Academic writing is a way of putting your thoughts and opinions into a clear and concise form of communication. You should be able to take a complex idea or argument and make the reader understand your thesis.

However, it may not be as simple as it sounds and there are a great many ways that you can improve your academic and essay writing skills. 

Why is academic writing important?

For students, good writing skills are important for gaining good grades and for enabling them to get into the right college. After school, writing skills can help in the workplace if you want to gain a good position in your desired field.

On another level though, academic writing skills are an important way to convince readers to your way of thinking. Strong, solid thoughts and arguments laid out clearly can turn a reader from one way of thinking to consider your side instead. 

How do you improve your academic writing?

Like with most things, you will likely have strengths and weaknesses in your writing. Most people will choose to look at their deficiencies and work at strengthening them. The practice is one way to hone your writing skills.

There are of course essay writing services online but learning your own skills will take you much further in life. Learning how to communicate clearly will make your essays easier to understand and therefore get your point across. Below are some tips to develop your writing skills. 

Understand your audience

Consider who will read your paper and write with them in mind. Write the information and any arguments in a convincing manner. Remember, you are not writing an opinion but a piece that will inform you. It should be backed up with hard evidence that makes you look credible. Your readers are likely to be well-educated and informed and if you write opinions without facts then you will lose your audience. Try no to waste anyone’s time with a retelling of basic information that they are likely to already know. 

Make your point and prove it

When you are making a thesis statement you will need to bring a convincing argument as to why it is valid and should be considered so. You need to supply a list of sources where necessary along with bibliographical information. Anyone editing your paper or who wants to research it will need this to refer to supporting evidence and material. Your conclusions should be made from hard facts and evidence and this should be readily available.

Look at your writing style

There are areas you should avoid while writing. Be concise with your sentences and avoid making them over-wordy. At the same time, try to avoid choppiness with sentences that are too small. Avoid repetition; using two similar words in one sentence that essentially mean the same thing is pointless.

Try and expand your vocabulary. Learning new words is fun! If there is something you don’t understand then look it up and once you understand how and when to use it, try it out. Use vocabulary that you are comfortable with also but try to be descriptive. Simple text is good but avoid weak choices with your vocabulary. Keep your ‘voice’ formal and try not to write as you may normally talk. You want to write clearly, concisely and with an active, not passive, voice. 

Don’t ignore the conclusion

It is easy to forget to add a conclusion to your essay or write a poor one. This is a major part of writing impressive and effective essays. Ideally, the conclusion will tie everything that has occurred previously together. You don’t want to just rehash your wording or copy the introduction again, but rather outline the evidence and show how this proves your argument and conclusions. 

Proofread your work

If there is one area that should not be overlooked it is proofreading. You must check over your work before even considering submitting it. The difficulty with proof-reading your own efforts is that it is so easy to miss errors. This is because you have spent so much time with your work that mistakes don’t always stand out. To get your work checked use more than one person to read over it and consider using English proofreading services for those important essays. These services won’t just proofread your work they will also give feedback to assist you in improving the essay. 

Continual editing

Editing is a continual process while writing. You should look to polish your composition and increase its persuasiveness while being compact and concise. Enlist help to edit your work if this is not your strength. 

Summary

As you are aware, practice makes perfect in most walks of life and writing is no different. As you write more essays you will find that your vocabulary naturally grows and mistakes you made early on will start to be eradicated. You must bear in mind to always stay on subject, be concise, clear, and provide solid evidence for your thesis, and then you can convince your readers and make them understand your line of thinking.