Writing with Good Academic Style

Grammar

Incorrect and inconsistent verb tenses can cause confusion as readers may not understand when events happened. This may also lead readers to conclude that you did not carefully proofread your work before submitting.

Example:

• When we evaluated our findings, we are concerned to note that several significant anomalies and discrepancies have been ✗
• When we evaluated our findings, we were concerned to note that several significant anomalies and discrepancies were ✓

Spelling

Accurate spelling is critical to increase readability and build academic or professional credibility with your audience.

Example:  definitely✗   definitely✗   definatly ✗   definitely  ✓

Punctuation

Accurate punctuation is important as it helps to guide readers through the ideas and information expressed in your writing. Breaking up your points and ideas using commas, semi-colons, colons, full stops and quotation marks tells the reader how to alter the pace of their reading and where supporting information from sources has been integrated into your arguments.

Example:

The text below contains the following punctuation marks: a comma, two full-stops, a dash, inverted commas and brackets.

The Covid pandemic has been a major concern for the majority of populations across the planet as it has ‘a high potential for dissemination in the globalised world – by mid-August 2020, more than 20.7 million people had been contaminated.’ (Malinverni & Brigagao, 2020).

In contrast to spoken English in many contexts, academic writing is more formal and provides the reader with a higher level of explicit detail.

There are several ways you can try to make your writing more formal:

Replace words that are associated with informal spoken styles with more formal vocabulary.

• photos / pics = photographs
• go up = rise / increase
• get better = improve / recover
• lots of = much / many / numerous / multiple
• sum up = summarise

Use full words instead of contractions.

• can’t = cannot
• there’s = there is
• won’t = will not
• could’ve = could have
• haven‘t = have not

Avoid rhetorical questions.

• Is this an important point here? = The importance / significance of this point should be considered.

Avoid vague terms

• ✗some, ✗ a few, ✗ hundreds

Be specific – i.e. one hundred / 160 / 17.5        

• good, bad, get better, get worse

Explain why something is good / bad or how it got better / worse

e.g., ✓ efficient, ✓productive, ✓improve, ✓deteriorate

• and ‘and so on’

Opt for: ✓such as or ✓including

Avoid metaphors and cliches

• Metaphorical language: ✗ Through these actions, the company successfully managed to kill two birds with one stone: waste went down, and staff were more willing to work harder.

• Direct language: ✓ Through these actions, the company simultaneously benefitted from decreased waste and staff motivation.

Example passage

The following passage contains several examples of informal language that need to be changed to improve the academic writing style:

Informal style ✗

• The study went on for about three years and when the results were checked out, we saw that more research was needed. The data was good quality although some things were missing, like information on participant gender, social background and economic status. Even so, it looked as if the experiment we did was basically fine.

Formal style ✓

• The study was conducted over a three-year period and results showed that further investigation was required. The data collected was meaningful; however, certain criteria had not been considered, such as participant gender, social background and economic status. Nevertheless, it would seem overall that the experiment had served a useful purpose.

Key study tip

Online language learner’s dictionaries are useful tools which can provide you with examples of how words are used in context to determine their level of formality. If a word has many possible meanings, or appears in many idioms, it is more likely to be informal.

Two useful dictionaries you may consider using are:

• Collins English Dictionary https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English online https://www.ldoceonline.com/

Academic writing generally presents and evaluates claims to arrive at an objective position (stance) which is informed by careful reading and research – not personal feelings or opinions. The exception to this is reflective writing.

Therefore, generally, personal pronouns, especially ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ are usually avoided, as these tend to give the impression of a subjective view which may have been influenced by personal bias.

Example:  You could say that drug addiction in deprived urban areas is a growing phenomenon.

To avoid expressing a personal opinion in order to establish a more objective view, there are several ways you could rewrite this claim:

Use the topic as the subject of the sentence:

• Drug addiction in deprived urban areas may be a growing phenomenon.

Use the passive voice:

• The growing phenomenon of drug addiction in deprived urban areas is supported by several studies (Brown et al., 2022, Green, 2023, White & Grey, 2024).

Use ‘it’ as the subject

• It could be argued that drug addiction in deprived urban areas may be a growing phenomenon.

Cohesion and coherence are important in academic writing and relate to how a text joins together to make a unified whole.

‘Cohesion’ refers to how words and sentences in a text link, or join, together. You can think of cohesion as the act of fitting pieces of a jigsaw together so that they fit perfectly. ‘Coherence’ however, refers to how the text makes sense as a whole. In other words, how information is logically ordered and connected so that the reader understands easily. You can think of coherence as the whole jigsaw puzzle which will have a clear overall picture when all the pieces are fitted together.

Example:

The following extract contains poor cohesion and coherence and is difficult for the reader to follow.

Extract A: ✗

It might seem instinctive to hide any flaws / limitations with your research to protect himself from criticism. 

A student needs to highlight any problems she encounters during the investigation phase: any restrictions with approach.

