Academic Writing
Academic writing can be improved in three different areas:
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The overall assignment
The paragraph
The sentence
When looking at your writing, consider the organisation, the style, the grammar, and you choice
of vocabulary.
The Assignment
An assignment with perfect grammar will not pass unless you do the following things as well:
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You must answer the question or task given,
You need a clear introduction to orientate your reader to the assignment,
Your assignment needs a clear thesis statement. This is the main idea that runs through your
entire assignment, and that every paragraph must relate to,
Consider the best way to present your ideas and to order your paragraphs,
Select appropriate sources and use them to support your ideas,
You must reach a conclusion.
The Paragraph
A paragraph has a main idea or theme, and is made up of several sentences related to this. The
easiest way to structure a paragraph is to write the main idea in the first sentence, develop or expand that idea in the middle sentences (perhaps by including some paraphrases or quotes), and
then complete the paragraph with either a summarising sentence or one to lead into the next paragraph. For example:
Sentence to
introduce
main idea of
paragraph
Computers have changed the way students write
assignments.
Before computers were common, students would write
out their work, leave it for a day or two and then read it
through and perhaps change the order of things (Lewis
and Reinders 2003, p.122).
While this has made writing assignments less time
consuming, it has also introduced new problems.
Sentence to
lead into
next
paragraph
The topic sentence for the next paragraph could introduce what the new problems are, for example:
Computers don’t come without their own set of bewildering problems; some of which can be very
frustrating and time consuming.
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First Year Experience
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Academic Writing...
The Sentence
There are a number of ways that you can make your writing more academic. Remember, though,
that academic writing takes practice, so it is often better to focus on improving one or two areas per
assignment rather than trying to improve everything at once.
Basic Sentence Structure
Check that all the sentences in your assignment follow a basic structure
The cat
Subject
Public disagreement by the
members of the board
sat
on the mat.
verb
led to
additional
information
decreased consumer confidence.
In academic sentences,
the subject is often very
long and it typically
contains many nouns.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns includes words such as “you”, “we” and “I”, and are usually avoided in academic
writing. They may, however, be used if you have been asked to “reflect” of “refer to personal
experiences”, but always check first with your tutor. It also will depend on your subject, as some
subjects typically don’t include personal pronouns while others are more accepting of them.
There are three main writing techniques you can use to avoid personal pronouns.
1.
Delete the personal language
I think the company should expand into South East Asia.
2.
Refer to what the research suggests
As this research indicates, the company should expand into South East Asia.
3.
Use the passive voice (please see overleaf for more information on this)
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First Year Experience
E-mail: learningskills@mq.edu.au
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Academic Writing...
Passive Voice
The passive voice is used when:
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The
The
The
You
person (subject) doing the action is not important,
person (subject) is unknown,
effect of the action is more important,
wish to avoid using personal pronouns.
Active voice
Example: I reviewed three theories in this essay.
Passive voice
Three theories were reviewed in this essay.
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Be careful not to overuse the passive voice as it can make your writing
unclear and difficult to follow. Try writing both versions of a sentence and
decide which one seems clearer in meaning to you.
Nominalisation
Put simply, nominalisation is the process of changing the main verb in a sentence into its
noun form. This noun then becomes the subject of the sentence. There are a number of
reasons for doing this.
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It moves the focus of the sentence away from the action, and onto concepts and
things,
Your writing becomes more abstract, which sounds more academic,
You can avoid personal pronouns,
You can add extra information to the sentence,
You can reduce the number of clauses in a sentence thus making your writing
clearer.
For example…
The company decided to expand its market.
Identify the main verb
Change to the noun form
The decision to expand the company’s
market…
Make subject
The decision to expand the company’s market led to increased
sales.
Add verb
This is not a complete
sentence now!
Add extra information to
complete the sentence
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First Year Experience
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Academic Writing...
Academic Style
Students are often told that they need to write in an academic style, but what does this mean, and
how can you do it? Below are a number of tips you can use to make your writing more academic.
Certainty
In academic writing, very few things are completely certain. It is important to include phrases and
modal verbs in your writing to show this lack of certainty. Common words and expressions include:
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Appears to
Seems to
Tends to
May
Might
Possibly
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Apparently
Generally
Seemingly
In some/many/most cases…
The evidence suggests…
It is likely...
