As we travel through life, we constantly experience learning. From the moment that we are born, our brains and bodies start to grow and learn. Over time, this learning process will change and evolve. A large amount of our learning will be formal, while other types of learning are more informal, largely based on our life experiences and our approach to challenges. Sometimes these learning processes are easy and natural, like learning to walk, however, in some instances they can be very challenging, filled with fear, and can be very intimidating.

Once you enter the world of tertiary education, you are required to learn many new skills. One of these skills is the ability to share and communicate your Academic work effectively. Mostly, you will be expected to write and share your work using the more formal way of writing, referred to as Academic Writing. During your studies towards a qualification, you will be expected to write several academic documents, all with their own formats, rules, and structures. However, one significant problem that you will face is that learning the skills regarding the complex art of academic writing is often neglected in academic institutions.

Do Not Panic!

The daunting task of writing an academic document, such as a thesis or dissertation may take months, sometimes years to plan and execute. Often with little or no guidance to help you complete this task. If you do not know where or how to start, the task will feel like an indescribably large undertaking, bringing with it an incredibly large amount of fear, apprehension and doubt.

This feeling of doubt and anxiety is a normal response and is common among students. However, if not dealt with, it can lead to an overwhelming amount of stress and negative outcomes, where your stress becomes a major deciding factor around the success of your studies.

We find that a key element to reducing anxiety is understanding the expectations of academic writing. Academic writing can broadly be separated into the words to use, language, and writing style, on the one hand, and then the format or structure of your document, on the other hand.

The next step in producing an academic document is to understand the process of writing a document. This refers to the "how" aspect of academic writing. How to write an academic document is rarely taught at academic institutions. If you know how to write a document, your stress and anxiety will reduce and become more manageable, and you will learn to construct a document by weaving in terms and words that are specific to your field of study.

It is also worth remembering that there is always help available, regardless of your situation. You can get help from peers, or you can pay for help from an academic writing mentor. We find the price you pay for help is often insignificantly small when compared to the cost of your education, the stress involved, and the future benefits in the form of time saved and results.

Your Style Guide Is Key

If you are writing an essay, research paper, literature review or thesis, your supervisor, examiner, or publisher will have specific expectations concerning the length, format, structure, style, fonts, language, and the way citations and references are included. All these expectations together are commonly known as the academic writing style guide or academic writing format.

Some institutions are rather strict when it comes to the style of a document, and would expect you to use a specific style guide. This style guide could be their own, in-house style guide or a widely used common style guide. Examples of commonly used style guides are the American Medical Association (AMA) style guide, the Modern Language Association (MLA) guide and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS).

In some instances, a specific style guide is not an expectation. It is thus up to you to apply the general rules and norms of academic writing, or you may select a commonly used style guide.

Academic Writing Dos & Don'ts

Beyond the formatting and structure of an academic document, the words you use and how you construct your content and arguments matter. Academic writing has a formal, clear, and concise style of writing, which you will rarely see in public writing, fictional books or blog articles.

Many students are unfamiliar with the formal nature of academic writing and find it a struggle. However, you need to understand what is expected in academic writing and what is barred from academic writing.

Do's of Good Academic Writing

Academic writing is:

• Formal
• Unbiased
• Clear and precise
• Critical
• Objective
• Explicit
• Focused and well-structured
• Well sourced
• Correct and consistent

Don'ts of Academic writing

Academic writing is not:

• Personal
• Long-winded
• Emotive
• Biased
• Implicit
• Unfocused

Understand the Type of Academic Document

There are several different types of academic documents, depending on the context and purpose of the document. Before starting a new writing project or assignment, you should first understand what type of document you intend writing, because this influences your planning and approach to your writing as well as the length of your document.

Essay

An academic essay is a relatively short piece of writing, that is self-contained and supports a specific point. It's focused and develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation. Most essays at the university level are argumentative and aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

Research proposal

A research proposal is a structured, formal document that explains what your research topic is about, why you think it is worth researching, and how you plan to do the research. The purpose of the research proposal is to convince your research supervisor or your university’s research committee that your research project is suitable and manageable. Such proposals are thus submitted before you are allowed to commence with your research project. Research proposals are also submitted as requests for funding or sponsorship.

Research Paper

A research paper is an in-depth and comprehensive document reporting on completed research and demonstrates an author's understanding of a specific research topic. Research papers are generally framed around a research question for which an answer was sought through doing research. The findings of the research will form the focus of a research paper. A research paper may thus contain the results of original research or could be the evaluation of research conducted by other scholars. Most papers undergo a process of peer review before they can be accepted for publication in an academic journal.

Thesis and Dissertation

Theses and dissertations are academic documents submitted at a university as part of achieving a qualification. Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably, where some universities refer to a thesis as a document submitted for a doctorate and a dissertation for a master's qualification. At other universities, it is the other way around, where a dissertation is submitted for a doctorate and a thesis for a master's.

These confusing differences in the use of the term thesis and dissertation are broadly country-specific. Countries West of the Atlantic and in the Americas generally use the word thesis concerning a master's and a dissertation with a doctorate. Countries East of the Atlantic in Europe, including the United Kingdom and South Africa, use these terms the other way around.

However, these documents are named, theses and dissertations are large projects that demonstrate a student’s candidacy for the awarding of a degree by posing a question, doing research, and then presenting a written document in which the findings are presented together with arguments to support their position in their field of study. Both doctoral and master's documents are done under the guidance of an academic supervisor within the rules of a particular academic institution.

Overall, the format of theses and dissertations are similar. However, the length will vary as the expectations, depth of knowledge and standard required of a doctoral document is much higher than that of a master's.

Literature Review

A literature review is an academic document that evaluates and summarises an academic topic through the analysis of the work of other scholars. An author would review published scholarly books, articles, presentations, theses, dissertations, or any other published academic material.

Students studying towards a doctoral or master’s degree will also conduct a literature review as part of their journey towards attaining their degree. Through the critical analysis of existing academic material on a topic, a student uses a literature review to inform their approach to their research project.

Lab or Technical Report

Lab and technical reports are different descriptions for mostly the same thing. These reports convey the aim, methods, results, and conclusions of scientific research. They are commonly used in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. These reports are usually consulted by students when working towards doctoral and master’s degrees while writing up their academic documents.

Reports are also written and submitted to a sponsor or funding organisation as evidence of the progress of a research project. Such a report may provide recommendations based on the outcomes of the research. These reports rarely undergo a formal peer-review process. However, they are often used as the foundation and input to another academic document or publication.

Annotated bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of source references on a topic that includes a brief description or evaluation of each source. It may be assigned as part of the research process for a paper, or as an individual assignment to gather and read relevant sources on a topic.

Bibliographies are often independent documents with a specific format, usually in paragraph format, that summarises the sources in a way that the reader can understand the context of each source. A bibliography should provide the reader with a good overview of the research and findings on a specific topic.

Practice Academic Writing Through Reading

One of the best methods to learn the basics of academic writing is to read existing publications and examples. Through reading, you will learn what is good and what is bad academic writing. Reading is a low barrier to entry method of learning how different documents are structured, their lengths, and how arguments are framed and presented.

If the institution where you are registered requires a specific style guide? We recommend you ask your academic supervisor to give you access to examples of existing papers and publications. So that you can, through reading, obtain a better understanding of the particular writing style expected of you.

An existing publication that has already gone through a peer-review process and has been published. Combined with the required writing style guide will often help you to get a picture of the road ahead and elevate some of the anxiety and stress.