Academic Writing Style in Stylewriter Software

Too often academic writing aims to impress the reader instead of expressing ideas clearly and simply.  Although much academic writing is about complex subjects, there is no need for an overblown and long-winded style.  Making your readers struggle to understand your meaning will not make them accept your ideas readily.

As in all good writing, you should try to put across your message in clear English and avoid complex words and jargon as much as you can.

When you select Academic Paper as your writing task, StyleWriter Software adjusts its statistical measures as follows:

	Style Index	Average Sentence	Passive Index	Long Sentence Limit
Excellent Range	0-30	15-20	0-30	40

The real challenge in academic writing is to express complex ideas simply.  Follow these guidelines to help improve your academic papers.

1.    Avoid abstract terms – be as specific as you can.
2.    Use simple words instead of complex words.
3.    Define specialised terms or unusual words the first time you use them.
4.    Avoid jargon and vague writing.
5.    Don’t try to adopt a learned tone – your message, not your writing style,  should show your knowledge and expertise.
6.    Avoid passive verbs as much as you can.
7.    Use examples and illustrations to explain difficult information.
8.    Use direct questions, quotations and asides to liven up your writing.

9.    If you use quotations from other works, try to make them short and relevant to your argument.
10.    Don’t assume your readers will understand your ideas without explaining them.

Plain English Writing Task Styles in Stylewriter

This entry was posted on June 13th, 2010 and is filed under Writing Task Styles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.