3 Ways to Improve your Academic Writing Style
You want your readers to focus on your ideas, not your writing. When you’re writing for an academic audience, it’s imperative that your writing be error-free, succinct and as clear as possible so as not to distract your readers from the complex ideas and concepts you are trying to convey. To ensure that your knowledge shines through your writing, try these three tips:
1) Brush up on basic grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.
Don’t let tiny errors distract or annoy your readers. If you need extra help, hire a proofreader! That’s exactly what we are trained to do. Bonus: if you let someone else help with your writing, you’ll have more time to devote to your research.
Along these same lines, make sure you use an active voice in your writing. Oftentimes, especially in more impersonal academic writing, it can be tempting to use passive voice, but truly your writing will be improved by using active voice in most of your sentences. Active voice will improve clarity for your readers and keep your sentences concise and less complicated.
Passive voice: “Inspired by Place-based education, we have expanded the classroom into the surrounding community and natural spaces.”
Active voice: “Inspired by Place-based education, we expanded the classroom into the surrounding community and natural spaces.”
2) Vary your writing.
This is so important as it keeps your writing interesting to your readers. And, interested readers will keep reading! Think about varying your sentence structure and punctuation as you write. Make use of clauses or phrases within your sentences. A simple sentence consists of a single clause. This is useful at times, especially when you want variety in your writing. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses (oftentimes joined by an “and,” “but,” “or,” or “because”). A complex sentence has at least one independent clause plus at least one dependent clause. Take a look at the paragraph below and see if you can identify all the different sentence types within. Do you see how it makes the writing more interesting?
St. Paul School of Northern Lights values children as agents of future change and as capable beings who can positively affect their communities today. We will recognize and foster students’ individualities and encourage them to utilize their knowledge and skills for the common good. Loris Malaguzzi, founder of Reggio-Emilia’s educational philosophy, states, “our task is to help children communicate with the world using all their potential, strengths, and languages, and to overcome any obstacle presented by our culture.” We will achieve these desired results by being intentional about infusing the notions of allyship, identity, empathy, and collectivity into each classroom daily. We believe that students must learn early and often that there are opportunities every day to be an ally and to need an ally; these two ideas are not isolated from each other, nor are we ever isolated in our actions from others. Through teaching about identity, we will ensure students understand what they individually bring to their community. Understanding gifts and roles embedded within their identity can allow the students to authentically fulfill needs and demands within their classroom and beyond. We will teach that empathy is the root of all human connection.
Keep in mind, however, as you are varying your writing to keep it interesting, make sure to avoid repetition. Sometimes, in an effort to make our language sound elegant or more refined, we run the risk of repeating ourselves. So, also remember to be concise. I know it’s a lot to keep track of, but that’s where an editor can really help your writing shine. Especially in academic writing, you have complex ideas to convey and if you keep your writing concise and your wording precise, you’ll be a much more clear communicator.
And this leads me right into my third tip…
3) Your writing is a tool to express your ideas.
You are the expert in what you are writing about. If you’ve done the research, developed your ideas and are writing to communicate your command of the subject matter, then you are the most knowledgeable person about this topic. You don’t need your writing to impress your audience, your knowledge will do that. The job of your writing is to communicate clearly, even if your topic is complex.
Keep your language formal for academic purposes. Use vocabulary that you know and are familiar with, but also work to expand your vocabulary when you can. Oftentimes academic writing demands word precision, and if you don’t have a solid command of the language, especially topic-specific jargon, your writing will fall short.
I know this can seem like a lot of information. Academic writing can feel very different at first, but you’ll get the hang of it before too long. There’s a lot of writing that comes with graduate school and careers in academia, so it’s really worth your investment up front to learn exactly how to craft a solid, persuasive manuscript. For weekly writing tips, delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter! And if you want more advice, guidance or personal questions answered, please reach out. I’m always happy to talk through how my services can best help you reach your goals!
