Study Skills for Higher Education: Features of Academic Writing

This report discusses the importance of academic skills for effective academic writing. It covers the features of academic writing, including referencing, critical writing, structure, passive structure, balanced approach, and formal tone. The report emphasizes the significance of these features in making academic content more reliable, serious, and to the point.

Individual Essay Study
Skills for Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills are habits and talents that benefit academic pursuits such as learning,
report writing, research and presentations. It includes communication, analysis, studying,
planning, social, test-taking and technical skills. These skills have the basic nature that these can
be transferred easily. Academic skills are important for academic writing because without
support of these skills, it is difficult to write in the formal style (Arafeh., 2016). Academic
Writing is that type of writing which gives information and facts about the concern topic and it
can be written in the well descriptive format. Academic writing is important because it act as a
tool of communication which conveys acquired knowledge into a specific field of study. This
type of writing enables students to analyse, convey, think critically and focus on style and
technique. The report covers discussion about features of academic writing which is mentioned
in the article. In addition to this, the report covers analysis about importance of academic writing.
MAIN BODY
Academic writing is basically a clear, focused, concise, structured and also backed up by
evidence. This type of writing has a formal style and tone but it is not complex in terms of
nature. There are certain features which are required for good academic writing. Referencing is
one of the most important feature of academic writing because a good content is always
supported by evidence. Under academic writing, arguments and opinions should be supported by
evidence (Why referencing is important). The writing is mostly based on the information from
experts in the field. This is the main reason that it will be important to reference the information
appropriately. With support of in-text citations and reference section, the written content become
more authentic and to the point as well. Referencing is basically an important part of academic
work and it puts the work in context, demonstrates the breadth and depth of research as well
(Boevé and et.al., 2015). It also acknowledges other people’s work and writers contribution as
well. Within the work, referencing acknowledges the research into positive manner. It is also a
way to give credit to the writers from whom an individual has borrowed ideas and words. By
citing the work of a particular scholar, acknowledgement and respect has been given to a
particular scholar.

Critical writing is the feature which plays a very important role in terms of a good
academic writing. While writing a good content, it is required that an individual should not
believe or accept everything read as fact. It is important to analyse and evaluate the information
for which it is written about. It is also necessary that to make judgements about it before writing
it into the final frame. This basically refers to critical writing. Critical writing is important
because it gives the deeper understanding about the important concepts and also clarify
relationship between concepts (Fleming., 2017). Critical writing gives an idea in the minds of
students to develop a concept and its influential aspects as well. It is important because it
presents strong supportive evidence and a clear argument that supports in terms of reaching to a
reasonable conclusion (Importance of critical writing). It also presents a balanced argument
which indicates an unbiased view by evaluating both the evidence that supports the argument as
well as the counter-arguments that shows an alternative perspective on the subject.
Clear structure is also important for a good academic writing because it makes the
writing coherent, logically progressive and cohesive with different parts of the writing. Under
academic writing, structure plays a very important role because it helps to make ideas more
clear, guides the reader's comprehension and also strengthen the arguments as well. In addition
to this, the ideas should be flow or linked so that reader is drawn through an explanation or
argument rather than starting and stopping at each new point (Harrison., 2018). For writing in an
appropriate manner, careful planning is required so that content is written in proper format. A
well-structured text in academic writing enables the writer to follow the argument and navigate
the text into appropriate manner (Importance of structure). By developing a clear structure in
academic writing ensures about the most important points covered at the appropriate point in the
writing. A structure or framework allows to break down the daunting task of writing a longer
document into more manageable sections. That's clear structure is necessary in a good academic
writing.
Words and collocations is necessary under academic writing and act as an important
feature for writing a good content. Proper use of words and collocation makes the writing more
formal and also makes the language sound natural (Why collocation is important). Collocations

