Top 7 Dos and Don’ts of Academic Writing

Academic writing or Assignment writing is designed to make the students aware of the needed knowledge required for professional development. Hence, the writing is very formal as making clear and precise arguments is important. Finding the right tone is also an essential part of writing academic assignments.

However, may students find it difficult to strike the right balance. You can fall in the trap of writing in a too-informal tone or language or writing in a too formal way, in some extent that destroys the interest of the readers. Both extremes will make your writing weak- either by making your arguments less serious and not-so-well-researched or by eliminating the necessary hooks that kills the interest of reading.

You can avoid these mistakes if you pay attention to the basic rules of assignment writing. You may argue that academic writing differs from each other in terms of structure needed, or regarding requirements. However, we can assure you, the primary rules of writing assignments are the same, be it an essay writing, report, dissertation, case study, proposal or any other type of academic writing.

Here are some basic rules of academic writing the Ninjas at our assignment writing UK services swore by:

The Dos

1. Write in a “plain” style

You might think that writing in an elaborate language may bring you extra marks when the brief provided to you by your professor claims to give marks for “presentation”. However, the presentation here means less of jargons and more of a structured and concisely presented paper with internal coherence. Avoid “flowery” language at all costs! You can also throw out your Thesaurus! The professors are more interested about your authentic ideas than how you use language in your writing.

You can achieve this by-

• Avoiding jargon (you can use jargons that are common only in the domain)
• Avoiding decorative languages

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2. Use active voices

Using excessive passive voice is really uninteresting and can make your sentences overly complex. Put your verbs to work for you and your authentic ideas using direct sentences free of clutter! To do this-

• Use verbs in active voices
• Don’t overcomplicate the sentence structure while using passive voice

3. Write objectively

Academic writing is essentially objective in nature: it’s logical, unemotional, factual and precise. So, it is necessary for you to be impersonal while stating factual information as objectivity protects the data from being distorted. To achieve this-

• Avoid using clichés and slang in your writing.
• Avoid using first (unless you are writing a reflection) and second person
• Use credible and authentic sources to provide evidence for your claims

You’re expected to present your essays in an objective and impersonal manner supported by research, reading and analysis of the topic selected. Our experts offering university assignment help at The Assignment Ninjas can help you in this case if you are baffled to do it on your own.

4. Vary your sentence structure

Readers feel tired and bored if all sentences seem like one. Let me tell you, using the same sentence structure for different sentences and constructing lengthy sentences is really boring and uninteresting. Similarly, using multiple clauses overcomplicates the information presented while using too short sentences eliminates the binding nature of the essay. You should-

• Avoid using short and tense sentences.
• Avoid using multiple clauses in one sentence.

5. For example, you should not write like this-

Marketing equips an organization with competitive advantages. The successful implementation of marketing activities leads the company gain increased revenue.

Both sentences are too small and do not offer substantial information. However, you also should not write like this-

Brand management is a function used by companies that helps them increase their perceived value regarding either different product lines or the brand itself, the implementation of which assists in retaining a particular image of the company over a prolonged period.

The sentence offers necessary information, but not in a precise way and using too many clauses.  

6. Using technical vocabulary

Every subject you study has their own jargons associated with it. Using particularly terminology always helps explaining the topic and underpin the related notions in aprecise way. You can-

• Go through the glossary of terms in your textbooks to find jargons
• Make note of technical words used by your professors while attending the classes
• Research on your own to find out technical words and further research on them to have in-depth knowledge before applying them.

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7. Use consistent tenses

Most academic papers are written using present tense even if your mentioned paper or evidence is written a decade ago because it doesn’t deny their values at the present times. You should-

• Refrain from using future tense in general as research papers essentially uses evidence from past publications (not applicable for research proposals).
• Avoid using past tenses as it negates the importance of the evidence presented at current times (history papers and information regarding past experiments are exempted from this rule).

Have someone else to proofread your paper

It’s highly possible that you have overlooked mistakes made by you because they can seem alright when you yourself have checked. Hence, you need to turn to others to receive rational and objective feedback that you can incorporate in your writing to make it better.

Don’ts

1. Don’t use colloquialism

Be careful about how you think and how you present it. We essentially think in colloquial languages because thinking is like a monologue involving only us as the listener and the speaker. Academic writing differs in this respect from colloquialism since it is dedicated to increase technical knowledge in different subjects and domains that need objectivity.

For example, you just can’t write-

Macbeth’s ambition skyrocketed after meeting the witches leading him to suffer.

You should rather write-

Meeting the witches stirred Macbeth’s inherent ambition that led him to his nemesis.

2. Avoid inappropriate styles and fonts.

Assignment writing are meant to communicate knowledge with conciseness and precision that can only be achieved with appropriate use of language, and a clear and predetermined structure and formatting.

You already know that professors expect you to write in pre-determined font styles and structures that are commonly used for official and academic purposes.

• Choosing a Times New Roman font or Arial font is most common in academic writing.
• Most of the professors expect the students to use 1.5 spacing or 2.0 spacing, specific reference styles and margins.

3. Don’t change the tense.

The tenses of the verb indicate the time of an event. However, as the information presented as evidence is accepted by the scholars and experts, the importance of them can’t be ruined by using past tense. Refrain from using inappropriate tenses in your writing and do not change the tenses of verbs randomly, at all!

4. Don’t use subjective reasoning.

Research papers are objective, almost everytime, unless your professor wants a diary or journal entry or expect you to express your personal opinions. Reflections are exempted from this only because it demands your own opinions and experiences to be expressed. Assignment writing is not subjective as it depends on making and proving an argument based on reasoning, either inductive or deductive. Hence, no place for subjective reasoning.

5. Don’t cross the word count.

Academic writing is often bound by word counts within which you have to fulfil the requirements. It is done to keep things precise and removing redundant information to be presented.

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6. Don’t use contractions.

This rule is stylistic and the aim is to offer a “cleaner” paper. You can’t use “can’t” or “don’t” in your academic paper for stylistic purposes.

7. Avoid overused “scholarly” phrases.

Don’t write “I will analyse…in this paper” or similar phrases since the reader is already aware of you writing the paper. Instead, present information directly to make them informed in a succinct way.

Similarly, refrain from using phrases like “In conclusion” as the readers are already aware that they have reached the conclusion part.  

If you still confused about how to present your paper, but want an A grade, our university assignment help series are here to help you, always.