Are you interested in learning about academic writing? It's an important skill whether you're a student or just want to improve your writing. In this article, we'll explore what academic writing is, why it matters, and some practical tips to help you get better at it. So, let's start this journey to become a better writer together! So, just have a look at the topics that we'll be talking about in this article. You can click any of the following topics to directly jump into it.
Table of Contents:
What is Academic Writing?
Academic writing refers to a particular style of expression. Writing in college or university is different from writing in school. As a student of a higher level, you should know how to write clearly, to have an interesting and arguable point of view, to construct paragraphs and essays that are coherent and focused, and so on, basically how to write a good academic essay.
As a college or university student, you will be engaged in reading and writing activities that will make you read critically, think, analyze, and write with clarity. Whether you are a student or teacher, academic writing skills are necessary in today’s world. Essays, reports, presentations, and research papers are just examples of documents written in the academic style.
- Academic writing, when used appropriately, presents a polished and professional image.
- Academic writing demonstrates your strong composition skills, excellent grammar use, and consistent style.
Characteristics of academic writing include:
- A formal writing style that adopts a formal tone.
- Use of the third-person rather than first-person.
- A clear focus on the issue or topic.
- Precise word choice.
Academic writing is therefore formal writing. Academic writing is to some extent complex, formal, objective, explicit, and responsible.
Formal academic writing style avoids:
- Colloquial expressions:
Which are shared in “spoken language” and are “conversational expressions”. Words such as ‘cute’, ‘yeah’, and ‘movie’ are colloquial words.
- Jargons:
These are the words that are significantly related or concerned with a specific activity, profession, or group. Jargons are technical words used by a group of people, usually in a specific profession such as in advertising, politics, medicine, etc. In academic writing try not to use jargon too much.
- Slangs:
These are informal vocabulary items that are fashionably used and can be changed with time. Slang is considered impolite and unrefined and has no place in academic writing words such as ‘the movie was a bomb’, ‘a fabulous party’, etc.
- Clichés:
These are the phrases and sentences that are used so often that they have lost their freshness and impact. You might have come across phrases like ‘clean and fresh’, ‘soft as a baby's skin’, and ‘last but not least’, all these are examples of clichés and good writers try and avoid using them.
What is an Academic Essay?
An essay is a piece of writing that generally shows the writer’s point of view on a particular subject. An essay discusses, describes, or analyzes a topic, it can range in length from one paragraph to more. It can be about anything and written in almost any style. It can be serious or funny, analytical or argumentative. It can describe personal opinions, or just report information. Learning to write academic essays will take time and practice.
Here is a rough sketch for writing an essay:
Essay writing is the most essential part of the academic process and essays are the backbone of your writing.
Writing an academic essay can be a daunting task, but do not be discouraged. If you are organized and follow the guidelines that we are giving you in this article, writing an essay will pose no problem for you whatsoever.
Your reason for writing an essay may be a college or university assignment, whatever your purpose or topic, the basic essay outline does not change. All essays are always constructed in the same way irrespective of whether the main point of the essay is to express an opinion or whether the main point is to lay out the method of doing something, (process), or to compare and contrast two or more things. Every essay has an introduction, a middle or body (paragraphs), and a conclusion.
Summary:
- Writing in college or university is different from writing in high school.
- Good academic writing follows the rules of good writing.
- Characteristics of academic writing include a formal writing style, a formal tone, the use of the third person, a clear focus on the issue or topic, and precise word choice.
- Academic writing is complex, formal, objective, explicit, and responsible.
- Learning to write academic essays will take time and practice.
- Essay writing is the most essential part of the academic process.
- Essays are the backbone of your writing.
- An essay is a short piece of writing that generally shows the author's point of view on a particular subject.
- An essay discusses, describes, or analyses one topic. It can describe personal opinions, or just report information.
Different Types of Essays:
The following are some of the most common types of essays that we are going to deal with in this article.
- Descriptive
- Compare and Contrast
- Cause and Effect
- Narrative
- Process
- Argumentative
- Analysis
Descriptive:
A descriptive essay could describe...
- A tree in the garden.
- A visit to the children's ward of a hospital.
- A hot summer day.
- What an athlete did to make it to the Olympics.
The descriptive essay provides details about how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds. It can also describe what something is, or how something happened. These essays generally use a lot of sensory details exciting our senses of smell, taste, touch, and seeing.
Compare and Contrast:
A compare and contrast essay may discuss...
- Similarities and differences between two places, like Karachi, and Peshawar.
- Similarities and differences between two religions, like Christianity, and Islam.
A comparison essay usually discusses the similarities between two things, while a contrast essay discusses the differences only.
Cause and Effect:
A cause-and-effect essay may explain...
- Why do volcanos erupt, and what happens afterward?
- What happens after a loved one's death?
The cause-and-effect essay explains why or how some event happened, and what resulted from the event. This essay is a study of the relationship between two or more events or experiences. The essay could discuss both cause and effect, or it could simply address one or the other.
A cause-and-effect essay usually discusses the reasons why something happened. An effect essay discusses what happens after a specific event or circumstance.
A narrative essay could tell of...
- My brother's and my cycling experience.
- A boring trip to the mountains.
- My near-death experience at the swimming pool.
The narrative essay tells a story. Generally, the narrative essay is conversational in style and tells of a personal experience. It is most commonly written in the first person. This essay could describe a single event or simply a mundane daily experience.
