Tips to improve your academic writing

As researchers, scientists, professors and students, jobs significantly rely on the ability to explain ideas and thought processes to others. Therefore, how to communicate effectively in written form a skill that needs to be trained. Writing effectively does not mean what you write has to sound smart in the first place, but more about telling a story that is well-structured, clearly described, and convincingly framed. Here are some tips to approach to an improved academic writing.

1. Write for the audience

To get your work seen, read and shared, it is undoubtedly important to write reader-focused texts. But how to write for readers exactly? Three questions as below should be addressed before your writing:

Who are your readers? Figure out what age your readers might be, what interests and prior knowledge they might have, what kinds of topics they might be familiar or unfamiliar with. Picture them in your mind and write for them.

How does your writing help your reader? Once you know who you are writing for, you should ask yourself how and what you can offer your readers. How do they judge the relevance of the problem? What reactions can they expect to your texts? Answer these questions as clearly as possible.

2. Choose an appropriate academic genre

Selecting an appropriate genre is vital, especially in academic writing. Regardless of what you are writing, whether it is a proposal, a report, an essay, or a journal article, certain standards apply to all genres, such as different purposes, audiences, topics, or structures. Below are some brief introductions to the most common genres of academic writing:

Essay: The focus here is on convincingly critize, argue, or respond to an existing issue, with a new point of view. The audience may or may not be familiar with your topic as they could be e.g. professors, editors or the general public.

Report: Academic or business purpose to objectively investigate, present or analyse a problem or case study – hypothetical or real world. The audience is probably familiar with your topic as they are often your professors, employers, collegues or clients.

Thesis: Here, you will present, explain, and analyze your research and/or culminate your studies for your degree. Mostly the audience at the beginning is your professors or advisors and later could be editors and the general public, assumingly familiar with your topic.

3. Write with logical and convincing flow

Apart from grammatical errors (see next point), the most common mistakes due to lack of practice are in argumentation, structure, reasoning, and presentation. How can you use logical writing to persuade your readers? Here are some tips:

Present familiar before new information. This helps your readers to understand the new information more easily.

Create a sense of continuity. Logical writing has to offer a sense of continuity of style, tone, point of view, and tenses. Inconsistencies in Point of View can also arise from jumbling the pronoun ‘we’ with the pronoun ‘you’.

Address one point at a time. The points ought to be introduced and thoroughly discussed, one after another. This will help readers to understand one idea before moving to another.

Use transitional words or phrases. Transitions are the glue; they link your ideas, facts, and explanations to bring out a logical structure which in turn keeps the readers reading. Your transitions should be able to take readers from one thought to another, one sentence to the next, and from one section to the other.

4. Overcome writer’s block

Don’t try to write a perfect version of your text straight away. Write down your thoughts on a particular topic and try to cover as many perspectives as possible without thinking about the outcome. Only then give your ideas a logical flow. In the final round of revisions, polish your academic text in terms of style such as sentence and paragraph construction or grammar and syntax.

Try to write the simplest, clearest part of the work first.

Set small intermediate goals that seem achievable and make it easier for you to get started.

Sometimes a change of workplace or working hours helps.

And of course if nothing helps: take a break and try again later.

5. Correct grammar, punctuation, language and formatting

A good academic writing style includes proper punctuation, grammar, and syntax and also a clear, unambiguous and professional language.

Use proper grammar and punctuation. Pay attention to syntax and tense, use punctuation carefully to refine your text.

Use clear and unambiguous language. Choose the word that most clearly expresses your meaning. Use professional terms correctly for precise formulation, but of course keep in mind your audience.

Check your references and formatting. Make sure you follow the formatting requirements for your article. Be sure to cite sources without errors to avoid plagiarism.

6. Be sure to have your work proofread

Proofreading and editing are also important when writing. It will help you to make sure you gained the reader’s attention, check whether your arguments are clear and understandable, question the logical structure and correct final spelling and grammar mistakes. Finally, proofreaders are also helpful in checking references and formatting.

7. Learn academic writing guided and step by step

Take the time to learn scientific writing step by step. In your organization there might be the possibility to take a course. Otherwise, you can find many courses online that focus on this very topic, such as our online course “Academic Writing Made Easy“. The course will make your academic writing stand out for all the right reasons, including paragraphing, style, tone, paraphrasing and punctuation.

Interested in the topic?

If you are interested in learning how to improve your academic writing, this course provides you valuable insights to help you refine your writing. Check it out here.

You are a TUM Alumni?

For the various offerings, such as the Coursera Partner Consortium program or the edX Online Campus Essentials program, you will need to access the list of courses that are available for free. This offer is only valid for TUM Alumni.

What are the next steps?

Contact mooc@lll.tum.de with the number of access seats you would like for your project teams and/or students. Please also include: Full name, TUM email address, matriculation number, and name of enrolled program at TUM (students only).
You will then receive an email invitation to participate in the program.
Upon successful completion of the courses/programs, you can also receive the completion certificate free of charge.

Is there a deadline?

Coursera’s initiative does not have an expected end date yet. The edX offering, on the other hand, will be available until June 30, 2024.