• Markers are expecting pupils to engage with obstacles. Draw attention to the kind of impact barriers may have had on their examination. 
• Be careful that you do not overemphasise the constraints. Overemphasising the constraints could undermine the reliability and validity of their consequences. Overemphasising the constraints could undermine the character as an experimenter.
• No title / heading ✗
• Bullet point forms ✗
• Inconsistent pronouns (himself / she) ✗
• Too many synonyms (problems / restrictions / obstacles / barriers / constraints) ✗
• Unnecessary repetition (overemphasise constraints) ✗
• No linking words / phrases ✗

Extract B: ✓

However, this re-write of the same passage contains several good features of cohesion and coherence to help the reader to follow points and ideas more clearly ✓

Ignoring limitations

It might seem instinctive to hide any flaws or limitations with your research to protect yourself from criticism. However, you need to highlight any problems you encountered during the research phase, or any limitations with your approach. Your markers are expecting you to engage with these limitations and highlight the kind of impact they may have had on your research. Just be careful that you do not overstress these limitations as doing so could undermine the reliability and validity of your results, and your credibility as a researcher.

• Clear heading ✓
• Clear topic sentence ✓
• Linking words (and / as) ✓
• No unnecessary repetition ✓
• Consistent pronouns (you / your / yourself) ✓
• Relationship between ideas (However) ✓

Adapted from: University of Southampton (2019) 

Use simple sentences

Whilst it is important to always aim for precision in the way you express your ideas, there are some situations where writing needs to be especially precise. In research and enquiry for example, a reader may need to have all the necessary information to understand the exact conditions of a study in order to replicate it. Firstly, try to use simple sentences – particularly when you are describing steps in a process or methodology:

Example:

Here is an example of the methodology section in a psychology journal experiment aimed at measuring levels of happiness. The writer has used simple sentences to outline the steps that were followed in the research experiment. This information is sufficient to enable another would-be researcher to repeat the steps, in order to test or re-evaluate the data.

• The secret to happiness: feeling good or feeling right?

After giving consent, participants completed a scale of basic values. Participants then rated their desired emotions. They next completed an unrelated neutral task for 5 minutes (i.e., creating words from letters in longer words). After the task, participants rated their experienced emotions. Finally, they completed indices of depressive symptoms and well-being, and provided demographic information (Tamir, M. et al., 2017).

Use quantifiable and accurate descriptions

Many academic subjects will also require descriptions to be quantifiable and accurate. Therefore, you should try to avoid using non-quantifiable descriptions.

Examples:

• The company's production rate was high - replace with - The company produced 16,000 units per week.
• The wind was strong - replace with - The wind measured 6 on the Beaufort scale.

Use signposts

Your assignment should be seen as a journey where your paragraphs are stepping-stones in that journey, and as with all journeys, signposts are required to guide the reader in the right direction. These signposts tell the reader what will happen next, remind them of where they are at key points along the way and point them towards the direction in which your essay or report is headed. Signposting should be a feature throughout your arguments and should be used in every paragraph.

• Tell the reader about what is to come.

‘Having discussed arguments in favour of a low-carb diet, it is also necessary to consider its limitations’.

• Remind the reader about information you want them to remember.

‘Consequently, it can be argued that in the light of evidence presented, the potential risks of a low-carb diet may significantly outweigh the benefits of a balanced nutritional diet containing carbohydrates’.

• Introduce the order of information

With reference to the four goals of the COP 26 United Nations Climate Change Conference (2022), this report will focus firstly on initiatives to secure global net zero by mid-century; secondly, collaboration between partners on how to adapt to protect communities and natural habitats; thirdly, how to mobilise joint finance and lastly, how to work together to deliver all agreed initiatives. It will conclude with an analysis of successes achieved at the conference as well as any recorded potential failures.

• Refer forward and backward from one big idea to another

The following section will discuss the differences in smoking habits between males and females in the UK. In the previous section the theory that smoking begins earlier with juvenile males was considered. However as illustrated in the table below research data also suggests an increased prevalence in juvenile females.

Link sections

Sometimes, your assignment brief will ask you to write a report, critical opinion, or an analysis or evaluation of a situation, problem or issue. In each case, it is highly possible that a report structure with headings could be used. Always remember to look closely at the instructions in the brief as there is often help given by the lecturer in the form of a suggested structure plan.

Link paragraphs

In all assignments, including reports, you will need to link paragraphs to create a coherent text that enables you to connect fully with the reader. Paragraphs should not remain as isolated units but should be linked using phrases and sentences to remind your reader what has been mentioned before, and what is yet to come. There are several ways you can do this:

• Write sentences that will link back to the ideas of the previous paragraph. For example, if you are evaluating aspects of a particular issue, you could begin a paragraph with:

One of the main benefits of X is……..

• When you are ready to move your discussion on to the drawbacks, you could write one of the following as a paragraph opener:

Having considered the benefits of X, there are certain less favourable aspects that may need to be taken into account.

