Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [academic-writing]

Writing texts in a scientific or educational setting: peer-reviewed articles, theses, text books, and others. Use the tag [scientific-publishing] in addition, if relevant.

Academic writing entails written communication of knowledge for educational purposes. Common examples are peer-reviewed articles for publication in scientific journals, theses (Master, PhD, etc.), and text books. Often, there are very specific sets of rules that set apart academic writing from writing other kinds of non-fictional texts.

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How should I respond to a supervisor/editor who thinks my technical writing is "too conversational?"

My team and I are drafting a technical report to summarize the methods and results of a pilot study we recently conducted. After drafting a handful of sections, I passed them off to our supervisor for revisions and suggestions. One comment he…
Anson Call
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From Markdown to .odt and vice-versa: a possible distraction-free writing workflow?

I'm writing a master thesis (Sociology) and I'm really penalized by distractions. I would happily shift to a markdown full-screen environment but I wrote an half of the thesis in .odt via LibreOffice, so I would like to know if it's possible to…
Kropot
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Why are papers printed in a two column format?

Is there a reason or is it arbitrary/tradition?
juan
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How should I quote American English speakers in a British English essay?

I am working on a formal essay where I have to quote a few American English speakers, but my essay is written in British English. Should I change terms like color to colour?
gen
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How should one refer to knights (& dames) in academic writing?

In ordinary English usage, one would refer to a knight called 'Forename Surname' as Sir Forename, not Surname, e.g. Sir Forename is distinguished in ... But in academic writing, one would typically refer to someone as Surname, e.g. Surname (2019)…
Matthew McClure
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In academic writing why do some recommend to avoid "announcing" the topic?

In academic writing, several articles on the topic of writing papers denounce the practice of "announcing" the topic. As an example, if a paper were to read... The goal of this study is to not be a study at all but to be a fictional paper of only…
Agriculturist
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Is using first person in academic/technical essays always bad?

For as long as I can remember, my teachers have taught me never to use first person in an essay. Yet, some of the examples we read in classes, or older writings we have to annotate, are written in first person. So what is the actual rule here? …
user34214
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Is it fine to use link shorteners for research paper citations?

I'm curious about the "properness" of using shortened links (a la bit.ly or tinyurl) in research papers. I haven't been able to find any sort of definitive reference about whether or not this is accepted or frowned upon. I found a blot post by a…
Hendy
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Difference b/w Abstract and Introduction writing for a research paper

I was slightly confused with differentiating Abstract and Introduction writing for a research paper. What is the difference between these sections? They seem to be similar.
Ravva Gaurav
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How to avoid introduction cliches

I'm writing a research paper in one of my math classes about the P vs NP problem. I feel the introduction to my paper sounds like a cliche. This is my intro: In the field of mathematics, there are problems that present an exceptional level of…
Mettal
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Is elaborating the opposite case in brackets acceptable and clear?

Is Sentence A an acceptable and clear way of shortening Sentence B? Sentence A: A firm outperforms (underperforms) the industry when expression (1) results in a positive (negative) value. Sentence B: A firm outperforms the industry when…
Bento
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When should one use a section sign (§)?

When I asked this on English.SE, the question was closed; it was suggested that I ask on Writers.SE instead. To be clear, I mean the section sign § (utf-8: 0xC2 0xA7), which is available via \S in LaTeX, § in HTML, and Compose+s+o in the X…
Warrick
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How can I transition from academic writing to fiction writing?

I always receive the same critique when I write fiction. The critique is good for my characters and plot, but I am told that my writing style is stiff, awkward and amateurish. When I wrote academic papers for university, I was often praised for my…
user602
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Abbreviation for "figures" in scientific papers

In scientific papers, the term "Figure" -- referring to an illustration in the text -- is often abbreviated as "Fig." But is "Figures" abbreviated as "Figs", "Fig.s" or "Figs."? I am proofreading a paper just now and the journal editors have used…
JAM
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What's the difference between academic and journalistic writing?

I'm not talking about "boring" academic papers that are 99% science and 0% interesting. But in comments on a draft of my senior thesis, my teacher made the comment that my writing style was quite "journalistic" and ought to be more academic. I…
Thomas Shields
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