Academic writing is not intended to be complex. It requires you to clearly and concisely communicate your learning and ideas to your reader. It follows some rules and conventions but does not need to be formulaic.

Your ability to write academically will improve as you progress through university. This will be partly because you are reading more academic books and journal articles and will become more familiar with the academic style. It may also be because you receive feedback from your tutors that suggests improvements and you specifically look at how to change your writing.

The pages in the this "Writing at University" resource looks at:

Grammar

Academic writing needs to be grammatically correct and much academic feedback will highlight this. We have a specific Grammar Resource which will help you focus on those areas where you may need to make improvements.

Academic writing workshops

The Skills Team run the following relevant workshops:

Essay writing
Critical thinking and writing
Starting your undergraduate dissertation or independent study (Sem 1 only)
Doing a literature review
Microsoft Word: Essential for academic writing

To book onto our workshops please visit the Skills workshops page.

Top Tips Printable Guide

Single page printable guide giving 10 top tips for writing academically.

Click on the image to download the PDF.

Other resources:

The Academic Phrasebank: Excellent resource from the University of Manchester that says it provides you with the 'nuts and bolts' of academic phraseology.
Language and Learning Online: Writing: Excellent subject specific information.

Related books and eBooks available in our university libraries

Academic writing: a handbook for international students by Stephen Bailey (Available as a book andeBook)
Academic writing: from paragraph to essay by Dorethy Zemach and Lisa Rumisek