Academic writing, like any genre of writing, carries a set of expectations and conventions. Meeting these expectations can be challenging if you are new to an academic setting, as you may need to adjust your writing approach and style.
Acquiring the academic style takes time, especially as you encounter the even narrower conventions of your degree field. But some core features of academic writing will remain:
Purpose
Academic writing aims to inform, analyze, or persuade, rather than entertain. Though creativity, humor, and personality can complement the goal of an essay or article, they should not distract from your essay’s purpose.
Formal Language and Tone
Academic writing uses professional language and tone. You should avoid using informal language, such as slang, cliches, and buzzwords. On the other hand, you should also avoid parroting what you think to be “proper” academic language by using vague and wordy expressions made up of needless jargon. Avoid falling into the trap of “trying to sound smart.” Instead, be confident in what you are saying and make sure you have a firm command of the words you employ—precision in language is crucial in an academic essay.
Evidence-Based
Academic writing draws conclusions from experience and evidence. Even in personal narrative essays, general points must be illustrated or supported by specific details. Analytical and persuasive essays use evidence from sources, such as journal articles, books, and other primary sources, in order to reinforce claims and key points.
The brief video below gives general advice on how to incorporate information from outside sources into an academic essay. Specific citation requirements depend on the academic discipline.
Point of View
The general advice given to burgeoning academic writers is to use an impersonal style written in the third person perspective (i.e., he, she, they, it….). This is to help writers avoid the temptation to focus too much on themselves instead of on the topic, key points, and evidence.
Though using the first-person isn’t widely recommended for beginning college writers, academic publications often employ the first person to great effect. And depending on the discipline and genre, the first-person might not just be acceptable—it might be preferable.
The video below gives some tips on using the first-person in academic writing.
Organization
The way you organize an essay depends on the type of essay you are writing. A descriptive essay might be organized spatially, moving from one location or physical feature to another. A comparison/contrast essay might present all of the key points for Topic 1 in the first half of the essay and all of the key points for Topic 2 in the second half. A historical analysis might detail the chronological development of a major social issue, before focusing on its modern manifestations. A persuasive paper might go one by one down the major points of supporting evidence, move on to the opposing viewpoint, then transition to a common ground solution.
Because you might be working with complex information and abstract ideas, it may be useful to employ transitional phrases to guide readers through your ideas. Examples of transitional phrases:
- For example
- Furthermore
- However
- On the other hand
- In other words
- Consequently
- To summarize,
It may also be useful to use signposts to help readers make sense of your essay’s path. Signpost examples:
- In this essay, I will argue….
- My aim in this paper is to show…
- In the last section, I illustrated “….” In this section, I will argue that “….”
Focus on Audience
The writing you do within an academic setting will depend on your intended audience. In most cases, your audience will be your professor, who will expect the essay to have many of the characteristics mentioned above. In some cases, however, your assignment may ask you to conceive of an audience outside of the academy, an audience that would likely respond better to non-academic language but still expect accuracy and professionalism.