The Unwritten Rules of Academic Writing: What Your Professors Won’t Always Tell You

Those looking to dive even deeper into academics need to understand what you’re getting yourself into. The academic world thrives on a blend of thorough analysis, deep research, and writing in an unbiased and neutral way. Combining all of this, you get what is known as academic writing. Even with this formula, there are some unwritten rules of academic writing to consider as well.

You may not find these in any guidelines, or professors may not directly share them with you. Regardless, we’re here to help you navigate this academic labyrinth to ensure your scholarly work is done in the proper way. Let’s get into it below.

Understand your audience

There isn’t a template or a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to academic writing. Each field will come with its own nuances and ways of writing that you will need to understand. On top of that, there may be some unspoken expectations and methodologies that are preferred over other options.

Make sure you decode any buzzwords specific to your academia. Don’t just throw words around. This is the epitome of learning, so you cannot simply say one word when there is a better option. A classic example can be the differences between words such as critique and analyze. Know the connotations and subtleties and become familiar with them in your writing.

Make sure you are steadfast with your Thesis

Your thesis statement is a complete roadmap for the argument that you are trying to make. First of all, it needs to be as original as possible, and then it needs to be specific enough to allow for the right type of analysis and guidance. Finally, it needs to be debatable and open to academic discourse as well.

At the same time, you’ll get critical feedback and criticism in one form or another. It’s not meant to put you down; these come from other academic peers, not your enemies or rivals. You’ll want to use every piece of criticism and feedback to improve your thesis. While it may be tough, showing humility and acceptance when it comes to engagement and counter-arguments will help your academic writing in the long run. Don’t bark back at the opposition or vow to destroy or discredit them. This isn’t a war of any sort, and it will only allow you to develop your academic skills to be more refined and robust at the same time.

Show more than you tell

Academia is all about facts over everything else. Evidence is your weapon of choice in this endeavor, and you want to make sure that your evidence is pristine. From facts to data to relevant quotes on your paper, these are what will help bring validity to your writing. Writing in an assertive way can only get you so far before holes start to be poked through your paper. You want to build a wall of factual evidence that is meant to substantiate your claims. This will help those who are ready to engage in your paper a reference that your information is correct and open up a dialog of discourse where it is necessary.

Once you’ve built the great wall of evidence and data, you mustn’t stop there. Data in its raw form are just that, raw materials. You need to mold them into something useful with your analysis of the data itself. Go deep with your data. Don’t make obvious assumptions and really present the research you collected in a new way. Connect the dots and draw conclusions while clarifying any assumptions that are made. This is also an excellent time to connect all the threads that may not, at first, seem to be connected properly.

Teamwork is key, as is collaboration

If you’re looking to enrich your academic paper, then you’ll want collaborators to add their insight into it. Yet insights and perspectives mean you’ll want to ensure that you give them credit where you should. You also don’t want too many people helping you out, as it may start to water down the academic integrity of everything. You want to define roles in advance and ensure you always cite the contributions as accurately as possible.

Citations are the way to give credit where it’s due and make sure you’re using the correct style of citation as well. Also, when you work with peers and cite them, it isn’t a burden. Instead, it makes your scholarly integrity appear even stronger.

Clarity is King

You don’t want to get lost in the proverbial weeds. Your prose needs to be brief and to the point. If you make it too dense and thick, you’re going to lose the message, no matter how interesting or insightful your topic is. You want to have as clear and concise language as possible, eliminating buzzwords and jargon where possible.

Think of it this way. In academic writing, you need to make every word and every sentence relevant. You want to eliminate the ‘fluff,’ which is just there to hit a word count and ensure every word carries the necessary weight. Each word should help bring your argument and topic forward in the best possible light every single time.

Revisions are there to help you

Once you’ve written the first draft, you’ve only just started the next process: the revisions. Writing is a journey; you don’t just jot down an article and move on. The first draft is meant to be messy and collect all the various points, data, arguments, and sentences into a mostly cohesive format. You then want to start to request feedback from professors and peers and incorporate it into the revisions you develop going forward.

Don’t fear revisions. They are only there to build something you can be proud of, which is a path for improvement. People willing to give you their time and scholarly opinion should be thanked, as they are there only to guide you on academic papers that will flourish.