OR

Despite the obvious advantages outlined above, there are certain challenges which may also need to be considered

Build paragraph bridges

• Link key words in the last sentence of a paragraph to the first sentence of a new paragraph.

In short, numerous attempts have been made to……. / Despite these attempts…

Consequently, Green (2010) suggests that there are two types of personalities: introverts and extroverts.  / Introverts typically favour…

For most subject areas you will be expected to write objectively, so the first person (I, we, me, my) should be avoided. To illustrate this, have a look at the following examples:

‘I analysed the data’ becomes ‘The data was analysed’

‘We interviewed all participants and collected their responses’ becomes ‘Participants were interviewed, and responses collected’

However, writing passively isn’t always suitable. For example, if your assignment asks you to write a reflection you will initially need to describe your own actions and experiences, in which case you will personalise your account by using the first person. Subsequently, when you come to analyse your experiences (or reflect) you will write passively to provide a more objective view of what you have learned in line with what you have read. To illustrate this, have a look now at the following example:

‘My personal approach to treatment is to create a space for the patient to feel safe and comfortable so that I can encourage them to set the pace of conversation without fear of judgement. This approach was conducted in line with Green’s (2010) treatment theory and initial monitoring of sessions showed that significant progress was made’.

Use cautious language

Being concise and precise in academic writing can sometimes lead to sounding over confident, and so you should try to avoid expressing certainty by using cautious language. This is especially important in the sciences when giving a hypothesis or presenting results. But it is also important in other disciplines to avoid presenting conclusions or ideas as facts, and to distance yourself (the writer) from the claims that you make. Look at the following examples of cautious language:

Although duration of smoking is also important when considering risk, it is highly correlated with age, which itself is a risk factor, so separating their effects can be difficult; however, large studies tend to show a relation between duration and risk. Because light smoking seems to have dramatic effects on cardiovascular disease, shorter duration might also be associated with a higher-than-expected risk (Hackshaw, et al., 2018).

Include critical analysis

Critical analysis skills are necessary to communicate ideas to the reader in a clear and effective way. The process of critical thinking and analysis also helps to develop logical reasoning, problem-solving and the ability to construct and defend arguments with supporting evidence.

The Abertay approach is not to prohibit the use of AI tools to develop your written communication skills. However, before using any AI tool, you should read the Generative AI Study Skills Guide and related pages to find out how to enhance your writing using generative AI assistants (GAITS) and how to follow the rules to avoid academic misconduct.

What are the acceptable ways to use AI-powered writing tools in my academic work?

Remember, while AI writing tools can be valuable aids, they should not be used as a substitute for your own critical thinking, creativity and effort. Engaging in these unacceptable practices can lead to academic dishonesty and hinder your growth as a writer and independent learner.

How can I ensure that I am using AI-powered writing tools responsibly in my academic work?

To use AI writing tools effectively and responsibly, follow these guidelines:

• Support don’t replace: Use AI tools to refine and enhance your writing, not to generate content or write an answer for you.
• Develop your skills: Recognise that AI tools are aids, not substitutes, for developing your writing skills and critical thinking abilities.
• Acknowledge AI usage: Disclose your use of AI writing tools when required by your course or assignment guidelines (see Generative AI related pages).

Gillet, A. (n/d) UEfAP.com Accuracy in EAP. Available at: https://www.uefap.com/accuracy/accfram.htm 

Maliverni, C. & Brigagao, J.I.M. (2020) Covid-19: Scientific arguments, Denialism, Eugenics, and the construction of the Antisocial Distancing Discourse in Brazil. Front. Commun. 5:582963. DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2020.582963. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.582963/full (accessed 05/07/24)

University of Bristol (n/d) Grammar and punctuation. Available at: https://alt.content.bris.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/courses/Study_Skills/grammar-and-punctuation/index.html?source_domain=www.ole.bris.ac.uk#/id/5eafef1688d (accessed 05/07/24)

University of Melbourne (n/d). Academic Style. Available at: https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/resources/reading,-writing-and-referencing/writing-effectively/academic-style#:~:text=or%20logical%20argumentation.-,Formality,information%20that%20completes%20the%20message. (accessed 05/07/24)

University of Minnesota (n/d) Student writing support. Available at: https://writing.umn.edu/sws/quickhelp/grammar/verbtense.html#:~:text=Problem,failed%20to%20proofread%20your%20paper. (accessed 05/07/24)

University of Reading (n/d). Academic Writing. Available at: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/writing/punctuation#s-lg-box-11006787 (accessed 05/07/24)

University of Southampton (n/d) Academic writing, editing and proof-reading. Available at: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/learnwithustransition/academic-skills-resources/academic-writing.page (accessed (05/07/24)

University of York (n/d). Academic writing: a practical guide. Available at: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing/academic-style (accessed 05/07/24)

This guide should be read in conjunction with our other resources on:

Good academic practice

Paraphrasing

Quoting

Evaluating your claims: getting it right

Cohesion in academic writing

Critical thinking and analysis

Using Grammarly

Using QuillBot as an AI writing tool

Generative AI

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