Academic success depends on research and publications – Philip Zimbardo

Academic writing plays a crucial role in day to day life of students at various universities. As per a study, academic writing is one of the skills students find difficult to develop. Even students from native English-speaking countries struggle to maintain the standards of academic writing. These challenges arise from a poor understanding of any of these:

• Structure of academic writing
• Purpose and different types of academic writing
• Plagiarism
• Research methods

If you can relate closely to any of these above challenges, then you are not alone. One of the common questions we get to read these days on platforms such as Quora is “What is academic writing?”

Academic writing is a skill that you need to learn to convey your ideas, share your thoughts, and engage in scholarly conversation.

It is a challenging task for any writer to present a good academic paper that is clear and effective, and which can be well received by the readers.    

Academic writing is different from personal writing as this mode of writing follows its own set of rules and practices. In this format, ideas are usually organized in a formal order and are supported by references from academic literature.

Making a good research work on your chosen subject holds the key while writing your academic paper. Without proper research work, it will be very difficult to put your ideas and thoughts on paper about the subject.

We present here a blog for the benefit of people who are willing to learn the ways of writing an academic paper in a proper and effective manner. In this section, we will  discuss  some key points that you need to know while learning about academic writing.

Topics to be covered in this blog are:

• What is Academic writing?
• Structure of Academic writing
• Different types of Academic writing
• Features of Academic writing
• 5 components of Academic writing
• Tips for writing Academic paper
• Academic writing v/s other forms of writing.

Let us discuss each of these above topics in detail.

What is academic writing?

Academic writing is done to express your understanding and perspective of an idea or a topic clearly and logically. This format is used for publications that are read by the teacher and researchers or presented at conferences. Academic writing can be understood as being any writing assignment given and carried out in an academic setting. In this format, writers need to follow certain specifications while preparing academic papers.

It is very important that students should learn academic writing. This format teaches them how to think accurately and clearly convey the complex ideas in a well-structured manner. It helps the students to show that they have profound knowledge about a specific topic.

Academic writing is called by various names such as essays, term paper, etc. but all of them follow the same guidelines of writing.

Troubles in writing papers? Don’t waste your time and contact an academic writing service which provides students with professional essay help of any kind: from short essays till huge dissertations and research papers.

Structure of Academic writing

Academic style of writing has certain specification mentioned in it that needs to be followed while preparing Academic papers. Following a standard writing structure allows you to present a well-written paper that catches the attention of the readers.

An academic paper has 3 different sections such as:

• Introduction
• Main Body
• Conclusion.

Let us discuss each of these sections in detail.

• Introduction:

Introduction is always an important part of any writing work. A good introduction provides a broad overview about your blog or research paper. This part must be used by writers to get connected with the readers and take them along to read your Academic paper further.

The introduction part must address the following aspects:

• It should provide background about the topic
• It must include all the subtopics that will be discussed in the blog
• It may include a relevant quote
• It may contain a question that connects the audience easily.

Overall, the introduction plays a vital role in providing a brief overview about your topic to the reader.

You can also read this blog to know similar kind of information about writing “Introduction” in your blog.

• Main body: It is the longest section of your paper and may contain several subtopics in it. It is a place where the author needs to discuss about their chosen topic in detail.

While writing in the main body authors must bring together all the important research work they have made about the topic or the subject they have chosen to write. Here, the authors must provide proper evidence which supports the discussion they are making in the blog.

In the body part authors should discuss about each topic in detail they have mentioned in the introduction part. Relevant images and infographics can be included here to convey the message more clearly to the readers.

The body part must be divided into different paragraphs and they must be arranged properly so that it helps the readers to easily understand the subject.

You can also read this blog that discuss about writing “Main body” part in your writing.

You may use an online summarizing tool to generate the Summary of your academic paper.

Conclusion: It is the last section of the blog or the Academic paper. This section can include the some of the following aspects:


• This part can be used to summarize all the main points that have been discussed throughout the blog or the Academic paper
• Authors can put a question to the reader to keep them engaging
• Authors can share a brief information about their next paper. This will help the readers to know about their upcoming publications.
• Ask the readers to send their feedback about how they find reading your research paper. This will help the author to connect with their readers strongly.
• Encourage your readers to share your research work within their circles, so that the authors will get more readers.

Readers can also read this blog that discuss about writing “conclusion” part in your writing.

Different types of academic writing:

Academic writing involves 4 major types of writing. They are as follows.

Let us discuss each of the types in detail.

