Students, professors, and researchers in every discipline use academic writing to convey ideas, make arguments, and engage in scholarly conversation. Academic writing is characterized by evidence-based arguments, precise word choice, logical organization, and an impersonal tone. Though sometimes thought of as long-winded or inaccessible, strong academic writing is quite the opposite: It informs, analyzes, and persuades in a straightforward manner and enables the reader to engage critically in a scholarly dialogue.
Clear and limited focus. The focus of an academic paper—the argument or research question—is established early by the thesis statement. Every paragraph and sentence of the paper connects back to that primary focus. While the paper may include background or contextual information, all content serves the purpose of supporting the thesis statement.
Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information. Effective Academic Writing 2: The Short Essay, is the second level of a new academic writing series. The series teaches the writing modes and rhetorical devices students need to succeed in academic work. Grammar presentation and practice are correlated to the Grammar Sense series.
Logical structure. All academic writing follows a logical, straightforward structure. In its simplest form, academic writing includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
The introduction provides background information, lays out the scope and direction of the essay, and states the thesis. The body paragraphs support the thesis statement, with each body paragraph elaborating on one supporting point. The conclusion refers back to the thesis, summarizes the main points, and highlights the implications of the paper’s findings. Each sentence and paragraph logically connects to the next in order to present a clear argument. Evidence-based arguments. Academic writing requires well-informed arguments. Statements must be supported by evidence, whether from scholarly sources (as in a research paper), results of a study or experiment, or quotations from a primary text (as in a literary analysis essay).
The use of evidence gives credibility to an argument. The goal of academic writing is to convey complex ideas in a clear, manner. Don’t muddy the meaning of your argument by using confusing language. If you find yourself writing a sentence over 25 words long, try to divide it into two or three separate sentences for improved readability. A vague or missing thesis statement. The thesis statement is the single most important sentence in any academic paper.
Your thesis statement must be clear, and each body paragraph needs to tie into that thesis. Informal language. Academic writing is formal in tone and should not include slang, idioms, or conversational language. Description without analysis. Do not simply repeat the ideas or arguments from your source materials. Rather, analyze those arguments and explain how they relate to your point. Not citing sources.
Keep track of your source materials throughout the research and writing process. Cite them consistently using one style manual (, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style, depending on the guidelines given to you at the outset of the project).
Any ideas that are not your own need to be cited, whether they're paraphrased or quoted directly, to avoid plagiarism.