Academic writing can resemble other types of writing, but it is purposeful, organized, and well-researched. Academic writing has certain characteristics that distinguish it from informal, creative, or journalistic writing. In academic writing, the words that readers want to read are clarity, coherence, objectivity, and logical argument. These features are the standards for evaluating an academic text. Readers are more likely to be convinced or find an academic text credible if the author can present a logical and well-researched argument. Knowledge is produced and disseminated through writing. While some contributions to our stock of knowledge are now communicated via visual and other media, writing remains the dominant form. An undergraduate degree is more than a process of simple knowledge transfer. It is more than the recognition of facts. As a piece of writing, your undergraduate dissertation is a successful bit of knowledge transfer in one particular way. It represents the sum of your knowledge on a particular topic.

In essence, academic writing has many of the features of knowledge writing. This means that it is more than the simple communication of knowledge; knowledge is presented and potentially produced in a particular way. Notions of consistency, logic, coherence, and truth in arguments are, therefore, an important part of understanding academic writing and the way in which essays and dissertations are assessed. This way of thinking about academic writing can, at first, be daunting. Many aspects of what we have suggested you have to do are complex and may make it difficult to grasp new concepts and ways of doing things. Every student will have his or her own particular strengths and weaknesses, and the challenge for any teacher will be in identifying these and targeting them to support the students in completing the required work successfully.

Despite what some students may think, effective writing is not secondary to effective thinking. Indeed, the two are interdependent: clear and convincing writing is as much about choosing language that communicates a point of view as it is about crafting arguments to express that viewpoint. This functionality often involves writing with precision using a formal academic style and demonstrating refinements and nuances of meaning through stylistic choices. In academic writing, students are often expected to adapt their writing style and linguistic choices in line with the medium and audience—one reason why deviation from the norm can be particularly damning for an argument. In other words, language can function in unintended ways that undermine argument and overall quality of writing. Other things being equal, eliminating language and style problems from a text makes it better. This short paper outlines the most common linguistic and style problems students struggle with in academic writing. In their most basic form, the stylistic and language problems discussed in this paper could be classified as grammatical and punctuation issues. However, rather than concentrate on these technical writing issues in isolation, the next section discusses the broader stylistic and language concerns within which these grammatical and punctuation issues arise. The final section discusses language issues specific to writing in English.

Proper English grammar is essential in academic writing and is an area that many students learning English as a second language struggle with. In academic writing courses, therefore, it is common to spend a significant amount of time addressing grammar. Rules discussed are typically those with a high occurrence of mistakes or are related to highly frequent language chunks. Overall, research shows that academic writers working across different levels and contexts make a wide range of grammatical errors. One area of difficulty is subject-verb agreement, where writers need to remember to conjugate the verb in agreement with its subject. Other common mistakes made by second language academic writers include omitting subordinating conjunctions needed to establish logical relationships, making sentence fragments, and accumulating run-on sentences. Punctuation, also discussed in our courses, is important as it can change the meaning of a sentence. For instance, in the sentence “Let’s eat, Grandpa!” the comma denotes direct address and gives us the meaning “Let us eat, Grandpa!” This is very different from the sentence “Let’s eat Grandpa!” where it is Grandma who will be on the menu without the comma. Along with commas—which also come in restrictive and non-restrictive forms—periods, semicolons, colons, and quotation marks are common punctuation issues discussed. Common errors include missing or splicing together plosive and connected speech, forgetting to close off quotation marks, and failing to use them around paraphrased material. Making grammar mistakes can affect the level of difficulty of the text for the reader, as well as impede their understanding of ideas. Writing courses tell students that correcting errors in grammar can lend an air of professionalism to their writing. Many resources that focus on common grammar mistakes can be found easily. Technological tools are freely available to students to help them track and improve their writing. Many universities and colleges further offer workshops and one-on-one writing tutoring to students looking to gain further practice with writing. It is suggested that students attend such services and prevail upon the reader to give high importance to grammar in their writing with peers.

The significance of word choice and vocabulary in academic writing cannot be overemphasized. In academic writing, a clear vocabulary choice ensures comprehension of the academic arguments represented. Bad word choices occasionally provide no sense of the conversation or stream of thinking in an article to the audience at all. In order to avoid having to do so, it is highly important to take the academics, particularly those people with appealing experience in the study area, on whom the formal justification of your work is based. Another difficulty that some academic writers encounter is a desire to sound more "scholarly" or knowledgeable than necessary. Such an attempt would not help students. In fact, it will only attract the reader to question the comprehension of the author's work. Far too many "big" words without context inform the reader that the author is playing with the size of their vocabulary and, therefore, inacceptably trying to sound wise. You should still tend to maintain a tone befitting the subject matter when communicating with the audience. Most importantly, one of the most important things to academics, particularly to those who might be unfamiliar with the terms of your area of expertise, is not to rely on jargon and discipline-specific vocabulary when writing. One way you can learn the discipline-specific meanings is to conserve others' terminology throughout a review based on your academic field. In order to highlight the critical thinking and analysis in the article, this commonly happens in the eyes. This can also be done to explain some of the concepts you have in mind and address questions related to your paper. At various scientific levels, one way to improve your vocabulary or use discipline-specific words is to improve your reading. Being as informed as possible, as per your academic area, is one way in which such awareness can be established. Consider how the terms you will be using will be able to express a thorough appreciation of the correct meaning to the reader. Reevaluating this language is also important in order to prioritize the informational quality of your writing.

Poor time management is a common cause of many academic writing problems. When students work under time constraints, writing assignments can lead to increased stress, decreased self-confidence, and lower quality of writing. Students often procrastinate in starting and working on an assignment as they are overwhelmed and do not know where to start. They may resist because of a lack of interest in the topic or because they feel that a particular assignment is irrelevant to them. One of the simplest tools for people who procrastinate is to develop a writing schedule and generate realistic, short-term goals. Several strategies can help students manage time or prioritize their writing assignments over other activities. These strategies include prioritizing time for writing, developing specific objectives before writing, breaking tasks into smaller steps, setting a series of deadlines, and evaluating their completion, and identifying appropriate times for writing to avoid disruptions in the writing process. Being unable to motivate oneself to complete a task is often a sign of procrastination. One way to keep motivation active is to think about the emotional reward when the writing task has been successfully completed. Another approach for motivation is to start with something relatively easy, like free writing, or choosing an easy task from the writing assignment, and then building on the success to tackle the more difficult components. There are also practical tips to help maintain productivity; for example, implementing a set time to take breaks to help maintain focus. In sum, successful academic writing depends on effectively managing time.