Academic writing skills that every student should possess - 2022 Guide

Academic writing is a mandatory skill that students need to learn in order to succeed in their academic lives. Essay writing and academic writing fall under the same category; however, you need there are some conventions of academic writing which sets it apart from essay writing. As a free essay writer, you need to have a good command of the English language, rhetoric, grammar, and other writing skills while as an academic writer you need to know the conventions of academic writing. This article will teach you the skills that you should master to succeed at the seemingly daunting task of academic writing.

What is Academic Writing?

Academic writing is the writing that students are supposed to do in a formal setting in a higher education institution such as colleges and universities. Academic writing is usually done on academic topics and is usually aimed at academics. The nature of academic writing is esoteric and the writer is expected to write in a formal manner by avoiding cliches, slang, and by following a methodology. As a student, you will have to produce hundreds of pages of academic writing that is on par with academic writing standards. If you think that academic writing is too complex for you to handle, you can consult a Dissertation Writing Services to have your academic paper written for you.

Research Question

All academic papers begin with a research question that you aim to answer throughout your paper by forming arguments, exemplifying, and citing outside sources. This specific inquiry guides the direction of your research paper and helps you in your systematic investigation. Carefully defining your research question before beginning to write your research paper will save you a ton of time when you are writing your research paper. 

Developing an Argument

As the audience of academic papers is mostly academics, professors, and experts, you have to develop complex arguments to prove your hypothesis and answer your research question. To develop an argument, start by identifying the problems and analyzing them from an objective perspective. After the identification of the issue, investigate it thoroughly by doing preliminary research on the internet. Subsequently, develop a claim that is encapsulated in a clear and concise thesis statement. Support this claim by explaining, illustrating, and backing it using outside sources. Moreover, provide counterarguments and rebuttals against your thesis to show an unbiased stance and to take into account the view of the other side. 

Organizing the Paper

An academic paper is long and trite so it is of paramount importance that you divide your paper into clear and distinct parts. Your paper should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Depending on the requirements, you might also have to provide the following: a cover page that containing author name, institutional affiliation, author notes; an abstract paper, that provides a succinct summary of your paper; and discussion and results paragraphs discussing your findings.

Writing Clearly and Correctly

Writing clearly and grammatically correct sentences is one of the basic requirements of academic writing. You should possess the language writing, and rhetorical skills to formulate clear arguments. Furthermore, standards conventions of grammar, punctuation, and language usage also help you to write clearly and correctly.

Searching for Sources

As an academic paper writing service, you are expected to back your claims by referring to experts in the field, research papers, and journal articles. As you cannot make claims or arguments without showing proof you would have to search for sources to support your claims. Sources can be found by consulting encyclopedias, searching academic journals, and sifting through the archives of government and other organizations.

Using Sources

Sources can be incorporated into your academic paper in several ways. You can use sources in your paper by summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting from the sources that you are consulting. However, keep in mind that academic integrity means avoiding plagiarism; if you do not cite the sources, or use the words in sources as if they are your own, it would be considered plagiarism. Plagiarism can be avoided by summarizing, quoting, paraphrasing, and then citing where the idea or words were taken from.

References

In academic writing, you are required to cite your sources. It is done by providing in-text citations and a bibliography at the end of the paper. The conventions differ for different academic disciplines as there are several referencing styles particular to different disciplines. The most common way to cite your sources is by providing the last name of the author followed by the year of publication of the paper, both of which are encapsulated in a round bracket and are separated by a comma. At the end of the paper, works cited page or bibliography list is provided providing the details of all the papers. As an academic essay writer, you should be familiar with the most used citation styles such as MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and AMA.

These are the must-have skills you should master to write your academic papers at the college level so start practicing by essay writing an academic paper. The writing skills enumerated in this article will help you write an immaculate academic research paper. Every student, when they are faced with the daunting task of writing an academic paper, thinks ‘I cannot write my paper because I have now written one before. Now that you have read this article and possess the skills that are fundamental to academic writing, you are ready to write your first academic writing paper.

Useful Resources:

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