complex research, studies, and findings into one long piece of writing that reads fluidly, and is easy for everyone to understand. So before you begin writing your next essay, article, or assignment for email, go through these tips to give the text some fluidity and make it easy to understand for everyone.
1. Know your audience
Unlike other forms of writing, when it comes to academia, your readers already have the requisite knowledge needed to understand complex ideas in your chosen field. So, don’t waste time and space in your introduction establishing the foundation you’ve built your ideas on; know that your audience is primed and ready to learn.
2. Do your homework
Before you begin with the academic writing task, make sure you know exactly what you want to say. Always research before the commencement of the writing process enlist the salient points that you wish to cover in your writing. Stick to these points and make sure all the content that you include is informative, relevant and interesting.
3. Cut to the chase
Make sure that you use a formal diction and remove all the fluff and literary cliches from your work. Do not use unnecessarily long sentences and keep the work clear and concise so that it is uncomplicated and well written without being overly verbose.
4. Show some style
Academic papers, like other types of writing, require a specific style and format in order to be readily accepted. You do not have to be repetitive or use the dead words for padding your writing. Do not write in circles for impressing your readers but make sure you are writing matches how you speak. While the writing shouldn’t be casual, it shouldn’t be too hard to follow either.
5. Know your words
Academic writing requires you to make intelligent arguments and persuade others. If you are using big words in your writing only for sounding smart, it might have an opposite effect on your readers. Keep away from using obscure language that reduces the clarity of intent of your arguments. Make use of that thesaurus judicially and avoid changing perfectly good writing to something that means completely different.
6. Avoid personalization
Most of the academic writing does not require you to refer yourself through an ‘I’ or ‘me’. Always stick to objective language and for improving your academic writing style, do not write in the first person unless specifically mentioned in the requirements.
7. Research and list the sources
The best academic papers are the ones that are well researched. Make a list of all the articles and content that you go through during the research and create a list of all the supporting evidence that you use. List all the references in chronological order and explicitly state the title and the name of the author in your list of references or bibliography.
8. Read it out loud
Reading your content out loud is an excellent way to pick out any errors. This will help you in identifying any sentences that are not flowing properly, mistakes in punctuation or any four use of tenses. You can also make someone else read your paper out loud to you. This will help you in concentrating on the floor of ideas and on the arguments made in the paper and make corrections wherever necessary.
9. Edit and proofread
This is the golden rule for any writing irrespective of the content, format or style. The process of Editing your paper should be ongoing and is extremely essential to ensure good quality writing. Polish the existing words and eliminate any excessive words to make sure that you are writing is eloquent and persuasive. You can also avail online editing and proofreading services for assignments and academic writing where the expert writers read over your written content and present feedback on the errors.
In academics, you got a lot of chances and opportunities to develop your skills as a writer. This is an enduring process but having excellent writing and editing skills will help you not just in your academic life, but in your career as well. Listen carefully and understand the feedback that you received from your supervisors, teachers and peers. Work on this and question it with an open mind to take their advice and improve your academic writing by taking it to greater levels.