• Descriptive: Descriptive writing is one of the simplest forms of writing. It is characterized by descriptions of objects, places, persons, etc. In this type, authors need to describe an experience, a character, etc.

In this kind of writing, it is required for the authors to use proper writing structure that helps the readers not only understand what they are describing but also visualize it. An example of this type of writing is to provide short information or a summary of the blog.

• Expository: Expository style of writing demands the writer to investigate an idea, collect and evaluate the evidence that supports the idea, and provide a discussion that involves that idea.

This style of writing is similar to a persuasive style of writing. However, compared to the persuasive style of writing, the expository type of essay is shorter in length. In this style, the purpose of the writer is to explain the subject to the reader.

• Persuasive: Persuasive is one of the most demanding types of Academic writing. The reason is this style of writing requires extensive research process. Here writers need to make a research about a topic, form their own opinion about it, generate evidence that supports their opinions, and explain the subject to the reader.

The structure of this style of writing is as follows:

• Write an introduction with a clearly defined thesis statements
• Write body section with evidential support
• Conclusion.

• Narrative: Narrative is one of the most common types of academic writing. Here in this style, the writer needs to narrate a story or tell a story. While writing a narrative assignment the writer must catch the attention of readers.

In this style of writing, it is not necessary for the writer to follow any particular format; yet, it is advisable to include an introduction section, a body section, and a conclusion section.

Features of academic writing:

Academic writing uses language precisely and accurately. It is also very formal in its expression and is choice of words. This is where it differs from most other forms of writing, such as blogs or articles.

Academic writing has many features. This is a list of some of them:

Let us discuss each of the above-mentioned features separately.

• Complexity: Written language tends to be more complex compared to spoken language. This form of writing has more grammatical complexity. A larger number of grammatical structures are used to create complex sentences. In this style, ideas as well as sentence structures can be complex.

• Formality: Academic writing is relatively formal. In this type of writing, you need to avoid colloquial and expressions. The words and phrases used here are formal.

• Accuracy: Being accurate in the use of vocabulary is very important while writing academic papers. The purpose of this writing is to provide correct and accurate information to the readers.

• Objectivity: In academic writing, the main focus should be to provide information about the subject that you want to discuss with your audience, rather than discussing about yourself. For this reason, while writing academic writing usage of nouns will be more than verbs.

• Precision: It is very important to provide facts and figures while writing academic writing.

5 components of Academic writing

In this topic, we will be discussing 5 important components of academic writing that will help you to write your papers. Below is the list of these 5 important components of academic writing.

Let us discuss each of them in detail.

• Research:

Making a detailed research is very important while preparing your Academic paper. Initially, you need to choose a topic on which you want to write your Academic paper. Make sure that you select such a topic in which you have a good interest in it.

Once you have chosen your topic, make a detailed research about the topic. To carry out your research work take help from all the resources available. These could include:

• Reading books, journals, etc.
• Visiting various websites that speak about your topic
• Participating in webinars, seminars, etc.

While making research work, note down all the important points as this will help     you to include it in your writing.

• Planning:

Once you decide about the topic you want to write,  the next step is to make a proper plan. Prepare a standard plan about how you will be presenting your views and ideas into your Academic paper.

Here you should prepare a layout about what items you will be including in your writing and where you are going to include them. As your Academic paper would consist of three important sections i.e., introduction, main body and conclusion,  you should know which type of information should be included in each part.

• Writing:

Once you  made your plan thoroughly, the next step would be to start writing your paper according to it. Make sure you follow a standard writing structure and create an outline before you begin to write.

Here, you need to know properly about all the subtopics you will be including in your paper. Start your writing with a clear introduction and make sure that you utilize this part to  connect with your readers easily. In the introduction part let your readers know what are all the information they are going to get by reading your research paper.

While writing the main body, make use of all the research work you have carried out and use them properly to convey some useful information to the readers. Here, you can include few images and infographics to help the readers clearly understand the subject.

In the conclusion part, summarize all the points that you have discussed in your writing. In this part, you can encourage your readers to share feedback about your research paper so that it helps you to analyze your writing work.

• Word choice:

Choosing proper words while writing your Academic paper is a challenging task. It takes lots of practice and thoughts while making effective word choice. Effective word choice means thinking about each word that you use. Here you need to carefully choose the words that can clearly express your ideas and views to the reader.

Make sure that you make use of right words that help to connect with your readers easily. Thinking about the reader and understanding their expectations will help you to make a better word choice.

