Writing
Developing your writing capabilities is an important part of your study
at university. You need to understand the different types of academic
writing you’re required to use and how to plan and structure your work
and appropriately acknowledge your references.
1.
Academic writing
2.
Types of academic writing
3.
Planning your writing
4.
Structuring written work
5.
Grammar, spelling and vocabulary
6.
Editing and proofreading
7.
Evidence, plagiarism and referencing
8.
Resources and support
Academic writing
Academic writing is generally quite formal, objective (impersonal) and technical. It is formal by
avoiding casual or conversational language, such as contractions or informal vocabulary. It is
impersonal and objective by avoiding direct reference to people or feelings, and instead emphasising
objects, facts and ideas. It is technical by using vocabulary specific to the discipline.
Different disciplines also have different styles and structures of writing. For example, some
disciplines, such as in the humanities, expect longer paragraphs, which include topic sentences to
show how your argument is structured. Other disciplines, for example in the sciences, expect short
paragraphs, with no topic sentences, which are denser in factual information.
To be a good academic writer, you will need to learn the specific styles and structures for your
discipline, as well as for each individual writing task. Some ways to do this are to:
ask for more information from your lecturer/supervisor/tutor
study the writing style of the academic articles in the most prestigious journals in your
discipline
look at the successful writing by other students in your subject area.
Formal language
You can make your writing more formal through the vocabulary that you use. For academic writing:
choose formal instead of informal vocabulary. For example, ‘somewhat’ is more formal than ‘a
bit’, ‘insufficient’ is more formal than ‘not enough’.
avoid contractions. For example, use ‘did not’ rather than ‘didn’t’.
avoid emotional language. For example, instead of strong words such as ‘wonderful’ or
‘terrible’, use more moderate words such as ‘helpful’ or ‘problematic’.
instead of using absolute positives and negatives, such as ‘proof’ or ‘wrong’, use more
cautious evaluations, such as ‘strong evidence’ or ‘less convincing’.
Objective language
Although academic writing usually requires you to be objective and impersonal (not mentioning
personal feelings), often you may still have to present your opinion. For example, you may need to:
interpret findings
evaluate a theory
develop an argument
critique the work of others.
To express your point of view and still write in an objective style, you can use the following
strategies.
Move information around in the sentence to emphasise things and ideas, instead of people
and feelings. For example, instead of writing ‘I believe the model is valid, based on these
findings’, write ‘These findings indicate that the model is valid’.
Avoid evaluative words that are based on non-technical judgements and feelings. For
example, use ‘valid’ or ‘did not demonstrate’ instead of ‘amazing’ or ‘disappointment’.
Avoid intense or emotional evaluative language. For example, instead of writing ‘Parents who
smoke are obviously abusing their children’, write ‘Secondhand smoke has some harmful
effects on children’s health’.
Use modality to show caution about your views, or to allow room for others to disagree. For
example, instead of writing ‘I think secondhand smoke causes cancer’, write ‘There is
evidence to support the possibility that secondhand smoke increases the risk of cancer’.
Find authoritative sources, such as authors, researchers and theorists in books or articles,
who support your point of view, and refer to them in your writing. For example, instead of
writing ‘Language is, in my view, clearly something social’, write ‘As Halliday (1973) argues,
language is intrinsically social’.
Different disciplines often have quite different expectations about how objective or subjective your
writing can be. For example, in some fields it is fine to use first person, such as 'my view is that...',
while in other fields this is not acceptable. You should look at the convention used in published
articles in your discipline area, and check with your lecturer.
Technical language
As well as using formal language, you also need to write technically. This means that you need to
develop a large vocabulary for the concepts specific to the discipline or specialisation you’re writing
for. To do this, take note of terminology used by your lecturer and tutor, as well as in your readings.
Be careful about the meaning of technical terms. Often the same word has a different meaning in
another discipline. For example, ‘discourse’ is a technical term used in multiple disciplines with
different meanings.
Make sure you also understand and use the key categories and relationships in your discipline, that
is, the way information and ideas are organised into groups. For example, in the discipline of Law,
law is separated into two types: common law and statute law. Knowing these distinctions will help
you structure your writing and make it more technical and analytical.
Resources
This material was developed by the Learning Hub (Academic Language and Learning), which offers
workshops, face-to-face consultations and resources to support your learning. Find out more about
how they can help you develop your communication, research and study skills.