Quick guide to
academic writing
Academic writing is a style of writing that needs to be developed.
What is expected of you changes as you progress through your course
and move up the levels.
This is a brief, generic introduction to:
1. Understanding the task
2. Reading and notetaking
3. Planning and structure
4. Writing the first draft
5. Editing
6. Being critical
It also signposts the range of resources created by the skills@cumbria
team. All of the resources mentioned can be found on:
[Link]
1. Understanding what is required
• Take a look at the University Assessment guidelines which cover
formatting, online submission and Appendix 3C (all important!).
• Know your submission date and work out a timetable for
researching, reading and writing, allowing time for editing.
Breaking your assignment into small chunks makes it more
achievable. Time management is key to academic success.
• Print off your Learning Outcomes (LO) and pin them where you can
see them. It is essential that you meet all of the LOs, missing even
one will mean a fail. So make sure you understand what they
mean; clarify with your module lead if you’re not sure.
• Make sure you know what type of assignment you have. The
format may be an essay, a report, a presentation or reflective
writing. Each of these requires a different approach and more
information on these can be found on Writing at university.
• Make sure you understand what the assignment is asking you to
do. The clue is often in the “Instruction” word in the title. For
example: Discuss the importance of … Or Critically evaluate …
More examples of instruction words and their definitions are
provided on our Essay page.
• Brainstorm/ Mindmap / Spider diagram. Whatever you call it and
however you do it (post its, Mindmapping software or a large sheet
of paper and a pen) find a way to record the assignment title, LOs,
what you already know and what you need to find out to answer
the question. This will help you to be more targeted with your
reading.
Resources.
• Assignment guidelines: [Link]
• Time management : [Link]
public/94jgbwctZzdmHxxkfgHrGt4h9r
• Writing at university: [Link]
• Essays: [Link]
• Finding information: [Link]
skills@cumbria 2024
2. Read and take notes
• There is no short cut, you have to read around the topic to decide
what points need to go in your assignment. One of the
differences in writing at university is that every point must be
supported by good quality evidence, not just opinion. Without
evidence you can’t write an evidence-based, academic
assignment.
• Start with your module reading list for the key texts. Start with
some broad reading to get an overview of your topic and then use
OneSearch to hone specific reading to answer a particular
aspect. Make sure you use academic resources, rather than
random sources you find on the web. Our Finding information
page has much more on this topic.
• Start early! This gives you time to build your knowledge base and
make connections between various sources, placements and
your Learning Outcomes. Make yourself comfortable and break
your work into timed chunks.
• Reading at university is different to reading for pleasure as you
rarely read an academic book from cover to cover. You use the
chapters, index and keywords to identify the most relevant parts
of a text. Previous students have shared their top reading tips on
our Reading and notetaking page.
• Reading shouldn’t be a passive exercise: you need to engage
and interact with the reading, asking questions and taking notes.
Highlighting can be a useful tool but for notetaking to become a
part of your information processing, you need to understand and
summarise the key information. There are different styles of
notetaking and examples can be found on our Reading and
notetaking page.
• Make sure you record all the referencing details for every source
you have read. You will need them to write your assignment.
Our Referencing page has lots of information on this.
• Reading and notetaking: [Link]
academic-reading
• Referencing: [Link]
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3. Planning and structure
• What have you learnt? What information do you need to give to
answer your assignment and meet your Learning outcomes (LO)?
• A mindmap is useful at this stage too, recording how you are going
to break up your main points into sub-points. Add your evidence to
the relevant point and map to the LOs.
• Can you then turn this into a linear plan which identifies what you
are going to talk about in which order? This provides a series of
headings with your evidence listed: a map to help you navigate
your content. If you find it difficult to plan and just need to start
writing, use a reverse outline afterwards; see section 5.
• Each heading will become a separate paragraph, focussing on one
main point per paragraph. Paragraphs are really useful for
organising your thinking and leading the reader through a logical,
structured discussion.
• An academic essay normally has an introduction, main body
formed of a series of paragraphs, and a conclusion. How many
words are assigned to each section will depend on the assignment
guidance and marking grid. If the introduction is assigned 5% of
the mark then give it roughly 5% of the words. The same applies
to each LO or section depending on how the assignment has been
structured.
• A report or reflective piece will have a different structure; check out
the specific information for these assignment types on Writing at
university
Resources
• Writing at university: Planning, paragraphs, linking and
more [Link]
• Using your literature: [Link]
Skills/Reading/Using_Your_Literature/story_html5.html
• Making your notes count: [Link]
ap/Skills/Reading/Making_your_notes_count/
story_html5.html
skills@cumbria 2024
4. Write the first draft.
• Don’t complete this the night before your submission date! You
need to allow time to come back to your draft and edit.
• That blank bit of paper can be daunting so just start writing; you
can edit it later. You don’t need to start at the beginning: start on
a section you feel most confident with and build it up that way.
Think of the way films are shot out of sequence and then spliced
together at the end.
• Take your heading and flesh out the point you want to make in
that paragraph, supported by your evidence. Good notes come in
useful here as they provide the basis for your writing. See the
resources box for some relevant videos. Make sure you remove
your headings from the final version—unless it is a report.
