Academic writing is clear, concise, focused, structured and backed up by evidence.

Its purpose is to aid the reader’s

understanding. It has a formal tone and style, but it is not complex and does not require the use of long sentences and
complicated vocabulary. Each subject discipline will have certain writing conventions, vocabulary and types of discourse
that you will become familiar with over the course of your degree. However, there are some general characteristics of
academic writing that are relevant across all disciplines.
Characteristics of academic writing
Academic writing is:
Planned and focused: answers the question and demonstrates an understanding of the subject.
Structured: is coherent, written in a logical order, and brings together related points and material.
Evidenced: demonstrates knowledge of the subject area, supports opinions and arguments with evidence, and is referenced
accurately.
Formal in tone and style: uses appropriate language and tenses, and is clear, concise and balanced.
What Is Academic Writing?
Imagine someone starting a conversation about sports with questions like, 'So, what do you think Tiger Woods will
wear in his next golf match?' or 'Which Raider do you think is the best father?' Sports fans know that sports is not a matter
of wardrobe or good parenting; it's about plays, scores, contracts, winners and losers. This person is not asking the 'right'
questions because he or she has not understood the terms, values and rules of sports talk. Likewise, there are terms, values
and rules that you must know, accept and use in order to actively participate in the conversations, or discourse, of the
academic community. Academic writing is the process of breaking down ideas and using deductive reasoning, formal voice
and third person point-of-view. It is about what you think and what evidence has contributed to that thinking. Academic
writing refers to a style of expression that researchers use to define the intellectual boundaries of their disciplines and their
specific areas of expertise. Characteristics of academic writing include a formal tone, use of the third-person rather than
first-person perspective (usually), a clear focus on the research problem under investigation, and precise word choice. Like
specialist languages adopted in other professions, such as, law or medicine, academic writing is designed to convey agreed
meaning about complex ideas or concepts for a group of scholarly experts. A simple definition of academic writing is hard
to come by because it refers to writing done for several reasons. Also, academic writing is used in many different forms.
Following are characteristics, explanations, examples, and a list of works where academic writing is used.
Writing for Education
A broad definition of academic writing is any writing done to fulfill a requirement of a college or university. Academic
writing is also used for publications that are read by teacher and researchers or presented at conferences. A very broad
definition of academic writing could include any writing assignment given in an academic setting.
Here is a list of documents where academic writing is used. Some are self-explanatory and some have a brief explanation.
 Books and book reports
 Translations
 Essays
 Research paper or research article
 Conference paper
 Academic journal
 Dissertation and Thesis - These are written to obtaining an advanced degree at a college or university.
 Abstract - This is a short summary of a long document.
 Explication - This is a work which explains part of a particular work.
The Six Steps of the Writing Process
Read about the writing process. These are the steps you will practice in this course.
Process writing - When we write, we do more than just put words together to make sentences. Good writers go through
several steps to produce a piece of writing.
Pre-writing
STEP ONE: Choose a topic. Before you write, your teacher gives you a specific assignment or some ideas of what to write
about. If not, choose your topic yourself.
STEP TWO: Gather ideas. When you have a topic, think about what you will write about that topic.
STEP THREE: Organize. Decide which of the ideas you want to use and where you want to use them. Choose which idea
to talk about first, which to talk about next, and which to talk about last.
Drafting
STEP FOUR: Write. Write your paragraph or essay from start to finish. Use your notes about your ideas and organization.
Reviewing and revising
STEP FIVE: Review structure and content. Check what you have written. Read your writing silently to yourself or aloud,
perhaps to a friend. Look for places where you can add more information, and check to see if you have any unnecessary
information. Ask a group mate to exchange texts with you. Your classmate reads your text, and you read his or hers. Getting
a reader's opinion is a good way to know if your writing is clear and effective. Learning to give opinions about other people's
writing helps you to improve your own. You may want to go on to step six now and revise the structure and content of your
text before you proofread it.
Rewriting
STEP SIX: Revise structure and content. Use your ideas from step five to rewrite your text, making improvements to the
structure and content. You might need to explain something more clearly, or add more details. You may even need to
change your organization so that your text is more logical. Together, steps five and six can be called editing.
Proofread. Read your text again. This time, check your spelling and grammar and think about the words you have chosen
to use.
Make final corrections. Check that you have corrected the errors you discovered in steps
Five and six and make any other changes you want to make. Now your text is finished!
Steps five and six can be repeated many times.
Works consulted
Taken from "Academic Writing" by Macmillan Publishing
After you've received your assignment the academic writing process can be split into four parts:
Research – understanding and finding information about the topic you'll be writing about.
Planning – sorting all the information you found in the research phase, into an outline for writing.
Writing – producing the written work.
Finalizing – checking your writing for mistakes in grammar, spelling and style, more commonly described as proofreading
your work.
1. Preparation
Analyze the task for key words – words that identify the topic or issue.
 Try rephrasing the assignment question to ensure that you fully understand it.
 It can be helpful to break down the assignment question into a series of questions.
 Use the assessment criteria as a checklist: marks allocated for each criterion gives an indication of how much time
should be spent on (and therefore how much to write on) each part of the question, and ensures that no parts of
the question are left unanswered.
 Seek clarification if necessary – discuss the interpretation with your classmates, and ask your lecturer/tutor if
unsure.
PREPARE
Analyze the question
RESEARCH
 Read broadly
 Tentative position
 Read narrowly
 Adopt position
WRITE
 Plan
 Draft
 More research?
 Refine position?
 Re-position?
 Redraft
 Final edit
Knowing precisely what content is required will help you make an informed choice on the material you need to read
about or research.
2. Researching
 Reading broadly. To get an overall picture of the topic in question, start with your lecture notes, subject learning
guide, introductory and general texts. Keep the assignment question in mind while you read. Refer to Academic
reading for efficient and critical reading strategies.
 Committing to a tentative position. Once you have an overall understanding of the topic, you are ready to commit
to a tentative position on the assignment question, and are able to focus on more detailed texts.
 Reading narrowly. Reading narrowly helps to validate your adopted tentative position. Search for texts that detail
the issues you have identified as part of the overall picture by referring to the reading list in your subject outline, the
reference lists in the introductory/general texts and relevant journal articles, and the library catalogue and
databases.
 Adopt a position. Having done the research and read narrowly, you should have a clear view of what your position
is with regards to the assignment question; this will help to keep your writing focused and coherent.
3. Writing
 Planning. Map out a plan – organize your argument and evidence, and establish connections between your points.
Note that not all students need a detailed plan prior to writing a draft; some students may work well with just a list
of headings and sub-headings to guide them. Whatever the format of your plan is, it is essential to have a plan prior
to writing as it provides an overview of what your assignment will cover, guides you along the way, and ensures
that nothing is left uncovered.
4. Finalizing
  Drafting and redrafting. Once you have a plan, start writing the first draft. More than likely, you will find that you
need to redraft your writing a few times. In the process of drafting and redrafting, you may find that you need to do
more researching or reading in a particular area in order to strengthen an argument or evidence in your assignment.
 Final editing. After you have completed the final draft, leave it for at least a day before you do the final editing.
Check for the following: (a) structural aspects (introduction-body-conclusion) – logic and coherence, (b) grammar
aspects and punctuation, and (c) technical aspects – presentation, in-text referencing and reference list, and
spelling. It is also useful to have a fresh pair of eyes to read it over – ask a friend, or book an individual consultation
session at the ELSSA Centre.
What is the importance of academic writing?
If the document is written in a strong compelling voice, conviction of the writer can manifest and the purpose of the
writing is fulfilled. This can only be done by one trained in academic writing. Academic writing is writing for education. It is
any writing done to fulfill a requirement in school, particularly in college. Some examples of documents where academic

