How to Write Strong Academic Texts: 5 Steps to Professional Writing

How do you differentiate strong papers from weak ones? Are there any specific points you should focus on when working on your assignments? We will try to answer these and other important questions about academic writing. Without a doubt, academic content is different from a newspaper article, a post on social media, and a thrilling novel. If your goal is to score high on your papers, you need to be aware of key aspects of impressing scholars with your writing.

One of the essential parts of academic writing is academic integrity. Even though you will often need to rely on the works of other scholars, it does not mean that you should not mention them in your papers. The academic community takes plagiarism issues very seriously. That is why you need to thoroughly check the content you create for intentional and unintentional plagiarism. There are many tools that can help you do it rather quickly. For instance, you can read a Quillbot Plagiarism Checker review to learn about the benefits of this particular tool, as it has already gained popularity among students.

The rules of this integrity game are very similar to the marketing principles. Your product or service has to be original and offer customers unique advantages. Continue reading this article to have fun with marketing analogies, learn more about different types of plagiarism, and get valuable tips on effective academic writing.

Every marketer knows how difficult it is to sell a product that is almost identical to the one that competitors have. Clients are almost never impressed when the product you launch has nothing new to offer. The same logic works for writing research papers. Your task is to bring something new to the existing discussion. It’s not only about collecting information from other sources and analyzing it. You need to take one step forward and present fresh insights and conclusions.

On top of that, you have to pay close attention to the sources you use. It is easy to get accused of plagiarism (intentional or not) and have your reputation ruined for a long time. Always use a plagiarism remover of any kind to ensure your content is original. Let’s consider the most common ways you can face such unpleasant accusations when you forget to include proper citations:

● Direct quotation without citation (when you copy a passage from a source without enclosing it in quotation marks or citing the original author);

● Paraphrasing without citation (when you restate others' ideas without acknowledging the original source);

● Mosaic plagiarism (when you combine phrases or sentences from a source into your own writing);

● Self-plagiarism (when you reuse your own previously published work);

● Internet plagiarism (when you copy material from websites, databases, or other online sources);

Now that you know how to avoid plagiarism and unoriginal ideas in your work, we can move forward.

Keeping the target audience in mind when creating a product is one of the crucial marketing principles. When you write college essays or create presentations, you need to understand who is going to read them. Then, you can identify the key message correctly and choose a relevant writing style. Professors, peers, and the general public can be your target audience.

The next point is to determine the purpose of your writing. What do you want to accomplish with your essay, presentation, review, etc.? Some assignments require you to inform the audience about something, while others aim to analyze the information and persuade the readers.

You don’t need to create a board with red yarn that connects the key points of your research study, of course. However, you will need to use deduction to analyze the relevant information you find and draw logical conclusions from it. One of the crucial goals of this step is to get a clear idea of the existing knowledge on the topic.

Then you can decide how you can contribute to this ongoing discussion. While doing a research study, rely on academic journals, books, and credible websites. Always double-check the information to ensure you are using the latest and the most accurate facts and figures.

No advertising will work if people don’t understand what a company is trying to tell them. It will not matter how interesting your ideas are if you fail to present them correctly. The audience needs to understand your key messages. Even though there are different types of essays, you need to consider some universal rules for creating clear and convincing content.

Always check the definitions of words if you are not sure what they mean. It’s better to double-check than to look silly. Use short sentences to make it easy for readers to follow your train of thought. Don’t be afraid to question the conventional wisdom and offer new perspectives as long as you have strong arguments.

Speaking about arguments, you can draw insights from unexpected sources to enrich your analysis. Use specific examples to illustrate your viewpoint and sound trustworthy. These writing techniques will help you create something special.

Do whatever you want, but never skip this step. It is always such a huge disappointment to get a low score just because of grammatical errors, typos, and inconsistencies in formatting. If you hate spending a lot of time proofreading your papers, use a free or fee-based tool to do it faster. You can also hire an experienced writer to do it for you.

Also, edit your papers as many times as you need. Leave enough time to read them several times, preferably within a 24-hour interval, to look at your content from different perspectives. Check if there are smooth transitions between paragraphs. Otherwise, your paper can end up looking like a collection of various facts.

All it takes to create impressive academic papers is practice and dedication. Practice as much as you can, use different writing techniques, and regularly ask your professors and peers for feedback.