Academic Style of Writing

Academic Style of Writing

Academic writing refers to a system of writing that researchers use to define disciplines and specific areas of experts. This style of writing involves the use of formal tone, use of third-person rather than first-person perspective, a clear focus on the research question under investigation, and precise word choice. Like other specialist languages adopted in various professions, such as medicine or law, this writing style is designed to convey agreed meaning concerning complex ideas or concepts for a group of scholarly experts (Ensign, 2003).

 Scholarly writing, or rather academic writing is a prose style usually delivered in an impersonal and dispassionate tone targeted to a critical and informed audience, based on a closely investigated knowledge, and aimed to reinforce or challenge concepts or arguments. Although it is applicable in all fields, it mostly revolves around the academic world. Scholarly writing always has an objective stance, which clearly states the role of the topic, and is organized with adequate detail to help scholars replicate the results easily. 

Unlike other writing styles, academic writing is generally formal, objective, and technical. Casual words or conversational language such as contractions or informal vocabulary are avoided while writing an academic paper. Academic writing is also impersonal and objective by avoiding direct reference to individuals or feelings and instead emphasizes on objects, facts, and ideas. Apart from being impersonal and objective, it's also technical by using vocabulary specific to the given discipline. 

Another unique feature of academic writing is evidence-based reasoning. In this writing style, opinions are usually based on what is often referred to as evidence-based reasoning, a sound understanding of the pertinent body of knowledge and academic debates that exists within, and often external to, your discipline. As an academic writer, you are supposed to support your argument with evidence from scholarly sources. Thus, your objective stance should be expressed as a logical argument and so, the quality of your evidence will define the strength of your argument. 

Academic writing is divided into four main types, persuasive, descriptive, analytical, and expository writing. Firstly, persuasive writing, also called argumentative essay is among the most common genres of academic writing. This type of academic writing involves investigating a topic, form opinions, generate evidence in support of those arguments and convince the reader that you are expressing valid opinions. This essay has an introduction part that clearly defines the thesis statement, body paragraphs that discusses conflicting opinions with evidential support and conclusion. Expository academic writing style involves investigating an idea, collecting and evaluating evidence that supports that idea, expounding on it, and providing an argument associated with the concept. This essay is made of an introduction that defines the thesis statement, body paragraphs that evaluate the evidence, and the conclusion that shows how the evidence confirmed your thesis statement. 

The narrative writing style is also among the most common genre of academic writing. This type of essay requires you to write a story concerning a personal experience, anecdote, or real-life situation. It usually draws the reader into the content by use of vivid language and presenting a clear point of view. Narrative essays do not have a specific format; however, it must have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Lastly, a descriptive essay is characterized by descriptions of experiences, persons, situations, objects, places, and so on. In this type of essay, you should convey a deeper meaning of the topic you are writing about. 

Just like any other human being, academic writers make mistakes while writing, and therefore there is a necessity of using writing tools. Writing tools such as Grammarly and Plagiarism Checker are digital writing tools that can be used during the entire process of academic writing (Schcolnik, 2018). Besides helping you come up with a good academic paper, these tools can also help you improve your writing skills. Grammarly is a paper editing tool that can be used to edit and correct contextual spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and style of your paper. Additionally, the tool can be used when writing online if installed on your laptop or computer by highlighting errors or correcting wrong sentence structures. 

Plagiarism checker is also a vital writing tool when it comes to academic writing. This writing tool scans your paper and highlights parts plagiarized. It generates a plagiarism report on the percentage similarity of your paper to other sources. This tool assures the writer that his/her work is original if it has zero percentage or plagiarized.

 
References

Ensign, J. (2003).Ethical issues in qualitative research.Pretoria, Journal of Advanced Nursing. 

Schcolnik, M. (2018). Digital Tools in Academic Writing?. Journal of Academic Writing, 8(1), 121-130.