Academic writing refers to a style of expression that students/researchers use in order to show their educated levels of boundaries when conveying their point. In short, it is a well-structured essay using spelling and grammar on a higher level. In this informative essay, I will attempt to discuss all the main points revolving around academic writing. In my first paragraph, I will talk about certain challenges we face when writing an academic essay. My second paragraph will include what is not allowed in academic research and my third paragraph will include what is allowed. Paragraph four will speak about plagiarism, and how to avoid it. In my conclusion, I will sum up my essay by adding my last remarks about the topic.
In academic writing there are many challenges one might face, one being living up to the expectations of the lecturer as they assume that one has prior writing experience when leaving school. This can cause a lot of pressure on the students that aren’t prepared in this way and cause them to fail. Holm and Earl (2014, p. 77) stated that many students do not know what is expected of them, often they do not know how to learn to write as university students. This leads back to time management which is also expected from the learners. This can put huge amounts of pressure on those who do not know how to time manage. Another thing that students tend to struggle with is researching their topic at hand, most students have never done this before and is once assumed by lecturers that students know how to go about researching. In this case students need to talk to the lecturers because they do not know if you are struggling and will more than likely be willing to help if they know that you are. One other aspect of writing that students tend to struggle with is supporting evidence when writing an essay, some do not know how to do this properly and it ends up changing the meaning of the paragraph or does not pertain to the paragraph at all. Holm and Earl (2014, p. 82) argued that successful university study requires developing the skills to support claims and arguments in writing with relevant evidence drawn from readings, subject materials and a student’s own research. Whichever way you look at university, writing is a very important part of it and one cannot escape that as this is one way of students to demonstrate their knowledge. “Students require to demonstrate skills and knowledge through their written assignments” (Holm & Earl, 2014, p. 89).
There are certain rules to follow when one is writing an academic essay. One of the most important rule to remember that this is a professional piece of writing and therefore the writing needs to be formal and objective. Therefore, there are certain rules to follow. The use of personal pronouns such as I, me, he or she is not allowed as this causes the piece of writing to be subjective. Slang, such as dude or hey, is also not allowed because this makes the writing informal and unprofessional. One can also not use colloquialism, such as varsity or TV, as this may cause confusion in the text as it is not proper English and some might be confused of its meaning, this closely relates to slang. Another rule is to not use contractions when writing an academic essay as once again this makes the writing informal, rather than using can’t use cannot. “All contracted forms need to be in full forms.” (Academic English UK, n.d.). Try not to use informal words such as try and like rather use more sophisticated words such as ‘attempt’ rather than try and ‘such as’ instead of like. One should also refrain from using abbreviations, rather explain in full what you mean to the reader do not just use e.g. or i.e. this can make your work seem very unprofessional and also gives the reader the feeling that you are not interested. However, one is allowed to abbreviate for unit of measurements that are followed with numeric values. Hume-Pratuch (2015) stated that Saving space is not a sufficient reason to abbreviate; the abbreviation must also help the reader to comprehend your point. Lastly in academic writing we do not use bullet points and we should always get our work proof read in case we missed any grammatical errors.
However, in academic writing there are lots of things that are allowed but in order to use them one must adhere to certain rules. When we number, rather than using 10 we should rather write out the number ten, although when the value is higher than ten we are allowed to provide the numbers numerical value such as 20. Acronyms are allowed in academic writing but we have to assume that the reader does not necessarily know that they mean that’s why when writing the acronym for the first time spell out the whole acronym and then put the abbreviation in parenthesis, see the following example: “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was first established…” (Gitari, 2017). From that point further we are then allowed to make use only of the acronym. Another rule when writing an academic essay is to only use symbols when referencing in text, you are citing more than one author and you are putting both authors in brackets for example (Simon & Smith). Quoting is allowed up to a certain extent, one should not quote more than 10 percent of their text as this could result in a mark deduction or a maximum mark of only 50 percent. You should try make it your work as much as possible otherwise is it really your work?
Plagiarism is a huge factor when writing an academic essay, it is important to follow the correct steps in acknowledging your sources and referencing correctly in order to stay away from plagiarism. “Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources” (Turnitin, 2017). In university plagiarism is a serious offence as this is when someone takes work and makes It their own without acknowledging the author. Another factor is collusion; this is when students work in a group whilst doing individual assignments. This is a serious offence as now all the students involved have the same or similar papers and one person probably did all the work. To avoid all of this one needs to add a proper reference/bibliography list, have sufficient in text referencing and your reference list must correspond with your in text citations.
In conclusion one must adhere to all these rules in order to write a well ‘educated’ essay. Always remember to not use just any alternative word when paraphrasing, one needs to be able to keep the meaning the same. If we adhere to all these rules, then it is just the structure to worry about. I feel that I try to follow these rules as closely as possible to produce the best possible work to my lecturers. I feel that there is a lot to follow but it can certainly be done especially with the guidance of my lecturers.
Reference list:
Academic English UK. (n.d.). Formality & academic style - Formal language in academic writing. Retrieved from https://www.academic-englishuk.com/formality
Gitari, H. M., (2015). How to Use Acronyms in Academic Writing - Proofread My Essay. ProofreadMyEssay (blog), Retrieved from https://proofreadmyessay.co.uk/writing-tips/using-acronyms/.
Holm, A., & Earl, C. (2014). Academic writing. In S. Levy & M. Treacey (Eds.), Student voices in transition (pp. 76-90). Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers
Hume-Pratuch, J. (2015). Using APA style in Academic Writing: Abbreviations and Acronyms [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://academiccoachingandwriting.org/academic-writing/academic-writing-blog/iv-using-apa-style-in-academic-writing-abbreviations-and-acronyms
Strydom, W. (2018). Ability Task Slides. Monash South Africa.
Turnitin. (2017). What is Plagiarism?. Retrieved from http://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism.
