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The purpose of academic writing is to convey your ideas, and the evidence which supports them, as clearly, concisely and smoothly as possible.

In order to do this, you need to:

elephant button 7 write in standard, grammatically correct English.
elephant button 7 understand and follow the main academic writing conventions of formality, objectivity and clarity.
Remember... Write to be understood.

Academic writing conventions

For example

Formality

Avoid casual language: including slang, contractions (e.g. shouldn’t, can’t), clichés and abbreviations.

There is no evidence (rather than There’s no info).

Avoid jargon: use appropriate terminology for your subject but steer clear of jargon.

Service Users need (rather than SUs need).

Objectivity

Third person: with the exception of reflective writing, most essays require you to use the third person (‘it’ and ‘they’, rather than ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘we’). This helps convey your objectivity.

This essay will show (rather than In this essay I will show).

Caution: with a few exceptions (perhaps the Laws of Physics) nothing is 100% certain. Demonstrate awareness of this with careful use of language.

The evidence suggests that (rather than The evidence proves).

Criticality: show that you have analysed and evaluated evidence by using key critical phrases.

The evidence does not fully explain…

Non-judgemental: avoid emotional and judgemental language (e.g. ‘horrendous’, ‘terrible’), allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions based on the evidence presented.

Conditions in the ghetto were harsh (rather than Life in the ghetto was appalling!).

Clarity

Precision: say what you mean as clearly as possible; do not make the reader have to guess.

In the past decade (rather than In recent times).

Conciseness: do not use five words when one will do. This will allow you extra room for evidence to enrich your argument.

Consequently (rather than As a result of this).
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