Level up Your Skills in Academic Writing
This complete academic writing guide will help you master academic writing with the help of explanations and examples of types of academic papers, style, structure, and formatting.
Table of Contents
- What Is Academic Writing?
- What Are the Key Elements of an Academic Paper?
- What Are the Main Types of Academic Papers?
- How to Use Formatting Styles in Academic Papers?
- What Tools to Use for Academic Writing?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Academic Writing?
Academic writing refers to types of papers written in a formal tone and integrating evidence with in-text citations and a logical flow of thought for the academic audience.
What Are the Key Elements of an Academic Paper?
Structure
Start writing an academic paper with identifying the structure, which may differ for a specific type of paper.
Structure involves headings and subheadings based on subtopics with smooth transitions between paragraphs and a logical flow of thought.
An academic paragraph structure includes an introductory sentence, discussion of the main idea that supports a thesis statement, provision of evidence, and a concluding sentence.
You can use a PEEL paragraph structure:
- Point
- Evidence
- Explanation
- Link
A more complex paragraph structure includes opposing evidence, counterargument, comparison, gap identification, or rebuttal. These are elements useful for a literature review.
Command Words
In academic writing, there are several command words that determine the whole purpose of your work. Focus your paper around them:
- Analyze (break down complex information)
- Synthesize (combine details into a general perspective)
- Compare and contrast (find similarities and differences)
- Critique (identify strong and weak points or gaps)
- Discuss
- Define
- Describe
- Find cause and effect
- Persuade
- Explain
Stitching
Stitching involves the use of signal words, transitions, or recollection of previous points to tie ideas in sentences or paragraphs for cohesiveness and a smooth flow of thought.
Commonly used signal words include the following:
- Addition: in addition to, additionally, moreover, furthermore,
- Similarity: similarly, likewise,
- Contrast: in contrast, however, on the one hand/on the other hand, conversely, on the contrary, instead
- Cause and effect: because, therefore, thus, as a result, consequently, hence, since, for this reason,
- Sequence: next, first/second/third, finally, then, afterwards,
- Example/evidence: for example, for instance, in support of this,
- Conclusion: in conclusion, in short, on the whole.
Keywords or Key Terms
Choose several keywords around which you will center your discussion or research: these include key terms fro3 to 5 or more. Use them in each part: include as keywords in abstract, introduce in introduction, discuss in the body, and add in conclusion.
They can serve as a basis for a concept map you can draw to understand the links between these terms. It can help you in identifying the cause and effect for better analysis.
You can use sketchnotes or Cornell notes for identifying keywords at the pre-writing stage. These are also great tools for better memorization.
Title Page and Abstract
An academic paper requires formatting a title page following the rules of a specific academic formatting style, for example:
- APA
- MLA
- Harvard
- Chicago Author-Date
- Chicago Notes and Bibliography
- Oxford
- OSCOLA
- Bluebook for law papers
Find title page formats in different styles below.
After writing the whole paper, create an abstract between 150-250 words, providing an overview of the main paper parts. Include it after the title page.
Introduction
Start introduction with a hook, that is, an attention-grabbing fact, anecdote, or story. Add why the topic is important and the rationale for choosing it. Write a thesis statement, which is an overarching idea in the paper. You can include the purpose and a short roadmap in a narrative form that presents the main parts.
Body
Depending on the type of the paper, the body may include the following parts:
- Subtopics presented in headings and subheadings that support the main claim or thesis statement,
- Paragraphs without headings and subheadings for short essays but with support for the thesis statement,
- Conceptual framework for research papers,
- Literature review,
- Methodology,
- Results or findings,
- Discussion,
- Analysis,
- Solutions,
- Recommendations.
Conclusion
In this part, restate your thesis statement (Reminder of the overall paper idea). Answer this question: so what? Provide recommendations for further research.
Evidence and Sources
Support your discussion with facts to make your arguments credible and evidence-based. For this purpose, include in-text citations and references to academic or scholarly sources in the chosen formatting style. You can use primary and secondary sources to get evidence.
Style
In academic writing, it is important to stick to a formal style without contractions, colloquialisms, repetitions, slang, wordiness, or personal language. It requires:
- Writing in third person singular (he, she, it)
- Using evidence and objectivity
- Trying to write in active voice rather than passive
- Including a full form for an acronym mentioned for the first time in the text and then using the acronym
For example, it is possible to avoid wordiness by using other words instead of very + adjective.
Learn more about common issues in academic writing.
What Are the Main Types of Academic Papers?
Find a short guide on various academic papers that can be used to write a coursework, term paper, or assignment.
Essay
What is it?
Essay is a short paper on a specific issue or topic presented in a thesis statement with support from sources or a reflection with support from personal experience.
