Typical Issues with Academic Writing: Ways to Overcome Them
March 24, 2023| Category: Writing Tips
Writing academic papers demands a special type of language. It cannot be either too sophisticated or too simplified. Instead, it requires particular tone, diction, and textual context.
Unfortunately for writers, it is rather troublesome to fit all the standards. A lot of those who strive to excel in academic writing come across numerous problems. Looking for effective ways to overcome them, writers realize how challenging it is to meet all the requirements. They study all the instructions to evaluate whether their research abilities, language skills, and awareness of the subject content are sufficient. We have prepared this article to help those who have faced certain obstacles on the way to success in the field of academic writing. Hopefully, some of the ways how to get solutions to such problems can be useful for you.
All kinds of writing have certain lists of mandatory rules to follow. Academic writing is not an exception; and some of the main rules of academic writing are the following:
- Organization of ideas in the text should be well-structured and formal.
- Every thought requires solid support with a reference from academic sources.
- The writing needs to not only analyze the key theories on a given topic but also refer to the alternative options.
- The language of writing should be objective and unbiased. Besides, writer should use formal tone and concise phrases.
- It is common for academic writing to comply with the conventions of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Plagiarism Issues
The main problems writers face in academic assignments are lack of ideas and inability to organize them properly. They should take a number of essential steps to achieve the set goals, such as collecting data, including quotations, inserting in-text citations, outlining the key research points, making summaries of the materials, and so on.
Both content and approach to designing research should be original. Before the paper gets to the professor, it requires thorough plagiarism check. Otherwise, any issues with originality can result in rejection of the work.
It is useful to prepare a list of sources used for writing in every separate paragraph. It is one of the ways to make sure that the assignment is plagiarism-free. Quoting from a specific source always demands effective paraphrasing. We recommend double checking whether all the required details are present in the in-text citations, including the author’s name, title of the source, and information about publication. Detecting plagiarism is the most effective when one uses a reliable tool with the latest updates.
Contextual Issues
It is a must for the writer to keep sustainable readers’ interest to the text they composed. It requires creating connection between all the phrases and words.
Coherent academic writing results from a compilation of appealing arguments and well-reasoned claims. Appropriate sentence form has a great impact on the ability of the readers to gain an insight about the research content.
The principle of consistency demands having precise phrases and clear vocabulary. There should be no run-on phrases at all. It is easy to ensure that with the help of adequate punctuation. More than that, all sentences should have agreement between the subject, verb, and object. Finally, all the words should add to the original meaning of the content. Otherwise, the best advice is to get rid of them.
A Strong Thesis Statement
If a thesis statement in the academic paper is strong, it looks complete and encourages the readers to follow ideas to the end of the text. Hence, a thesis statement serves as a link to all the thoughts presented throughout the document.
It means that it is obligatory for the author to make the thesis statement convincing and develop all the arguments with thorough care. It sounds doable but actually it is rather challenging for academic writers to create a brief statement that would meet all the set requirements.
The accuracy should not be the main principle of drafting an effective thesis statement. First of all, it is important to work on a rough version and then develop it into the form that is the best for a particular assignment. Following all the guidelines, a writer needs to make sure that the thesis statement complies with the general text context.
Smooth Transitions Between Paper Sections
Transitions between the paragraphs are often uneven in the texts of amateur writers. Overall, it is one of the flaws that even experienced writers may have. The ability to address this problem shows that the writer has high level of linguistic proficiency.
We recommend taking a holistic view of the draft to see whether the readers will be able to see the links between the sections. If needed, the author can change the beginning or the end to ensure that there is a bridge connecting the two.
Do Writing Myths Make Sense?
There are a lot of myths about writing, but none of them has any logical ground. For example, many writers believe that if the text has no sophisticated words in it, it will look weak. Actually, obscure and weird words do not make writing any better. Instead, the readability of the text is much lower, and the readers do not feel pleased with the text they need to understand.
It is up to writers to avoid writing myths and stay away from making mistakes.
It is tough to handle academic writing issues. Therefore, to deal with them, one requires diligence and responsible attitude. With proper effort taken, you will be able to use academic writing skills as your valuable asset.