Academic Writing Survival Guide

Intimidated by academic essay writing? If you're new at this (and even if you're not, quite possibly), intimidation is to be expected. There's nothing easy or simple about the demands of writing a journal article, conference paper, dissertation, or a graduate class paper.

Learning how to combine complex theory, insightful analysis, and relevant literature into a coherent package is an art form that takes years to master. And because there's always something at stake-- a grade in a graduate course, a graduate degree, rejection, tenure, or what have you-- this difficult kind of writing comes with some seriously stressful baggage.

So where do you begin? Here some academic writing survival tips to help you get started.

1) Write Coherently

Because the norms of academic writing are so theoretical and challenging, writers sometimes forget the basics-- your essay has to make sense! Forget about trying to sound academic, and concentrate on writing something that's readable. Yes, this can be quite a chore when you're writing about complex ideas, but it's so important. Keep this simple tips in mind:

• Explain terms that may be unfamiliar to the reader-- and assume that the reader is a novice at these ideas. You can't avoid jargon when you write about academic topic, but you can explain jargon.
• Always write using a fairly detailed outline.
• Include a thesis statement that previews your essay.
• Err on the side of simple sentence structure and language. If you can say the same thing in fewer words, do it.

2) Use Your Own Voice

Academic writing involves lots of quotes, and it's very easy to overdo your use of quotes in a way that obscures your own voice. Always define concepts in your own words, and if possible, use original examples to explain these concepts. It's so tempting just to throw in a quote from someone famous to explain a concept, but don't--unless you're using this to back up an explanation you've already made. Don't be afraid to speak through your writing.

3) Use Examples

One mistake novice academic writers make is to make claims about a text (a literary work, a television show, or whatever it is they're analyzing) or situation without backing up their claim with evidence. If you're making an argument about a text, you need textual evidence. For example, if you make a claim that a novel represents women in a particular way, you need to discuss several scenes in the novel that illustrate that claim. If you make a claim that "studies show that violent video games aren't as harmful to kids as people think," then you need to discuss a few of those studies. Even if your paper is primarily about theory, it's important to back up claims you make about theory with specific theoretical passages.

4) Cite Smart

Find a good balance with citations. Your bibliography and in-text citations do need to be comprehensive-- at least to a reasonable degree. You have to do your homework so that you don't leave out any key writings in the field. It's also important to check recent books and journal articles to make sure you're not missing something significant that just came out. On the other hand, you can overdo your citations. Don't cite works that are only related tangentially to your research.

One thing to avoid: the bottomless parenthetical reference. That goes something like this:

Research shows that violent video games aren't as dangerous as people think (Ackerman, 2000, 2001, 2002; Brown, 2007; Cohen, 2004, 2005, 2008; Donohue, 2003; Fohery, 2007, 2008; Garcia, 2003, 2005; Hill, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008; Jackson, 2001, 2003...)

You get the idea. It's better to just include a few key works in a parenthetical references-- and then to spend some paragraphs explaining relevant works.

5) Know Your Style Guides

There's no way around this tedious task. You need to know APA, MLA, Chicago, or whatever it is your field uses. Buy a book and know your stuff. Unfortunately, undergraduate classes usually don't prepare students well enough for the style guide knowledge they'll need as a grad student, so it may be up to you to pick up that darned book and figure it out for yourself.

6) Keep At It

Academic writing does get easier. Like everything else, you need to work on your writing often and learn as you go. There's a logic behind academic writing that does start to make more sense after awhile, so don't give up. Best of luck!

Prepare to Do Your Research

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