• There are many paragraphing acronyms e.g. PEEL (see the
Writing at university page) but basically each paragraph should
have one main point, which is made clear in the opening
sentence. Then you should bring in your evidence which you
analyse, discuss or apply, depending on your assignment brief.
Finish with a summary and/or a link to your next point.
• In this way each paragraph forms a mini essay which is linked to
the next point. Linking your paragraphs to show your thinking or
argument, helps the reader (and marker) navigate through. If you
are writing out of order you may need to come back to this.
• There is a tendency to try and sound “academic” but it is more
important to make your point clearly, supported by the evidence.
Your academic voice will develop over time, along with your
subject or professional terminology. Avoid using colloquial or
chatty phases and don’t use “I” unless it is reflective writing.
• The introduction is where you set the context and layout how you
will answer the question. It can help to write this at the end, when
you know what you have said. If you wrote it at the start, revisit it.
• Your conclusion will pull together all of the points you have made
during the main body; add nothing new apart from maybe
recommendations or an action plan if required.
5
5. Editing: Write without fear, edit without mercy
• No writer submits their first draft; every book and article you read
will have been extensively honed and edited. You need to allow
time to do the same.
• Try to leave a decent amount of time between writing the first draft
and revisiting it. This gives you a chance to see it with fresh eyes
and be more objective. Printing it out also helps to gain some
distance and also gives you the option of scribbling over it.
• Don’t try and do everything at once, revisit it a few times with a
different purpose each time.
• Start with the overall structure. If things deviated from your plan or
you didn’t have one, use a Reverse outline to see if everything is
in the best order. For this, note by each paragraph what it is about
in a couple of words (or highlight your topic sentence). This shows
you what you wrote about in what order. Do you need to adjust it?
Perhaps you need to move things or merge paragraphs if they are
duplicating the same point. Maybe you are covering too much and
the paragraph needs splitting? If your paragraph takes a whole
page, that is a clue you need to split it. Short, three line paragraphs
may need to merge with others.
• Look at your argument. Are your paragraphs linked in a way that
leads your reader through your argument? Is every point relevant
to your assignment and Learning Outcomes? If not remove it.
• Often a first draft has too many words. The steps above should
help to remove duplication and irrelevant points but you can
eliminate wordiness too by removing unnecessary words; see the
link in Resources.
• Check your evidence. Is every point supported by a citation that is
correctly formatted?
• Is your grammar, spelling and punctuation correct? Read it out loud
or use a screen reader function. This will help to identify where the
pauses should be and if a sentence doesn’t flow. Note what you
find challenging, for example if your sentences tend to be too long,
and keep an eye on this.
skills@cumbria 2024
6. Being critical
• Your assignment feedback may highlight that you are being too
descriptive and need to be more critical. Being critical is a state
of mind that you will develop as you move up the levels and at its
core it involves questioning everything. Think of April Fools
Day when we take nothing at face value and check the stories
that appear that day to see if they are real or just jokes.
• Criticality starts with your reading and note taking—question what
you read, link it to your experience, compare and contrast to
other sources. Use critical questions (found on our Critical
page) to evaluate the literature.
• When it come to writing, try to focus on the WHY and HOW,
rather than reporting the WHAT and WHEN which may lead to
descriptive writing. Only use description to set the scene.
• When you are presenting your evidence, don’t just report what an
author says but interpret it for your context and identify its
significance, ie why have you included it? Why is it worth writing
about? How does it impact on practice.
• Critical writing has more depth, it doesn’t just skim the surface
but covers fewer points in more detail. It tends to have an
“argument” or stance and that critical “voice” gets stronger as you
move up the levels.
• These are all skills that you will develop over time. Our Being
critical page has lots more information.
Resources
• Being critical: [Link]
• Editing section: [Link]
• Reverse outline: [Link]
cc8f4eff-0762-430d-b4a2-af29b0536522
• Eliminating wordiness: [Link]
onlineresource/topics/eliminating-wordiness/
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Presenting your work
• Font size 12
• Clear font eg Arial
• Double or 1 ½ line spacing
• Leave 2 lines between paragraphs
• Provide appropriate margins
• Include page numbers on all pages
• Keep to within 10% of the specified word count
• Reference using correct style. Cite them right for most courses
• Provide a reference list
Further support from Skills@cumbria
Feedback tutorial This tutorial show you how to use the feed-
back from your lecturers to improve your
writing. [Link]
Life/Learning/Skills-Cumbria/Learn-Well-at-
Cumbria/Working-with-feedback/
Headstart Headstart is a set of online tutorials that
you can work through at your own pace.
They cover each level and are a good way
to practise and develop your academic
skills.
Feedback on 500 Send your assignments to
words Skills@[Link] or use the Student
Enquiry point to submit. Identify which 500
words you want us to focus on and any
particular aspect. We don’t proof read and
can’t comment on your mark but we can
suggest key areas to develop.
Appointments We provide 30 minute 121 appointments
through Teams. Book here: [Link]
[Link]/
Webinars We provide webinars on Finding
information, Academic writing , Referencing
and more. Check the Webinar page for the
schedule:
[Link]
skills@cumbria 2024