Nail Academic Writing with These Strategies

Most educational courses will involve writing of some kind. Even for learning that's more hands-on, you're often expected to have a good grasp of the theory behind what you're doing, and therefore be able to write about it. Academic writing can be intimidating, especially if you're returning to school after a long period or you feel like you've never been very good at writing essays. But it could be easier to nail academic writing today than it ever has been before if you go about it in the right way. Have a look at some of the strategies you can use to produce excellent academic writing.

Find Tools That Work for You

The good news for people who don't like or feel they aren't good at writing essays is that there are now lots of tools to help you. You can now do more than just check your spelling and grammar before you submit your paper. Now, you have tools that can practically write your essay for you. If you want to use these tools, you should also spend some time refining the results. Try using a paraphrasing tool to reword AI or rephrase arguments you want to make. Above all, read over your paper to check that it makes sense, is factually true, and includes reliable sources.

Know What Graders Are Looking For

One of the best things you can do if you want to get good grades on your academic writing is to have an understanding of what the person grading your paper is looking for. Whether that's a teacher, professor, external examiner, or someone else, you need to know how they're going to be judging your work. You might be given a rubric to follow, which outlines the qualities being assessed and how you can hit different grades. Some of it might be subjective, but you can speak to educators about how to hit each grade too.

Research and Cite

Academic writing is often about being able to back up what you're saying. This is particularly true in STEM subjects, but even the arts and humanities require you to be able to cite sources and refer back to experts. You need to be able to research what you're writing about and use respectable sources to make your points. This usually means using academic resources, such as books, journals, or newspaper articles, and comparing different sources against each other. This skill is crucial for academic writing, so it's definitely worth working on.

Format Your Paper Correctly

It might seem simple, but just the way you format your essay or paper could make a difference to how well it's graded. If it's not formatted in a sensible way, it can be difficult to read and might seem to make less sense than it really does. Be sure to follow any formatting rules you're given, as well as use standard guidelines for paragraphs, sentence length, and more.

Academic writing can be tough, but you can approach it in lots of ways to make it easier to get right.