Simple Tips to Improve Your Academic Writing

Academic writing is a must-have skill for literally every university student out there. As with anything in life, the only real way to develop this skill is with practice. So to help you out, we've compiled 7 basic tips for you to keep in mind to polish and perfect your academic writing.

1. Write appropriately for your intended audience, which are academics. You'll want to keep your tone formal and avoid using everyday speech and slang. 

2. Don't get too familiar or personal. You're not writing to a friend or a therapist.

3. Write to express, not to impress. Don't waste time trying to make your writing sound flowery or overly stylised. You're not writing fiction, so you don't need to express yourself using literary devices like analogies and metaphors. You're expressing facts, not feelings.

4. Be clear and concise. Get to the point. Avoid tangents and repetition and stay relevant to the topic.

5. If you want to sound convincing, believe in your thesis statement. If you're not convinced yourself, you won't convince others, so find a new topic if you can.

6. Stick to terms and phrases you know, but work on expanding your vocabulary. Don't try to sound too smart if you don't really understand what you're saying yourself, because it will show.

7. Don't take punctuation for granted, not even in non-fiction writing. Clear and concise does not mean monotonous and choppy, and punctuation can help you with this. Don't over- or under-punctuate, do it skillfully. Check out the following link for some basic but need-to-know punctuation rules: https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Study_Skills/grammar-and-punctuation/index.html#/id/5eaff06288d7eb04c5efb43b

8. Take note of tone and punctuation when reading academic literature. As a university student you're probably doing a lot of academic reading anyway, so use those examples of how the professionals write to help you develop and improve your own writing.

For more university writing tips, check out our blog posts on Academic Essay Writing Basics and Exam Writing Tips.

 

 

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