Tips to help improve with academic writing

Good academic writing is essential for every student, academic or researcher. There are several things that you can bear in mind that will help you to improve your academic writing.

First you should create a focused and informed argument out of your good ideas and intended topic. Your argument needs to be true and arguable. At the beginning you should think of your argument or hypothesis as changeable; as you test your argument, your ideas will become more focused. Academic writing requires analysing and not summarising your focused argument by first considering your topic from all sides and then examining how these parts relate to each other or to the whole. When you analyse, you break the whole into parts so that you might see the whole in all the different ways your readers might. Some readers may agree with you, some may not. Think about how you want to own your ideas; and how you will leave your mark on your ideas, either by analysing them in a new way, organising materials in ways that make your ideas stand out, or by offering a counter argument that no one has thought of.

Also consider: Who is your audience? When writing an academic paper, you must not only consider what you want to say, you must also consider to whom you are saying it. It’s important to determine not only what you think about a topic, but also what your audience is likely to think. What are your audience’s biases and values, expectations and knowledge base? Remember, your audience is NOT you.

Additionally you should ask yourself: What is your purpose? If your audience knows less than you do on the topic, your first purpose is often instructional or an informative stance. If the audience knows more than you do, your first purpose is usually to display familiarity, expertise, and intelligence. Be as specific and detail oriented as possible. Don’t expect your readers to know what you know. You are the expert in this study.

A few more tips to bear in mind are as follows:

1. Create an objective, confident voice

Use the third person (this means not using 'I')

Most of the time you will be expected to use the third person as it enables you to show that you are being objective.

2. Use appropriate language for your audience and purpose

Academic writing need not be complicated, but it does need to have an element of formality. Your choice of words for an academic assignment should be more considered and careful.

After you have completed your academic paper and have checked it repeatedly, you may want to consider using a professional academic proofreading service. Express Proofreading offers a specialist academic proofreading service and is widely recognised as the leading company in this field.