are important in academic writing because it contributes in terms of increasing knowledge of
lexicon and general language proficiency.
Use of collocations on a large scale makes the English more idiomatic and also it is
similar to the way it is spoken by the native speakers. Words and collocations are important in
academic writing because if there is more use of vocabulary then it enables the reader to
understand into more appropriate manner. More use of vocabulary also makes the academic
writing more effective and to the point as well (Knoch and et.al., 2015). While doing research,
academic words plays a very important role because the effective words can communicate
information into more precise manner. The choice of words in academic writing also makes the
content more authentic, real and to the point context as well. That's why in academic writing,
use of words and collocation makes the content more impressive and result-oriented as well.
Balanced approach is one of the important feature of academic writing because giving
importance to every side of the issue makes the content up to the mark and more expressive as
well. Under academic writing, it is necessary that content should be written with a balanced
approach so that there is no biasness within the content. Content should be written from every
perspective and it should not give importance to one particular parameter (Lesjak and et.al.,
2015). Under academic writing, balanced approach is important because it emphasizes the
particular ideas to make meanings clear as well as contribute in terms of creating a pleasing
rhythm. Balanced sentences give a spotlight on series of clauses or sentences (Balanced
approach in academic writing). This is the way through which content becomes unique and
writer stand differently into their academic area. Writing a content with balanced approach helps
in terms of analysing matter from every type of parameter and consequences as well. That's why
balanced approach act as a good feature in terms of academic writing.
Passive structure is also one of the important feature of academic writing. Under
academic writing, there is more use of passive structures rather than active voice. This type of
writing majorly covers more use of noun phrases rather than verbs and adverbs. Use of passive
voice in academic writing allows the writer to create a distance between themselves and what
they are writing about (Salomon., 2016). Passive voice is important in academic writing because

it produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action. In a more contrastive manner,
active voice produces a sentence where subject performs an action.
As academic writing is objective in terms of nature, the major emphasis is placed on the
arguments and information rather than on the writer. Example of passive structure is I heated the
water (When passive structure is useful). For making the content more readable and make it more
understanding in terms of nature that's why passive structure is important in academic writing.
Formal tone of academic writing act as an important feature of academic writing. This
type of tone helps in terms of establishing the writer's respect for the audience and also suggest
that the writer is serious about the topic. It is that type of tone which is generally used to
communicate with educated people (VanDellon., 2017). Formal tone is important in academic
writing because it makes the content more purposeful, concise and focused as well. Formal tone
in academic writing supports in terms of evading misinterpretation and ambiguity in the resulting
work (Formal writing voice). This type of tone is considered as serious tone due to which
content become more authentic and does not involve any friendly language as well. Under
academic writing formal tone act as important parameter for proper representation of work.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that academic writing can become effective with the
support of academic skills. There are certain features which are very necessary under academic
writing. Formal tone, referencing, proper structure, critical writing, passive structure, balanced
approach and use of words and collocations act as important feature which are necessary for
writing a good academic content. These feature makes the academic content more reliable,
serious and to the point as well. When content is analysed from every aspect then it covers each
parameter of the chosen topic. By following these features, content become more interesting and
impressive as well. The importance of academic skills supports in terms of making the content
effective and realistic as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arafeh, S., 2016. Curriculum mapping in higher education: a case study and proposed content
scope and sequence mapping tool. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 40(5),
pp.585-611.
Boevé and et.al., 2015. Introducing computer-based testing in high-stakes exams in higher
education: Results of a field experiment. PloS one, 10(12), p.e0143616.
Fleming, P., 2017. The human capital hoax: Work, debt and insecurity in the era of
Uberization. Organization Studies, 38(5), pp.691-709.
Harrison, N., 2018. Using the lens of ‘possible selves’ to explore access to higher education: A
new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research. Social Sciences, 7(10), p.209.
Knoch and et.al., 2015. What happens to ESL students’ writing after three years of study at an
English medium university?. Journal of Second Language Writing, 28, pp.39-52.
Lesjak and et.al., 2015. Erasmus student motivation: Why and where to go?. Higher
education, 70(5), pp.845-865.
Salomon, G., 2016. It’s not just the tool but the educational rationale that counts. In Educational
technology and polycontextual bridging (pp. 147-161). Brill Sense.
VanDellon, W., 2017. Revisiting the Personal Essay: Examining the Neglected Sophistication
and the Rhetorical Dexterity of Student Writing. ProQuest LLC.
Online
Why referencing is important,2021[Online]Available
through:<https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/why-referencing-important/>
Importance of critical writing,2021[Online]Available
through:<https://www.dianathenerd.com/blog/key-components-importance-of-critical-writing-
projects/>
Importance of structure,2021[Online]Available
through:<https://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html/>
Why collocation is important,2021[Online]Available
through:<https://www.ieltscareerzone.in/why-collocation-is-important-in-ielts/>
Balanced approach in academic writing,2021[Online]Available
through:<https://kidskonnect.com/articles/the-balanced-approach-to-literacy-what-is-it-and-why-
is-it-effective/>

When passive structure is useful,2021[Online]Available through
:<https://www.capstoneediting.com.au/blog/when-is-passive-voice-useful/>
Formal writing voice,2021[Online]Available through:<https://bunnystudio.com/blog/the-
essentials-of-formal-tone-in-business-and-academic-writing/>