Academic writing is as important in a student’s life as drinking water is to all human beings. If you fail to acquire that skill, you may have poor scores in your subjects like best buy case study help more or less every semester. No, I do not mean to demotivate or scare you. Rather my intention is to only encourage you to enhance this skill for good. I am sure you have had your hand at academic writing to date, but if you are still not satisfied, you are here at the right place.
To that end, I bring you a few ideas using which you can improve your way of writing academic papers. By the end of this blog, you will surely know your weak points and learn how to improve them.
- Use of active voice
To have your words make the most impact, it is important that you use an active voice. Do you know that passive vices can make the content less readable and even complex? Better, whatever your point is, say it directly in an active voice.
For example –
“The stepmother’s house was cleaned by Cinderella.” (Passive)
Instead, say: “Cinderella cleaned the stepmother’s house.” (Active)
Which one do you think will be easier to read and comprehend? Of course, the second one.
Often when the reader s reading through chunks of sentences, complex sentences telling ‘this was done by him’ or ‘it was said by her’ can be confusing and time-consuming. Rather simple ones like ‘he did this and ‘she said this’ is easy to read, and the readers can understand them at a go.
- Proper use of punctuations
Punctuations are used to put the right expression and emotion in a sentence. Misplacing punctuations can alter the message you want to give. Or it might be that you fail to emphasize the seriousness of an issue with the wrong use of punctuation.
For example – “Do not worry; the teacher is here to help.”
Here the use of semicolons shows that both the sentences ‘do not worry’ and ‘the teacher is here to help’ are complementary to each other. In place of the semicolon, if you had used full stop, it would also make sense but won’t have the same impact.
- Improvise your sentence structure
Improvising the sentence structure means making it more interesting to read. Also, it should not become monotonous.
For example – “Rita was happy to see her friends. She gave them a hug and started crying. She felt like she finally got her family back.”
Instead, try writing, “Broken Rita was happy to see her friends and gave them a hug as soon as she saw them. She finally felt like having her family back.”
Just interchanging a few words or adding a better adjective can make the writing more engaging.
- Take it short yet crisp.
It is natural to get carried away by the plethora of information you receive whenever you are writing an assignment. But never ever try to accumulate all the information in your assignment. It will make your assignment lengthy, and there are high chances that this way, you will deviate from your central point and make the writing monotonous to read.
A tip here is to note down all the significant points related to the topic and then once again go through the notes for further filtration.
- No redundancy
Remember to never repeat information in your assignment. If you have to say something more than once, try using phrases like ‘as mentioned earlier or ‘as you already know’. This will make the readers feel like you are not luring around the same point again and again. It will also help you abide by the word count of the assignment.
Another point to be noted here is that – avoid redundancy of words. So often, to lay emphasis, we use similar adjectives more than once. But that is wrong.
For example – “Her friend is jealous and envious.” (Wrong)
“Her friend is jealous.” (Right)
Both the words ‘jealous’ and ‘envious’ means the same. Hence there is no point in using them repetitively.
- Clear and readable sentences
Clear sentences always do not mean smaller and simpler sentences. Long sentences with proper usage of prepositions and conjunctions can also be clear and readable. Using too many smaller sentences makes the writing look fragmented and elementary. But that is not what you intend to portray, right? Hence learn how to join sentences using prepositions and conjunctions and yet not make them complex.
For example – She scrubbed the floors. They were dirty. She used a mop. She sighed sadly. It was as if she were a servant.”
Instead, write it this way –
“She scrubbed the dirty floors using a mop as if she were a servant. She sighed sadly.”
- Better choice of words
You have to be always careful of your vocabulary while writing. Your motive should be to not make the writing blunt and less engaging. You can use some not regularly used synonyms of the adjectives in your sentence. But here, you have to be a little careful. Not all synonyms can be used in the same context. So you should keep a close eye on what context are you using your words in. In such cases, they take the help of the free online bibliography maker tool.
For example, we often use the words ‘neat’ and ‘clean’ interchangeably. But that is not right to do so. Because you can say somebody writes neatly, but we cannot say somebody writes cleanly.
- formal tone
When you are writing assignments, there is no way you can use an informal tone in your writing. Therefore, a formal tone is a must. You can and should avoid using the first person in your writing to ensure the same. Also, certain words are a better fit than others in the case of formal pieces.
For example, try using the word ‘adequate’ instead of ‘enough’ while you are writing formal content. It helps in conveying the right importance of the statement you are making or the information you are sharing.
Academic writing is no rocket science. You just need the right guidance. The tips mentioned here will provide you with the same. Try using these tips the next time and wait for your professor’s reaction.
About the author – Alison Lewis, an assistant professor at a noted college in Australia, is also a part of MyAssignmenthelp.com. She has been working with the brand for almost 2 years now and has delivered quite a few promising services.
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