• Review: Once you complete your writing work, the next task is to review the content properly. Here you need to check for any spelling mistake or any grammatical errors that exists in your writing, and should correct them.

Content review means looking back at what you have written and checking for the following:

• The grammar used in the sentences
• The use of long or confusing words, if any
• Broken links
• You may use a Grammar checker to Remove the Grammatical mistakes.
• Missing images, etc.

The content review helps you to make the content look good. It removes any grammar or spelling mistakes that exist in your writing. You can take the help of a third person who can read your entire document and review it for any mistake.

Tips for writing academic paper

In this section, we will discuss a few important tips that will help you to enhance your academic writing skills. Some of the tips to write a good academic paper are as follows:

Let us discuss each of these separately.

• Get to the point: While writing, you need to quickly outline all the main points you will be discussing in the entire document. This helps the readers to know what kind of information they will get by reading your document.

• Know your audience: You should always know to whom you are writing your paper. As every set of audiences is different from others, and so does their expectations. Once you know your target audience than you can write up well so that you provide them the useful information that they are looking for in your paper.

• Provide supporting evidence: In your document, mention the complete list of sources from which you obtained the information that you have provided in your academic paper.

• Follow a proper writing structure: Following a proper writing structure will help you to make your paper more readable to the audience. Investing in a proper writing style can enhance the quality of writing and make your paper become widely accepted by readers.

• Take the help of online classes: These days, several resources are available online to teach you how you can present the best academic paper. So, take the help of online education platforms such as Simpliv that provides some wonderful courses on how you can improve your writing skills.

Overall a lot of research work has to go into academic writing; however, some of the tips discussed above can also help in writing a better academic paper. You can also read this blog to know more guidelines to write a research proposal.

You can visit this website here to find few examples of Academic writing.

Academic writing V/S other forms of writing

Every form of writing is different from other forms. Some forms like Academic writing follow certain guidelines which may not be suitable while writing another form of writing, say, business writing or journalistic writing.

In the below discussion, we will see some of the key differences that exist between Academic writing and business writing.

Academic writing v/s Business writing

Academic writing	Business writing
1. Academic writing is formal; it uses the third person.	1. Business writing is informal and is more direct and concise.
2. In this style of writing, long sentences are used while writing.	2. In this style of writing, long sentences are not preferred while writing.
3. Complex words are used in writing.	3. Here, simple words are preferred in writing.
4. The usage of passive voice is preferred.	4. The usage of active voice is preferred.

The above table provides a few differences between both these styles of writing. Both these styles have set up their own guidelines that writers need to follow.

The below table describes a few formats that require a specific style of writing.

Academic writing	Business writing
Books	Press releases
Research article or research paper	Business emails
Thesis	Letters
Conference papers	Memos
Essay

Now we will discuss key differences between Academic writing V/S Creative writing

Academic writing V/S Creative writing

Academic writing	Creative writing
1. To write the paper in the Academic style of writing, writers need to follow a few guidelines set by this style.	1. To write the paper in the Creative style of writing, writers need not to follow any specific rules and regulations.
2. Academic writing is more focused on explaining about something Ex: explaining the results of an experiment. It provides some facts to convince the reader about its explanation.	2. Creative writing is more focused towards telling a story.
3. Academic writing is used to teach or inform about a topic to its audience.	3. Sometimes Creative writing is used to promote an agenda or create public awareness.

Conclusion:

We hope that through this blog we have provided some valuable information about Academic writing to our readers. Knowing how to write an academic paper is vital to share your views and ideas to the audience.

So, to help you in this blog we have discussed some valuable tips about how one can start writing an academic paper along with other useful information such as features, 5 different components, the structure of academic writing, etc.

Apart from this information, if you think something more needs to be discussed in this blog, then please send your suggestion in the comment section.

In addition to all this information that we have shared in the above discussion, we recommend you check this library of online courses on Academic writing provided by Simpliv. This library contains some valuable courses that we believe that they can be of very useful to you.

If you think that this blog on Academic writing has been successful in finding some valuable information, we request you to please share it with your circles so that it can reach to someone who is looking for similar kind of information.

5 Key Takeaways:

1. Active voice is preferred while writing Academic papers.

2. Academic writing has three important sections such as: Introduction, Main body and      Conclusion.

3. Long sentence are used in Academic style of writing.

4. In Academic style of writing, writers needs to follow certain specific guidelines while writing.

5. Complex words are used in Academic style of writing.