Boxer Library
Before you begin writing your paper, get into the mindset on how your words will be presented on he page. Crafting a research paper or thesis is different than writing a discussion or blog post. When writing with an academic mindset, you want your text to be as clear and straightforward as possible so the reader can easily synthesize it's content. Your style of academic writing should come down to the three C's: Clear, Concise, and Consistent.One tip for getting yourself prepared for academic writing, is by reading existing articles and taking notes not on the content, but how it is put together.
Remember the purpose of creating the paper is disseminating your ideas in the quickest and most efficient way possible. How you accomplish this is by making your text clear and concise to eliminate as much ambiguity as possible. Writing with clear and concise language is a skill which you only develop through practice. Below are tips to guide you in improving your style as an academic author.
Active Vs. Passive Language (Clear)
One of the most important parts of academic writing is the use of active vs. passive voice. Active voice is when the subject performs the action or verb. In passive voice the recipient of the action is in the subject position. So an easy way to think of this is in the active voice the subject is first with the action or verb second. Below are some examples of active and passive voice.
| Active | Half of the Ph.D applicants failed the GRE. |
| Passive | The GRE was failed by half of the Ph.D applicants. |
You can see the active voice gets to the point in fewer words and is clearer. One strategy to help you practice writing in the active voice is to write a rough draft of your text. Once have something written down circle the subject of your sentence and then circle the action or the verb. If the verb is ahead of the subject, see if you can move it closer.
One really easy strategy for creating an active voice is to concentrate on placing the main subject at the beginning, and have the verb that represents the direct action follow as soon as possible. One other hallmark of passive voice is it uses "helping verbs" such as being, been, has, had, have been, was, and were. They are called helping because they do perform a specific action on their own, and need another to do so.
Using Evidence (Clear)
One element that separates academic writing from creative writing is the use of evidence to support ideas. You should avoid making grand and bold statements without evidence to back it up. Your research should strive to be objective, and have the ability to be replicated by other researchers. Ultimately you want the reader to say, "I can see how they came to this." To learn more about proper citation, visit the APA Tutorial.
Avoiding Wordiness (Concise)
"Never use two words when one will do." Thomas Jefferson
One hallmark of academic writing vs creative writing is the focus on avoiding wordiness. Your goal is to convey the information in as little text as possible, or in other words, quality over quantity. Using an active voice will cut down on the initial wordiness, but there is even more you can do.One strategy is to write a draft, pick out phrases and brainstorm shorter versions.
You will notice that monitor food intake is more cleaner than try to watch what they eat. Both phrases have the same meaning but monitor food intake is much shorter.
Word Choice (Concise)
One other strategy is looking at your word choice, which connects to wordiness. Specifically in word choice, using different words with the same meaning or synonyms to break up the text. Using the same words over and over becomes repetitive, and may bore the reader. Technical terms can not be interchanged with words, so be creative with other verbs or subjects. One way to get a feel of how authors describe things is by reading journal articles, and review how and why specific words are used.
Third Person and Past Tense (Consistent)
One of the most important hallmarks of your writing should be consistency. Ensuring consistency in your style will go a long way in helping the reader to quickly uncover your ideas. Most academic writing is both in the third person and in past tense.
Third person is preferred because it put the emphasis on the data nad research process instead of researchers. The purpose of the article is to disseminate ideas, and not to learn about those performing the research. Remember in research it is the data that proves or disproves the hypothesis and not the researchers themselves. Instead of saying "we found" say "the study or findings found."
Past tense is normally used because the study was done in the past. Normally at the time the article is written no new data is being collected, so naturally past tense reflects that.
With both third person and past tense, it is important that you the author strive for consistency. Before you submit the paper, go through your paper and look for person and tense.