Start writing an essay with determining its type. In argumentative essays, there are two models to structure the paper:
Start writing an essay with determining its type:
- Argumentative – present an argument
- Expository – present information
- Cause and effect – identify the link between a cause and its outcomes
- Compare and contrast – discuss similarities and differences
- Opinion – present your view
- Persuasive – convince the reader
An example of a topic for an argumentative essay is ethical issues in a specific sphere like medicine or law.
Then create an essay outline, which can help you structure the paper and find evidence before the main writing process. Follow your outline by expanding each idea therein with supporting points based on the PEEL paragraph structure or a more complex structure with several points and evidence for the thesis statement.
Research Paper
Research paper is a type of academic paper that presents findings and analysis based on evidence and research.
Its outline consists of the following parts:
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Introduction with a thesis statement
- Theoretical Framework
- Literature Review
- Methodology
- Results/Findings (for quantitative or qualitative studies respectively)
- Discussion or Analysis
- Conclusion
- References
When writing a research paper, you can use various frameworks for analysis:
- PESTEL to analyze political, economic, social and cultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting a specific industry or company.
- SWOT analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for companies or a person
Review of a Movie, Article, or Book
Review refers to the synthesis and evaluation of a piece of work or a video to identify strengths, gaps, or weaknesses and give recommendations to the reader.
A review includes an introduction with a thesis statement that gives an idea about an article, book, or film, its central message, or important theme it discloses. The body starts with a short summary of this piece of work. Analysis, critique, or evaluation take the greatest part and refer to providing a view on the work with support from its scenes, excerpts, or other evidence. Conclusion is the last part that recaps the thesis statement. You can write a review of:
- Article or book, analyzing the authority of the author
- Film or movie
Annotated Bibliography
Annotated bibliography is a list of references in alphabetical order with short annotations (half a page or up to 200 words) formatted in a specific style.
Business Writing: Business Plan, Business Report, Marketing Plan, and Case Study
Business writing targets company stakeholders, business experts, or the audience in the business field with the purpose to analyze a situation at the company and in the industry or economy to identify issues and offer recommendations.
Business writing paper types include the following:
- Business report – issues + recommendations
- Case study – focus on the case of a company or industry + recommendations
- Business plan – industry analysis, promotion, budget, and calculations of the break-even point and projections of profit in the short and long term to start a company
- Marketing plan – industry and target market analysis to understand the buyer person and tailor marketing campaigns
Speech
Speech is written to convey a message in public.
It can be characterized by motivating the audience.
The purpose is attract attention to the issue or topic. Start with a hook, fact, quote, or anecdote. Include smooth transitions from one idea to the next.
Discussion Board Posts, Responses, Questions-Answers, and Reflection
Participate in discussions on academic forums, providing your evidence-based opinions, responses to peers, and reflection. Here, you can write from the first person perspective. For questions-answers, answers the questions without general or introductory information.
Brochures
Brochures are created to represent promotional or educational information.
Use infographics for visual representation of facts and add images.
How to Use Formatting Styles in Academic Papers?
Use A Concise Guide on Academic Formatting. Format the paper based on one style. Apply formatting rules to the following parts:
- Title page,
- Headers,
- Headings and subheadings,
- Indentation and alignment,
- Page numbers,
- Footnotes and endnotes,
- In-text citations,
- References depending on the style.
Find formatting tips in articles below:
What Tools to Use for Academic Writing?
There are several great tools that you can use to get prompts, generate ideas, and check the paper for grammatical mistakes, AI, and plagiarism, especially after paraphrasing other author’s ideas.
Disclaimer: The article contains affiliate links, which means EEsssays may get commissions at no cost to you. All affiliate products are tested and used at eessays.co
Grammarly is the number 1 tool that encompasses a grammar checker, AI detection, and plagiarism checker. There are both free and paid plans that are highly effective in spotting the issues above, as tested by eessays.co in this article.
Other helpful tools:
- MyBib for generating citations (Pro: it can be used to save time on typing all citation details; Cons: you may need to fix capitalization manually),
- AI tools like ChatGPT for brainstorming.
Frequently Asked Questions
One of the most important skills is research and the use of evidence. Star your writing with learning research methods, conducting research, and integrating and choosing evidence.
You should create a table with a timeline for the whole research process. It should include dates that serve as deadlines and research tasks. Work on improving your productivity by planning breaks and writing in stages.
Start with the pre-writing stage that include evidence collection, literature search in databases, and field research. Organize your evidence based on subtopics.
Overall, use AI only for search purposes. Do not copy anything from these tools. Moreover, check facts provided by AI because when asking it to find relevant articles, it can confuse titles and authors.
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