Academic writing is usually done in the education/school setting. It is formal, objective (impersonal), and technical. Academic writing can be in the form of an essay, paper, research paper, term paper, argumentative paper/essay, analysis paper/essay, informative essay, position paper etc. What is interesting about academic writing is that though it follows the same rules across board, each discipline of study has its own peculiar writing style.

In this post, we will begin our lessons on academic writing by discussing the purpose of academic writing. The main purpose of academic writing is to show that you understand and can clearly appreciate the topic under discussion; it is not to necessarily show off your knowledge about the topic. To start with, every academic writing should have a clear purpose. The principal purposes of academic writing are to analyse, to persuade and to inform.

Analytical Purpose: In writing for analytical purposes, the goal is to explore and criticise various answers to a question and then picking the best answer(s) using your own discretion. These kinds of academic assignments usually explore causes, analyse effects, evaluate effectiveness, calculate solutions to problems, establish relationships between ideas, or examine other people’s arguments.  The analytical purpose also involves synthesising—where you, the writer, collate all the parts of your writing and then conclude with an answer to your question; such as in analysis papers and critical analyses.

Informative Purpose: For an academic writing to be considered informative, it needs to elaborate possible answers to the question(s) posed; giving readers new information about the topic. The informative purpose is distinct from the analytical purpose, in that, the writer does not push their perspective on the readers. On the contrary, readers are better informed about the topic through the essay.

Persuasive Purpose: The purpose of persuasive academic writing is to make readers buy into your ideas or response to the question. You can only make your readers adopt your answer if you present convincing arguments to support your chosen answer. To change the readers’ point of view, you need to show reason and evidence. This style of academic writing is used in argumentative and position papers.

Now that you have established the purpose of your academic writing, you have to be guided by some principles.

• Logical Organization. Academic writing is done in accordance with a standard organisational procedure. It starts with an introduction, the body of the essay, and a conclusion. Each paragraph transitions coherently into the next.
  The introduction provides a background to the subject while attracting the reader’s attention. It introduces the thesis statement and lets the reader in on what to expect.
  The body paragraphs focus on the thesis statement. Each body paragraph supports the thesis statement with a major point, and this is introduced in the topic sentence. All sentences are connected logically and your readers should not have a hard time finding the coherence between ideas.
  The conclusion is the summary of the thesis and its supporting points. It also summarizes the significance of the paper’s findings.

• Focus on your thesis statement. Every paragraph and sentence should support the thesis statement. All arguments made should be in alignment with the thesis statement, in that any contradictory point raised would just be for the purposes of strengthening your point of view.
• Establish a clear point of view. Academic writing is not just listing information and facts and summarising scholarly sources. The goal of your academic paper is to give the reader an insight into your thought process and show how you can analyse situations. Your writing should succintly state and support your own original idea–your thesis statement, about the broad topic.
• Research Effectively. One important feature of academic papers is that they make references to several high quality scholarly and professional sources. The onus is on you to use your research to back your independent ideas. It must be integrated coherently into your work. Research must not be presented in isolation. Research content must be introduced, elaborated on and cited using the approved style.