writing may be requited are books reports, research articles, thesis and dissertations. Some students dislike having to write
for these requirements in school and therefore ask others to do it for them, not knowing that they are passing on something
that can help them in the future.
The basic structure of academic writing is as follows: introduction, body, and conclusion.
 Much planning is put into it.
 The writer must have an outline to follow.
 There is a format and style required with the following basic preferences -
 Formal tone.
 Use of clear words.
 Point-of-view in the third person.
A deductive approach in reasoning. The reader must be able to follow one’s arguments from the beginning to the
end. The exercise in academic writing fosters the students’ ability to formulate arguments. Logical thinking skills can be built
in the brain this way. When the thinking is written down, a series of related thoughts can be clearly assembled, arranged,
and communicated fairly to others. The ability to communicate that academic writing is very much needed in the world of
work. It can show one to be an intelligent and professional person. Therefore, when one is tested for employment, this
aptitude can show.
An academic writer shows one to be -
 A clear thinker manifesting in the way he writes.
 Able to determine -
 What the issues are.
 What questions surround the issue?
 Why these questions matter.
Precision. Effective academic writing assumes the abundant use of specific dates and figures.
Complexity. If you compare your everyday talk with academic writing, you will easily notice that written language is more
complex.
Formality. Informal language assumes the abundant use of colloquial expressions like “sort of”, “stuff”, etc. along with
abbreviated forms of words and phrasal word verbs (for instance, put off).
Objectivity. This may well be the hardest requirement of academic writing for students as they often tend to focus on what
they feel and believe when writing their assignments. The thing is that when we are talking about objectivity, we mean that
the main emphasis should be on the presented information and/or arguments rather than what you “think about the issue”.
Accuracy. Being accurate in the use of vocabulary is another important requirement for all academic papers. Now that you
know the academic writing definition and the distinctive features of this kind of writing, you can be more productive when
handling your college assignments.