Academic Writing

What is academic writing?


Fundamentals of Academic Writing

Academic writing is one type of non-fiction writing characterised by its formality, use of evidence-based logical argument, and use of balanced, bias-freeLanguage which is free of prejudice towards others especially regarding questions of race, gender, age, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and so on. language.

Academic writing also follows certain conventions regarding text patternsGo to the 'Text Organisation page.', the use of complex noun phrasesA noun phrase which contains a head noun which is premodified and/or postmodified., hedgingThe avoidance of absolute commitment to an argument or thesis by using words or grammar which introduce an element of doubt or tentativeness., and citingTo write words spoken or written by another person and to formally declare the source. sources. Academic texts are expected to be coherentCohesion is a feature of the text itself and concerns the way in which certain grammatical items (such as pronouns) and words can connect a sentence to previous (and, sometimes, later) ones. and have a logical flow.

Academic writing is writing produced with academic integrity. The fundamental values of academic integrity are: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage. Read more about academic integrity.

This means that as an academic writer you need to be able to:

  • be aware of the appropriate registerThe type of language (vocabulary, grammar, style, formality) you are expected to use in a particular situation with a particular audience for a particular purpose. for your writing;
  • use different writing pattens in a logical way;
  • support your arguments with appropriate evidenceInformation presented as support for the truth of an argument.;
  • properly cite your sources of evidence in an appropriate style;
  • avoid bias;
  • use careful measured language by using hedging devices;
  • write concisely by using appropriate grammatical forms such as complex noun phrases;
  • construct a readable and coherent text using suitable cohesive devicesThe main cohesive devices are reference substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion.;
  • have a good grasp of academic vocabularyWords which tend to occur more often in academic texts. and mastery of specialist vocabulary in your area of study;
  • use appropriate graphical information and dataSuch as line graphs, bar charts, tables. and be able comment on it;
  • abide by the fundamental values of academic integrityhonesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

These are the basics. But academic writing does not take place in isolation. To be a competent academic writer you need to be able to integrate your own ideas or research with what others have written on the topic before.

Intertextuality and Critical Literacy

No text can be considered as a serious piece of academic writing without reference (explicit or otherwise) to other texts. This is known as intertextualityThe way that texts are related to other texts.. In academic texts this is usually created by explicit referenceNot by allusion or metaphor, which you might use in other types of writing such as fiction. to other sources, either by quotation or by paraphrase, both of which need to be cited according to specific conventions.

We have mentioned above that academic writers need to support their arguments with appropriate evidence. This doesn't mean just writing your own opinion and throwing in a few quotes which might support your opinion. You need to be organized and analytical about this. You need to be critical. You need to understand your sources in depth and work out how to use them to support your ideas, and how to refute claims contrary to your own where you disagree. This synthesisThe combination of separate entities to form a new coherent unit. In academic writing, a synthesis is the creative process of of bringing together elements in a particular text or series of texts to form a coherent overview. is an important creative act. It is a difficult creative act and it takes effort and time to learn how to do it well. You cannot do this if your own position is not crystal clear in your own mind or if you haven't been able to critically analyze the source texts you are hoping to use. Incorporating points of view from other sources into your own discussion is a high level skill. If you think you can use AI to help you with this, you are missing the point. If you can't do this without outside help, how could you ever develop the ability to critically analyse any text?

There are other reasons for not using AI, one of which is honesty. AI generated texts are produced from the work of others without proper attribution and without the possibility of critically analysing the sources from which they are generated. Reading and writing are human activities and we will always need to be able to read criticallyThe ability to read (and write) at a deeper level than just receiving or transmitting information. This means understanding the intentions, pre-suppositions, assumptions, biases of the writer, and the context (historical, social, political) in which the text is produced. and write critically. This is the essence of academic writing.

(Shaw 2025) (Flower 1990) (Guest et al. 2025) (Jordan 2009) (Fairclough 1997) (Fairclough 1996) (ICAI | Values n.d.)


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