Academic style

Students are frequently required to use academic style for their university assignments. In the same way that recipes or letters use a particular style and form of language, academic assignments usually follow a particular style. Use the tips on this page to become familiar with this language style.

Be specific

To write in a precise way:

• use specific examples to illustrate your points.
• cut out anything that is not necessary to the point you are making – re-reading and editing your work to refine it can help with this.
• ask other people to read your work to look for any irrelevant or vague content.

Use the terminology of your subject or discipline and be clear about what you are saying. Don’t assume that a tutor will simply know what you mean. When you really know your subject you should be able to articulate the main ideas and explain the main terms to someone who hasn’t studied in your area.

To build your subject vocabulary:

• keep your own glossary (list) of subject words at the back of a folder.
• develop a list of ‘power’ words, ones that say a lot succinctly: e.g. ‘nocturnal’ is a more precise word for ‘is active at night’.
• use a thesaurus and a subject-specific dictionary.

Be tentative

Academic writing is cautious in presenting findings. Most theories are open to some modification.

To indicate new and emerging research, use words or phrases such as:

• …suggests that
• There is a possibility that…
• Studies indicate that…
• It would seem that…

For knowledge that is more established, use:

• … it is probable…
• the majority of…
• There is a tendency for…
• Recent studies confirm…

For example: Mahlab (1994) suggests that there are significant differences in communication.

Use impersonal language

For assignments, you are often asked to make judgements and include your own views on an issue. However, in most subject areas you are required to avoid the pronoun ‘I’.

The fact that you are not reporting another person’s view implies that the view is your own. In fact, whatever is included in your essay that is not attributed to someone else, [i.e. Jones (1987) demonstrates that…, according to Smith (1994)...] is assumed to be yours.

For example, instead of saying ‘I think that all guns should be banned’ you can say ‘strict government control of guns is required’.

Use formal language

A university assignment requires a more formal type of language than many other types of writing. Allow plenty of time to revise your expression after you have composed the main content.

You need to:

• Avoid slang, which is a very informal way of speaking or writing particular to a specific group of people (e.g. ‘cool’) and language that is too casual (e.g. ‘pretty awful’).
• Use full forms rather than contractions (e.g. 'does not' rather than 'doesn’t').
• Consider the use of nominalisation, which means using noun structures (e.g. ‘comprehension is aided by repetition’ rather than ‘you can understand something better if it is repeated’).

Be careful: too much nominalisation can make your writing unnecessarily complex and tedious to read.

Use strong reporting words

When you use other people’s research you can give it extra significance by using a more precise reporting word, e.g. ‘Jacob (1998) concedes that the test is not 100% reliable.’ is more powerful than ‘Jacob says that...’

Useful reporting words include:

claim, describe, outline, examine, discuss, state, suggest, observe, identify, consider, assert, propose, contend, support, recommend, purport, dismiss, refute, dispute, contradict, disagree, concur, point out, show, confirm, demonstrate, attribute…to, calculate, contend, argue, reveal, maintain

The more you read academic material, the faster you will pick up the appropriate academic style, and the more academic reporting words you will acquire.

Use your own ‘voice’

Your assignment should be in your own words to reflect your thinking.

• If you rely too much on quotes from different sources, your assignment task may lack cohesion and unity of style.
• Make your own paraphrases and summaries of research.
• If English is not your first language, ask someone to read your assignments before you submit them, but don’t be afraid to use your own ‘voice’.

Write clearly

Good writing is achieved by balancing a number of attributes. Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice a little of one to achieve another. This tutorial gives you strategies for writing clearly in an academic style.

The goal is clarity — is your meaning clear?

Communicating complex ideas does not require complex writing. Good academic writing is:

The result is clear writing which the reader can easily understand.