GUIDELINES FOR

ACADEMIC WRITING
WEEK 3
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Abbreviation: Complete words should be preferred. You should use
«Professor» instead of «Prof»./you should use «that is» instead of
«i.e.»
• Acronym: You should use World Health Organization instead of
WHO/You should use Information Technology for IT (in the first use)

Weak: The reference list in student papers should follow APA style.
Better: The guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA)
citation manual should be applied while writing the reference list.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Avoid using informal phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, cliches, and
emotional language.
Not acceptable: I can’t put up with all this nonsense about bullying in
schools.
Acceptable: The problem of bullying in schools should be eliminated
through a series of precautions taken by the administration.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Avoid using informal phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, cliches, and emotional
language.

Avoid cliches like «Throughout history», «day by day», «In today’s world», or «in a
nutshell». Instead of this we use «currently» or «nowadays».
Avoid using words or phrases that are emotive such as «terrible news», «poor
child»
Weak: It is extremely disappointing to see those poor freshman students who
committed plagiarism.
Better: Certain freshman students failed to follow the rules of academic writing
and committed plagiarism.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Use proper punctuation and capitalization. In academic writing,
colons (:) and semi-colons (;) are used instead of brackets [ ],
parantheses ( ) and dashes (-)
Weak: In order to avoid plagiarism in academic texts, students should
use citation methods (Harvard, Chicago, and Oxford)
Better: In order to avoid plagiarism in academic texts, students should
use citation methods like such as Harvard, Chicago, and Oxford.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Avoid questions and commands.

Weak: What kind of measures can be taken to prevent students from

plagiarising in their academic work? This is very important for us.
Better: The major concern is to find possible solutions/measures to the
problem of plagiarism among students in their academic work.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below:
• Avoid simple sentences.
Weak: Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician and a writer. She is an
important figure in the history of computers. She is the writer of the first
computer program. It was an algorithm. She designed it to be carried out by a
machine as early as the 19th century.
Ada Lovelace, who is an English mathematician and a writer, is an important
….
Better: An English mathematician and writer, Ada Lovelace is an important
figure in the history of computers. She is known to be the writer of the first
computer program which she designed as an algorithm to be carried out by a
machine as early as the 19th century.
The criteria for academic writing are listed
below: being concise
Weak: Since aluminum and its alloys are cheap and not so heavy, they
are good to be used in many industries due to their unique properties.

Better: Aluminum and its alloys are cost-effective and lightweight

metals used in the automotive, textile, and electronic industries due to
their unique properties such as their durability, high density ratio and
corrosion resistance properties.
Why is this sentence not academic?
In a nutshell, Briefly, each and every citizen should be able to receive
affordable healthcare for their health problems.

Concision