Process:
A process essay may explain...
- How to properly plant a tree.
- How an individual came to learn computer applications.
A process essay describes how something is done. It generally explains actions that should be performed in a series or in steps. It can explain in detail how to accomplish a specific task. The essay could be in the form of step-by-step instructions, or in a story form, with the instructions or explanations given along the way.
Argumentative:
An argumentative essay may persuade or convince a reader that...
- He or she should use public transportation instead of driving a personal car.
- Cats are better pets than dogs.
Why should you use public transportation? Just look at the sketch below:
Analysis:
An analysis essay may analyze...
- How does Rehan's writing present his life's experiences?
- How does Shakespeare present his character 'Othello'?
- The strengths and weaknesses of the movie, 'Pathaan'.
- The use of color in a painting.
An analysis essay analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, and methods of someone else's work. An analysis essay can be written analyzing an essay, story, book, poem, movie, or work of art. Generally, these essays begin with a brief overview of the main points of the text, movie, or piece of art, followed by a detailed analysis of the work. It should then discuss how well the author or the artist has accomplished the goals.
How does Shakespeare present 'Othello'? Look at the sketch below:
How to Find an Essay Topic?
The first step in essay writing involves narrowing down the broad topic. If your English language teacher has given you a topic to write an essay on, this is the usual practice in our education system, which just makes your job easier. But if the teacher has given you the freedom to choose your topic, then you have a world of topics to talk about. Try and choose a topic that you have some knowledge about, but if the subject or topic seems too broad and too wide, it is important for you to narrow down the topic. If you don't, your essay will be a big mess of scattered ideas.
So, narrowing down a broad topic at the beginning is important as it will give you a fair idea of what to focus on. Good essay topics are neither too broad nor too narrow.
We do realize that writing an essay is hard enough. Choosing a topic to write about is even harder. How many of you have been given an essay topic 'My Friend' to write on? Well! It's a very broad or general topic, but if you have ever written an essay on this topic, what did you write about? Let us help you narrow down this broad topic 'My Friend' through a mind map or brainstorming activity.
As we know brainstorming is a useful way to generate or produce more ideas. Sit down with a pencil and paper, or at your computer, and write whatever comes into your mind about your topic. Keep writing for a short time, say 5-10 minutes. Do not stop changing what you have written or correcting spelling or grammar errors at this stage. After a few minutes, read through what you have written. You will probably throw out most of it, but some of what you have written may give you an idea that you would like to develop.
How does an academic essay look?
Every essay is made up of three parts:
- Introduction
- Body or Middle
- Conclusion
It often begins with a general statement that gives the main idea of your essay. The purpose of the introduction is to:
- Let the reader know what the essay topic is.
- Inform the reader about your point of view.
- Arouse the reader's curiosity to read your essay.
2. Body or middle of the essay follows the introduction:
It consists of a number of paragraphs in which you develop your ideas by giving supporting details. Your paragraphs should relate to one another and give an impression of a smooth flow without any jumps.
- Limit each paragraph to one main idea. Don't try to write or discuss more than one idea per paragraph.
- Add relevant supporting details that should support, strengthen, and prove your point of view.
- Use transition words or appropriate connectors to ensure that sentences are connected with each other and there is a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.
3. Conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay:
It summarizes and restates the main points of the essay.
- Conclusion gives the essay a sense of completeness.
- Leaves a final impression.
How does formal academic writing look?
There are many features of formal academic writing and we'll explore just a few of them here. Writing conventions are different from speaking conventions. When we speak, we may use informal, every day, or conversational language, whereas, in more formal academic essays formal language is required when we have to follow language and grammatical rules, etc.
The following are some of the main differences between informal and formal writing.
Informal:
- May use informal words and expressions such as kids, guy, awesome, amazing, etc.
- May use contractions, such as can't, won't, shouldn't, etc.
- May use abbreviated words, such as photo, TV, etc.
- May use active voice, for example; We have noticed that...
- May use short and simple sentences.
- May use the first-person pronoun 'I' or me and the second-person pronoun 'you'.
Formal:
- Avoid using informal words and expressions rather substitute kids with children, guy with person, man or boy, awesome and amazing with wonderful, etc.
- Avoid contractions, write full words, such as cannot, will not, should not, etc.
- Avoid using abbreviated words, instead use full versions like photographs, television, etc.
- Use passive voice, such as, it has been noticed that...
- Longer and more complex sentences are preferred.
- Avoid personal pronouns and instead use either plurals or third person pronouns 'he', 'she', or 'they'.
These are just some of the differences between formal and informal writing. The main point to remember is that both are correct. It is just a matter of tone and setting.
Formal English is used mainly in academic settings and professional or business communications, whereas informal English is casual and is appropriate when communicating with friends and people you are close to.
Choose the style of writing keeping in mind what you are writing and to whom? But whichever style you write in formal or informal be sure to keep it consistent, do not mix the two.
- If you are writing a cover letter for a job application or a college academic essay, you would write in a formal style.
- If you are writing a letter to a friend, writing something personal, then you write in an informal writing style.
So, this is the comprehensive guide to Academic Writing in English. If you find this article helpful, don't forget to share it with those who are looking for a comprehensive guide to Academic Writing in English. Thanks for reading."