Ten Interesting Facts about Academic Papers Every Student Should Know About

Nothing intimidates students as strongly as assignments do. You may be ready for back to back exams. But you are most likely to get online Assignment Help when it comes to preparing your assignments. Assignments or anything that involves a strict academic writing style is a complex business. Academic writing is linear. It consists of one central point or theme where every part contributes to the main line of argument. There shouldn’t be any repetitions or digressions.

Here are the ten key features of academic writing. You can write your assignments efficiently once you learn how to incorporate these while working on the papers.

Complexity

Writing is way different and complex than speaking. You need to deal with longer words and varied vocabulary in the former. It also involves the use of noun-based phrases, passive voice, subordinate clauses and other grammatical complexities.

Things to remember:

Written texts are lexically denser. That means you are required to include more lexical words than grammatical words while writing, and that too proportionately.
The texts are shorter and consist of more complex sentences.
It has more that/to complement clauses, subordinate clauses, long sequences of prepositional phrases and attribute adjectives.

Formality

In assignments, you don’t write a casual letter to your friend. Do you? You write to inform something serious to your readers. So, academic writing is 100% formal. You should avoid colloquial words and expressions no matter what type of assignment you are writing.

Avoid the following to maintain a strict formality:

Two-word verbs such as "put off" or "bring up."
Colloquial words and expressions such as ”thing”, “a lot of”, “sort of”, “stuff.”
Sub-headings, bullet points and numbering (Exception: Lab Reports)
Abbreviated forms such as can’t, doesn’t and don’t
Asking questions

Precision

Academic writing involves plenty of facts and figures. You have to use different pieces of information to write assignments. Make sure you are precise when you mention the information, figures, dates, etc. For instance, you should avoid saying ‘a lot of people’ when you can say ’35 billion people’.

Here is what you can do to maintain precision:

Think more clearly and precisely.
Revise for precision.
Ask for feedback on your text.
Use active voice and simpler sentence structures.

Objectivity

You are not the object of academic writing. Your main focus should be on the arguments you want to make and the information you want to share. This is quite similar to the basic nature of academic study and writing.

In academic writing, readers aren’t usually interested in your thoughts and beliefs. They are interested in what you have studied and learnt and how your knowledge led to valid conclusions. Your thoughts and beliefs in academic papers should be on the basis of class notes, lectures, research, discussion and reading.

Explicit

Here’s how academic writing is strictly explicit:

The organisation of ideas in your assignments is crucial. It is your duty to help your readers understand how different parts of the text are related. You can use different signalling words to make these connections.
Make it clear to your readers if your line of argument changes or intends to change.
Make the text explicit if you think two ideas sound the same.

Accuracy

You should be as accurate as possible in academic writing. Your readers, or rather professors, are busy people. They will run out of patience if your paper is full of irrelevant information. Also, avoid similar confusing words such as 'grammar' with 'syntax'. Choose the right word such as gathering, assembly, meeting or conference.

Here’s how you can maintain accuracy:

Double-check the facts- Whatever you write should be grammatically AND factually correct. Double-check every statistic, date and number.
Avoid using spell-check blindly- Auto spell-checkers often suggest alternatives that might not be correct in your existing context.
Maintain consistency- Choose a specific writing style and stick to it throughout the document.

Hedging

Academic writing involves the use of cautious language or, in other words hedging. Nowadays, academic writing is more than just conveying information and facts. It is equally important to make wise decisions about your take on a particular subject or your claims.

Here are the languages used in hedging:

Lexical verbs- Believe, suggest and assume
Introductory verbs- Seem, think, look like
Modal verbs- Will, may, must
Adverbs of frequency- Usually, sometimes, often

Responsibility

Remember, in academic papers, it is your responsibility to demonstrate an understanding of the source text. You should also be responsible for any claims that you make through relevant justification and evidence. The best way to do so is through summarising and paraphrasing what you read. Also, acknowledge the source of information used in your paper.

Proper paraphrasing lets you show that you have understood the materials you have used in your paper. It also reflects your ability to use others ideas and findings in your own way.

Organisation

Academic writing is supposed to be well-organised. Your readers should be able to move from one paragraph to another seamlessly. Decide on the genre of your text to determine the proper structure of the paper.

You may have to work on different types of texts. It can be essays, case studies, laboratory reports, research proposals, book reviews, etc. Each genre serves a specific purpose, caters to a specific audience and implements a concise structure.

Here are the popular genres of text in higher education:

Reports
Essays
Research proposals
Case studies
Brief research reports
Book reviews
Literature reviews
Reflective writing
Introductions
Research results, abstracts and discussions

Planning

Students often assume that their professors might not realise if they hadn’t planned before writing their assignments. The truth is the lack of a plan reflects in the vague structure of your assignment.

Here’s what planning involves:

Understand the question.
Think about what you already know about the topic.
Read books, websites or articles to gather more details.
Organise the ideas.
Write your first draft.
Revise it.

Wrapping Up

Academic writing is unique. It follows a wide slew of norms which can be quite confusing for anyone to get the hang of initially. But, academic writing is an integral part of schools, colleges and universities. It is complex but is necessary as well. So, try to incorporate these features to write a perfect academic assignment.

Author Bio

Sarah Jones is a content creator at a reputed firm in the United Kingdom. She also provides online law assignment help at MyAssignmenthelp.com. Sarah loves to paint in her free time.