What is Academic Writing? 7 Features of Academic Writing

Academic writing is writing which communicates ideas, information and research to the wider academic community. Academic writing should be: structured, evidenced, critical, precise, balanced, objective, and formal.

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 intro
00:22 Definition of academic writing
01:37 Features of academic writing
02:05 (1) Structured
03:53 (2) Evidenced
05:17 (3) Critical
06:06 (4) Precise
06:58 (5) Balanced
07:59 (6) Objective
08:29 (7) Formal
09:26 Summary
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Academic writing can be divided into two types: student academic writing, which is used as a form of assessment at university, as well as at schools as preparation for university study; and expert academic writing, which is writing that is intended for publication in an academic journal or book. Both types of academic writing (student and expert) are expected to adhere to the same standards, which can be difficult for students to master.

Academic writing should have a clear structure. The structure will often derive from the genre of writing. For example, a report will have an introduction, a method section, a results section, and a discussion section, while an essay will have an introduction (including a thesis statement), clear body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion. The writing should be coherent, with logical progression throughout, and cohesive, with the different parts of the writing clearly connected. Careful planning before writing is essential to ensure that the final product will be well structured, with a clear focus and logical progression of ideas.

Academic writing should be evidenced, in other words the opinions and arguments should be supported by facts, reasons, statistics, and cited information from experts in the field.

Academic writing should be critical, rather than simply descriptive. As an academic writer, you should not simply accept everything you read as fact. You need to analyse and evaluate the information you are writing about, in other words make judgements about it, before you decide whether and how to integrate it into your
own writing.

Academic writing should be balanced. This means giving consideration to all sides of the issue and avoiding bias, as well as showing the strength of your arguments by using hedges or boosters.

Academic writing is objective. In other words, the emphasis is placed on the arguments and information, rather than on the writer. As a result, academic writing tends to use more passive structures, rather than active voice.

Finally, academic writing is more formal than everyday writing. It tends to use longer words and more complex sentences, while avoiding contractions and colloquial or informal words or expressions that might be common in spoken English.

For more information on this topic, see:

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You can get early access to videos as well as additional resources for English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

Other useful links:

The two articles mentioned in the video are available here:

[Jugentstiel]

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[zulmar]

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[kathyannbellamy]

The tutorial is concise and clear but offers in-depth insight into academic writing. Keep up the great work!

[naddybgm]

Wish me luck, I'm a final year student and I have sem tomorrow.

[olfactorius]

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[lolcakekakelol]

The clarity and comprehensibility of this tutorial, may suggest the significance of its content.

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[melodymorga]

Thank you so much for this comprehensive and detailed discussion on academic writing. 💙

[voiceintheopen]

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[CreatorMaxie]

I think you might be one of the best english grammar explainers because at the start of the video I was like what the heck academic writing but now it is so simpler

[rosminazuchri]

Very interesting, thanks for your explanation about What is academic writing. thanks

[neematm]

Someone asked me to write academically once and I had no idea what it was, thank you

[krishmehra]

Thank you brother for making this video, after 1hour there is my exam in university and you cleared my doubts.

[sue]

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[pratimagurung]

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[c.germancontreras]

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[fysonzidana]

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[justinechilambwe]

Thank you Sir. I will greatly improve the quality of my essays

[rosminazuchri]

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