Six tips to improve your academic writing

1. Know what you want to say

Before you start writing, you should have a good idea of how you’re going to answer the question your paper needs to address. Your academic writing should not just be descriptive; your reader wants to know your perspective on the subject you’re writing about. Analyse and discuss the topic and express your argument and thesis clearly. As you develop as an academic writer, you will aim to make an original contribution to your field of research.

2. Only include relevant information

If you have to write a 3000-word paper on the influence of Machiavelli’s ideas on modern politics, would it be a good idea to spend 1000 words giving biographical information on Machiavelli’s childhood in 15th century Florence?

If your paper needs to discuss the effects of COVID-19 on the tourism sector in Greece, should you include lots of detailed medical facts on how the virus affects the human body?

The answer to both questions is no. It’s important to stick to the subject and get to the point.

3. Write well-structured papers

If your academic papers aren’t well structured, they will be difficult to understand. Academic writing should have a logical structure, with an introduction, the main body (divided into relevant sections) and a conclusion. The main body of your paper should also be well structured so that the reader can follow your arguments without too much difficulty. And a well-structured academic text will always be more enjoyable to read than a poorly structured one!

4. Use clear and concise language

Students are often tempted to overcomplicate their language in academic writing, believing that this will make their paper seem more “academic”. However, this is usually a mistake, because it tends to make your writing less clear and filled with unnecessary extra words. Read the two sentences below and think about which one is better:

(i) Brands have an important part to play, strategically speaking, as assets of an organisation, business, etc., and they play a very important role when it comes to that organisation or business trying to achieve advantages in the realm of competition against rivals in its sector.

(ii) Brands are strategic assets and key to achieving a competitive advantage.

The second sentence contains the same meaning as the first sentence, but it is clearer, more concise and much easier to read.

5. Use academic language

You should use appropriate language in your academic English writing, and this usually means avoiding many of the words you would use in your everyday spoken English. Compare these two sentences:

(i) Another thing to think about is the chance of inflation getting worse.

(ii) Another factor to consider is the possibility of inflation increasing.

Although the first sentence is completely fine grammatically, it uses basic, everyday words, which makes it sound too informal for an academic text. The second sentence replaces these words with their more “academic” equivalents.

6. Use academic style

Related to the previous tip is the matter of academic style. Academic English writing has its own stylistic conventions, and academic writers generally need to adhere to them. While, for example, contractions, personal pronouns and phrasal verbs may be acceptable in blog posts, business emails and magazine articles, in academic writing they are usually avoided. Consider the two sentences below:

(i) I think it’s possible that house prices will go down next year.

(ii) It is possible that house prices will decline next year.

By simply avoiding the personal pronoun (I think), the contraction (it’s) and the phrasal verb (go down), the second sentence has a much more academic tone.