Study Skills for Higher Education: Academic Writing Features Essay

This essay discusses the key features of academic writing, including structure, evidence, balance, and formality, highlighting their importance in conveying ideas and research effectively. It emphasizes that structured writing presents content coherently, while evidence-based writing demonstrates in-depth knowledge. Balanced writing avoids bias, and formal writing establishes credibility. The author reflects on personal improvements in time management, idea management, precise word choice, and maintaining a conversational tone. The essay concludes that mastering academic writing is an ongoing process, with continuous learning and practice required to enhance both content and style, and Desklib provides valuable resources for students seeking to improve their academic performance.

Study skill for higher
education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Academic writing is a skill of an academic writer that helps to communicate ideas,
research and relevant information in form of essay's, research papers, summary, journals and
reviews to a more wider academic community in which it is proposed (Bonsu, 2021). This essay
elaborate the four main academic writing features which are formality, balanced, evidenced and
structured along with their importance. But there are few more features like complexity,
preciseness, objectivity, explicitness, accuracy, organisation and planning which are also
important but we limit our study to above four. Moving further in the essay the description about
the personal experiences about the improvement made in academic writing.
MAIN BODY
Structured,the content in the academic writing should be structured in a clear way and
coherent to the main topic as well as to the sub heading in a logical order such that as a whole it
can be relatable( Grover and Kapoor ). For example: the report will include an introduction
elaborating the aims and objectives, different sections according to need of topic while an essay
has an introduction including thesis statement with clear body paragraphs and a conclusion. In
order to achieve a structured academic writing it require a planning that focus on logical
progression of ideas. In addition to this there is a flow of ideas which enables the reader to link
concepts through explanation instead of conflict and hurdles create by random
paragraphs(Agajelu and Anyaneche, 2020).
Evidenced, the content of academic writing have opinions, suggestions and arguments
which are should be supported by information from experts so that it demonstrate in-depth
knowledge of subject area (Khairudina and et. al., 2020). The in-text citations and a reference
section could be a good choice to adopt. Acceptance of evidence also depend who is going to
present it and the field in which they work. It is important for assurance of reader that the
information is genuine or just the personal opinion.
Balanced, The balance in academic writing is critical to show that every area under the
topic is addressed while writing as per need and also help to avoid bias (Mohamad and Kamal,
2021). When there is a proper balance it demonstrate how strong their command on topic is. It is
also important to make a balance between the original content and personal opinions in order to
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make contribution effective. In order to achieve this the hedges can be used using the phrases,
according to the news and experiment, this might be because of , clearly, overall and many more.
Formal,The main difference that keep it aside of normal writing is the formality that it
possess and it is very necessary as it signifies that it is written for formal purpose like a student
assignment or experts research(Yoke and Ngang, 2017). It avoid the use of spoken English and
lay emphasis on longer words and more complex sentences while avoiding misinterpretation and
ambiguity in the resulting work. It reflects that the respect factor about the audience and also the
seriousness about the topic. It can also be understood as how well the standards of English
conventions are followed.
While writing every effort accounts for improvement. There are a lot of areas in
academic writing where the significant improvement is noticed by me when it is compared to
each previous task accomplished. The first and foremost thing is the time management while
writing it is very critical and this must be needed to done prior to beginning of writing by
categorising it into small intervals corresponding to subsections. When time is managed then
next thing learned by me comes the management of ideas that often get repeated that might be
due to lack of knowledge. The more emphasis on research and reading the formal writing style
helped me to express views precisely and relevantly and overcome my fear to push myself
beyond my comfort zone. The next thing that encounter with the ideas is the ineffectiveness
about choosing precise words that can express views efficiently. I also understand the short
sentences are often more powerful than long one as it direct the idea exactly as it is needed to
point. Lastly a natural, calm and conversational tone can be key to an effective writing that
impart more effect on reader. The overall learning from course direct me to write with accuracy
and preciseness while maintaining coherence between the ideas.
CONCLUSION
Overall, it can be concluded from the essay that academic writing is not a skill that can be
achieved by constant practice of years as the different features are also have a large scope of
leaning new things. Structure helps to make the writing presentable and arrange them in a logical
order whereas a writing supported with the evidence reflects its genuineness. A formal writing
style illustrate a sense of respect to reader and upon this if there is balance of ideas it helps to
retain reader to content. The course helps to improve the writing content as well as the writing
style by addressing the various features explicitly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agajelu, K.N. and Anyaneche, I.M., 2020. Survey of the Study Skill of Nigeria School Students
(Case Study of Secondary Schools in Orumba South Local Government
Area). Nnadiebube Journal of Education, 5(3).
Bonsu, E., 2021. THE INFLUENCE OF WRITTEN FEEDBACK ON THE WRITING SKILL
PERFORMANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. International Journal of Applied
Research in Social Sciences, 3(3), pp.33-43.
Grover, M.M. and Kapoor, R., SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: A STUDY OF KEY
SUCCESS FACTORS AND CHALLENGES.
Khairudina and et. al., 2020. Teamwork skill on MOOC: A Psychological Perspective.
Mohamad, M. and Kamal, N.N.M., 2021. The Implementation of Open Learning in Learning
Writing Skill among TESL Teacher Trainees. Turkish Journal of Computer and
Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(6), pp.4932-4945.
Yoke, T.C. and Ngang, T.K., 2017. A study on soft skill development among final year diploma
in business studies students. MOJEM: Malaysian Online Journal of Educational
Management, 3(2), pp.32-50.
(Agajelu and Anyaneche, 2020)
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