Other Academic writing style

[Averagefictionalrose]

So I've been stressing over this and thought I might just see if anyone here has any views.

I'm doing a distance learning course and I have been struggling to understand the different style in writing an assignment.

Can someone explain, simply, accadmic style of writing?

 

[Windsock]

You're so used to writing fiction that nonfiction is puzzling? I've honestly never heard that before. I guess it's a good problem to have lmao

anyway, writing in an academic context is about detached, factful, honest report. I wrote anything I had to write for college as if I was explaining something to a colleague at a workplace.

No emotions, nothing fancy, simple words explaining "the things".

for example: if I had to write a paper about.. say, robots and how perchance a hydraulically operated robot might be constructed and why.

"
Hydraulic actuators offer interesting performance characteristics for mechanical assistants in the future. A human shaped machine could use them similarly to how humans use their own muscles, expanding and contracting to move an otherwise solid framework of parts."

Simply, you could look at most wiki articles, even wikipedia itself as a comparison.

In short: brevity, haste, detailed, descriptive. Oh, and it actually accomplishes the task your teacher or whatever asked for.

 

[Onmyoji]

It should have logical structure. For example, you present a hypotheses and then either support or deny it, then overall conclusion. And if you make a statement you should reference other people work on the subject to support it (the way of formatting references may vary because each journal/university use different styles of formatting).

Main difference is that it should be not emotional, detached, but still descriptive.
Instead of "I read that the sky is blue" you would write something like "Up until 2025, it was heavily implied in scientific papers that the sky is blue, however, Author A conducted a series of experiments to determine that it was green [Author A, 2025]. This claim was supported later by the Green Sky Society during the Sky Color Conference in Rome [Sky Conference Book, 2027]."

 

[Winter_Wolf]

As Onmyoji said, academic writing relies quite a bit on logic and structure. In criminally broad terms, you start by asserting something--a thesis, theory, argument, etc--then you provide facts and logic for why your point of view is correct or needs to be considered. Depending on the subject, you might quote supporting passages from a piece of classic literature, a scientific study, an ancient Greek geometry text, a current event or historical account, etc. You need to provide some analysis of your supporting passages/quotes too. Don't just leave the quote to do all the talking for you, or simply repeat what it says--either will make your argument fall flat. You need to expand on them. Make a "quote sandwich" by introducing the quote with a sentence or two, for instance the topic sentence of a paragraph. Then provide the passage (citing as necessary) and follow it with your own words and how it helps your case.

At the end of it all, you'll need a conclusion which recaps and reinforces your thesis and arguments, but doesn't simply restate them. Simply repeating your thesis and all that will diminish your piece's impact. The conclusion is a chance to make a lasting impression! Usually it's good to try to have a "clincher" at the end--what has been learned, or established? Or do you have new questions that you believe need to be addressed? Sometimes academic writing isn't always about asserting a definitive answer, but also about directing the reader to consider arguments they might not otherwise, and guiding them to new considerations.

It partly depends on what the requirements or preferences of your teacher are (and the assignment). Some might want you to hammer a nail into a coffin by arguing for/against something, but maybe they'd accept a well done open ended piece that keeps the conversation going, with your own influence present.

I work as an academic tutor and have been reasonably strong in academic writing, so you can shoot me a PM if you want more in-depth help! I've already written a lot here.