As you read your textbooks and other forms of academic writing, make a note of some of the other
common words writers use to express uncertainty. Just remember, the more of these expressions
you use in a sentence, the more uncertain you sound, so use them wisely.
Use technical words from your unit
 Read academic journals and textbooks to identify the technical words from your unit
 Make a note of how the words are used and the common sentence structures
 Identify the noun, verb and adjective forms of these words
Use the correct ‘cohesive markers’ or conjunctions
These are the words used to express ideas such as examples, similarity, contrast, generalisations,
cause and effect and conclusions. It is very important that you choose the correct words, as an
incorrect word choice can completely change the meaning of your sentence or paragraph. If you are
unsure which word to use always consult a grammar textbook or an online dictionary.
Avoid over-generalising
Over-generalising is when we take a situation that is often or rarely true, and write about it as
though it is always or never true. For example:
Everybody knows that the Internet has increased the amount of accessible information.
Australians are open, honest, caring people.
Avoid judgemental language (in most cases)
Try to avoid using expressions such as:
 I agree
 I disagree
 In my opinion
 I believe/think
Your topic sentences and the evidence you use should already clearly indicate your position, without
you directly using the above expressions.
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Academic Writing...
Avoid emotive language
Emotive language (such as terrible or disgusting) is often used in newspaper articles to make the
reader respond emotionally. However, it should be avoided in most forms of academic writing.
For example: The tragic death of an innocent child…
or
The company’s current marketing strategy is terrible.
The company’s current marketing strategy has many problems.
Be concise
You may be trying to reach a word limit, but your reader will know if you are simply adding
unnecessary words in order to do this:
 (A man called) Robert Smith discovered…
 (In a recently published book titled) Living in Australia…
Look at how the sentence below could be better written.
 I have researched many academic textbooks and most of them say that human resource planning
is not used effectively by companies.
 Much of the current research suggests that human resource planning is not used effectively by
companies. (In your next sentences, it would be a good idea to refer specifically to some of this
research)
Avoid vague sentences
Academic writing is very precise and specific. It is important to clearly state who, when, what, how,
and where in your sentences. For example, the sentence below contains some very vague
expressions.
Hawke was Prime Minister for several years and introduced a range of policies that not everyone
liked.
Avoid using too many, or confusing, pronouns in one sentence
Example 1: The politician and lawyer discussed when she would use it.
 ‘She’ could refer to the politician, the lawyer, or some other person not mentioned
 ‘It’ could be anything!
Example 2:
He spoke for an hour and when he sat down it was loudly applauded.
 What was loudly applauded? ‘It’ could be the speech (because it was so wonderful), or ‘it’ could
be the fact that he finally sat down (because the speech was so long and boring!)
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Academic Writing...
Avoid starting sentences with...
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And
Or
Yet
But
Using Numbers
Numbers below one hundred are usually written in full, such as:
 Nineteen people
 Thirty countries
However, figures referring to statistics or science are often written numerically, but check with your
tutor first.
 31%
 25°C
Avoid informal language, slang and idioms
Slang is fine when talking with friends, but not appropriate in academic writing. Informal words
typically have more formal versions so always look for these in your dictionary or thesaurus. Idioms,
while tempting to use, are so over-used that they have lost their meaning or impact. So avoid expressions like these below:
 There are two sides to the one coin (informal expression)
 This should be taken with a pinch of salt (idiomatic)
 I reckon…( Formal : I estimate that..)
Avoid abbreviations and contractions
Write the whole word rather then its respective abbreviation. For example:
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Dep’t  Department
Assoc  Association
e.g.  for example
i.e.  that is/for instance
Also, instead of using contractions, write both words. For example:
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Don’t  do not
Can’t  cannot
Wasn’t  was not
Note: Try not to use ‘etc’ as it appears that you are being lazy. For example:
Students at Macquarie University come from China, Japan, Norway etc.
Students at Macquarie University come from a range of countries, including China, Japan and Norway.
Learning Skills
First Year Experience
E-mail: learningskills@mq.edu.au
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