Ultimate Secrets to Academic Writing You Need Now

Unlike the different types of writings that we have discussed here at Quilltowers, academic writing is used mostly in schools. It is what we call those endless essays given by grumpy Professors, the project writings that scare the bravest of all students and the thesis that is the bane of all postgraduate students’ existence.

Someone once told me that being a brilliant student is not the same as being a successful student. As a University student in the Philippines, Sweden, Canada or the United States, your brilliance is classroom does not translate to the ability to write an impeccable academic essay or project. How the mighties have fallen before the almighty final thesis.

Let us start this academic writing lesson at the beginning before we share some secret tips for you.

Examples of Academic Writing

The types of academic writing include:

• Essays: They are the in-class assignments that your Professor give to you. Essays vary from faculties to faculties and from schools to schools. The aim of this type of work is to encourage you to read further on the course, research other materials and gain other scholarly opinions on your work.
• Articles: As a postgraduate student, or even a graduate student who is interested in pursuing the postgraduate route, articles are important. They can be sent to peer-reviewed journals, magazines or to be featured in an academic textbook. Articles are the best way for a budding scholar to show their ideas to their literary community.
• Thesis: Your project, study or thesis is the final work you have to submit to your department about your research to earn a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD degree. Your thesis is the sum of all you have learned throughout your study. Of course, you do not need us to tell you how important it is.
• Proposals: Students write project proposals all the time to pitch their project to supervisors and the department. A good project proposal is your first step into an extraordinary thesis. Therefore, it is also important.

Apart from these examples, your institution may have other group works for you. Without a proper know-how of academic writing, it may be hard to pull your weight in school.

Features of Academic Writing

The characteristics of academic writing include;

• Language: The language of all academic writing has to be formal. There is no space for space for informality in these pages. Your words should be clear, concise and academic. There should be no vulgarity or any use of personal pronouns such as I, Me, We or Us. Academic writing is written in a third-person perspective that focuses on facts and research instead of the author’s opinion.
• Form: Your academic writing should follow whatever form your institution dictates. Your essays, team works or projects always come along with a brief where the lecturer states what they need in that work. Ensure that you follow the form to the letter in order to earn your marks.
• Referencing: One of the most important things to learn before starting an academic work is how to arrange your references. There are different styles such as the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, the Harvard referencing style, and so on. Again, your department decides which one you will adopt.

Rules of Academic Writing You Need to Know

• Plagiarism: There is no sin as unforgivable as plagiarism in the academic world. Careers have been ruined over it and students have lost their educational privileges over it. Do not steal other people’s works and pass them off as yours, reference your sources properly and do not ever copy and paste works.
• AI: Do not ever use AI for your works, no matter how lazy you are. Since students have learned to cut the way by using ChatGPT or even Meta AI to write their assignments, Professors have also learned how to detect the AI with tools of their own. Being caught using AI is usually grounds enough for academic fraud.

Secret Tools and Sites for Academic Writing

There are some tools that can make your work easier and ensure that you write the best academic works for your Professors.

One of these tools is Turnitin, an academic check tool. Lecturers in schools use it to check for plagiarism and AI usage in submitted works. If checked with this tool, your work’s similarity result should not be higher than 15%. Any higher and you can be held guilty of plagiarism. The AI result is meant to show 0%. Anything higher is considered to be academic fraud. Our advice? Check before you submit that work, just in case.

Another tool is the Stealthwriter, a paraphrasing tool. If your work’s similarity is higher than the required percentage, you can go ahead to reduce your result by paraphrasing the affected parts.

Everyone remembers Quillbot, another paraphrasing tool. If used properly, it can also help you reduce the result of your similarity and AI.

Due to the importance of your referencing, MyBib is a free organisational tool that will help you arrange your references into any referencing style you set it. That way, you will not have to worry too much about arranging your references.

It is important that you know these tools and sites are tricky to use. Interested in using these tools or you need more guidance on how to write the perfect academic work, you can reach out to us here at Quilltowers.