5 Essential Skills for Academic Writers

Academic writing plays a crucial role in day-to-day life of students at various universities. As per a study, academic writing is one of the skills students find difficult to develop.

Academic writing is a skill that you need to learn to convey your ideas, share your thoughts, and engage in scholarly conversation. It is a challenging task for all the academic writing experts to present a good academic paper that is clear and effective, and which can be well received by the readers.    

Academic writing is different from personal writing as this mode of writing follows its own set of rules and practices. In this format, ideas are usually organized in a formal order and are supported by references from academic literature.

Making a good research work on your chosen subject holds the key while writing your academic paper. Without proper research work, it will be very difficult to put your ideas and thoughts on paper about the subject.

At some point in your academic career, you’ll need to write an academic paper, whether it’s a report, an essay, a dissertation or a thesis. When it’s time to write that paper, you may feel stress about writing it properly or on time, particularly if you haven’t written a paper in a long time or if you’ve struggled with writing papers in the past. In this article, we’ll share how to improve your academic writing skills so you can focus on building your strengths in those areas, which will help reduce your stress the next time you need to write a paper.

 

5 Components Of Academic Writing

In this topic, we will be discussing 5 important components of academic writing that will help you to write your papers. Below is the list of these 5 important components of academic writing.

 

1.      Strong Research Skills

Good research is key for good content writing – it adds credibility and, most importantly, value. Therefore, it’s vital to find trustworthy and interesting information from reliable sources online. Academic writing experts are especially great resources if you can effectively get the right information with good interviewing skills.

 

2.      Planning

Once you decide about the topic you want to write,  the next step is to make a proper plan. Prepare a standard plan about how you will be presenting your views and ideas into your academic paper.

 

The basic structure of an academic essay includes the following elements: an introduction that includes the thesis; the body of the essay, which should include separate paragraphs discussing evidence that supports the thesis; and a conclusion that ties everything together and connects it to the thesis. When it comes to how much evidence should be included in an academic essay, a good guideline is to include at least three solid points that directly support your thesis.

Here you should prepare a layout about what items you will be including in your writing and where you are going to include them. As your academic paper would consist of three important sections i.e., introduction, main body and conclusion,  you should know which type of information should be included in each part.

 

3.      Writing clearly and consistently

Even if you have conducted your research, developed a winning argument, organized your time well, you must make sure you write clearly and directly looking to improve your academic writing skills. Academic writing requires a formal tone and proper grammar, but that doesn’t mean you should use five words when one will do. Keep your writing straightforward and clear, and don’t include any information that isn’t absolutely necessary to support your argument. Everything you include should have a clear connection to your topic.

 

4.      Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling

The importance of using correct punctuation, grammar and spelling can’t be overstated. Although you might have a perfectly good, scientifically sound argument, if your audience can’t read your paper because the grammar is atrocious, they won’t pay any attention to it. Check out online guides to English grammar for a refresher and some tips, and consider having any academic writing experts check your document before you submit it to check for any lingering mistakes.

 

5.      Write a proper conclusion

One of the most overlooked areas of academic essay writing is the conclusion. Your conclusion is what ties all your research together to prove your thesis. It should not be a restatement of your introduction or a copy-and-paste of your thesis itself. A proper conclusion quickly outlines the key evidence discussed in the body of an essay and directly ties it to the thesis to show how this evidence proves or disproves the main argument of one's research. There have been countless great essays written, only to be derailed by vague, weakly worded conclusions. Don't let your next essay be one of those. You may seek for help from academic writing experts to write a comprehensive conclusion