There are various skills you need in order to be able to write good academic English texts. Whether you are writing a simple essay, a report, or a research paper you will find the support and resources you need here.
The Skills You Need
You need good skills to write well. Some of these skills are general ones such as research and planning which you can use in other fields. Others are more specific such as understanding cohesionSee the glossary definition , text patterns and collocation. The best way to improve your skills is to read well-written texts by skilled writers and read a lot in your specialist area of interest or study. But by studying some of the key elements of academic texts you can accelerate your progress. All the examples on this site are sourced from authentic textsSee the glossary definition written by people who are experts in their fields. So you can be sure that the examples are written in good idiomaticSee the glossary definition English.
How to Plan
Planning is essential and in the long run it saves you time. Even if you only need to write a short essay you can speed up the writing process by spending a few minutes sketching out a plan. You can learn about how to plan an essay on the essay planningGo to the Planning page page. You can't plan unless you understand your task. Make sure you can do that by understanding the elements of a task directionGo to the Task Analysis page.
How to Research
If you need to write anything longer than a short essay you'll probably need to do a little research. So you need to improve your research skills. You should do this in order to be able to find relevant and reliable information quickly.
Learn about Paragraph Structure
All writing has some kind of structure. It helps the reader to understand the flow of your argument and it helps you as a writer organise your ideas. On this site you can learn about common text patternsGo to the Text Patterns page such as problem and solutionGo to the Problem and Solution page, cause and effectGo to the Cause and Effect page, advantages and disadvantagesGo to the Advantages and Disadvantages page and so on. You can also learn about topic sentencesGo to the Topic Sentences page and supporting detail, thesis statementsGo to the Thesis Statements page and what to include in an introductionGo to the Planning page or conclusionGo to the Planning page.
Learn about Cohesion
Cohesion means how elements of your text are connected together. Cohesive devices are important in a text. They allow the writer to avoid boring repetition and they provide important pointers to previous parts of the textThey also sometimes point forward or indicate relationships between parts of a text.. They are the "glue" which holds the text together. There are various types of cohesive device and you can see how they work on this site. They are referenceGo to the Reference page, substitutionGo to the Substitution page, ellipsisGo to the Ellipsis page, conjunctionGo to the Adverbials page, and lexical cohesionGo to the Lexical Cohesion page. Once you understand how they work you'll quickly recognise them in the texts you read and be able to use them yourself to good effect.
Learn how to Quote and Paraphrase
Often you need to refer to sources you believe are relevant to your discussion and in this case you have to quote or paraphraseSee the glossary definition or go to the paraphrasing page information from these sources. You must abide by the style conventions writers use when quotingGo to the Quotations page or paraphrasingSee the glossary definition or go to the paraphrasing page. This is important so that readers can locate the sources you refer to, and so that you avoid any suspicion of plagiarismGo to the Plagiarism page.
Learn how to Cite
There are certain style conventions you need to follow when you quote or paraphraseSee the glossary definition or go to the paraphrasing page. You need to cite your sources. This often means using in-text citationsGo to the In-text Citations page and sometimes signal phrasesGo to the Signal Phrases page to introduce your quotes or paraphrases. If you do a lot of writing you'll also need to learn how to use one or two citation or bibliographic toolsGo to the Bibliographic Tools page to help you manage your database or sources.
Understand Collocation
If your first language is not English, one of the most important things you can do to improve your writing is to understand collocation. This simply means which words or phrases tend to be used with others in particular contexts. There are examples of collocation on the noun phrasesGo to the Noun Phrases page page and in the glossaryGo to the Glossary page.
Learn about Data Literacy
If you write academic reports you'll often have to understand how data is presented in graphical form such as line graphsGo to the Simple line graph page, bar chartsGo to the Simple bar chart page, pie chartsGo to the Simple pie chart page. You'll probably also need to write about or comment on data presented in graphical form so these pagesGo to the Describing Graphics page will help you to get familiar with the kind of language used to do this. You can also see how experienced writers use graphics in their articlesGo to the authentic graphics page.
Learn how to Review
Writing is a cyclical process. You need to reviewGo to the review page what you have written in order to improve your text and correct any mistakes. Learning how to review is key to improving your writing skills. This means using checklistsGo to the checklists page to review and check your writing, persuading others to review your work, and understanding any feedbackSee the glossary definition or go to the feedback page you have been given.
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