Academic Writing

Academic writing is aimed at a scholarly audience.  Because academic writing is adding to human knowledge, there are high standards to observe.   For example, journal articles use a structured format to present an argument or hypothesis, research methods, evidence, interpretation of the data, and how the research matches up with other research in the same field. The structured format helps readers carefully evaluate the claims, arguments and supporting evidence.  Academic writing follows norms — accuracy, brevity, clarity — and generally avoids informal expressions. This section gives basic information about academic writing as well as many specific resources.