The academic style
The academic world has its own style. No matter how good we are to write stories or poetry, no matter how successful our personal blog is, writing an academic paper can seem very difficult if we are not used to doing it.
Writing an academic paper is writing a scientific essay. We must put aside slang and bet on a more technical language. However, being clear and without lengthening the sentences too much or using terms that we do not know. It must have an informative style and clarity. one must put aside the personal opinions.
Correction
The first thing we have to keep in mind is that an academic paper can never have a single spelling error. If we doubt the spelling or the meaning of a word. We must consult it in the RAE, and if the doubt is about the use of an expression. It is better to consult the website. It is important that we make sure well and that we pass the Word proofreader so that nothing escapes us. Even so, there are misplaced words that Word will not correct, for example, if we put there when we want to put there, both words are correct but not if we use them wrong and our version may not see it. Therefore, if we have the possibility of giving it to a third person to read it, much better; When we are the ones who have written the text. It is much more difficult for us not to do an automatic reading and read what we want it to put instead of what it actually says.
Guide scheme
The first thing we must do to write an academic paper is to create a previous outline that contains everything we want to say. This scheme will include each of the sections that we are going to deal with, the bibliographic references that go in each section. The closing or conclusion if we have it, and the annotations that occur to us as we go. Many times, while we are writing something, ideas come to mind that may be useful for later. We reach an interesting conclusion or we remember that we have to consult something. Those things are what we must write down in our diagram so that we do not forget them (it is better that it is written by hand so that we can have it next to the computer and thus be able to consult it when we need it).
Terminology
Each human knowledge has its own terminology and it is good that we get used to using it and understanding it, but beware, we must use it well and only when necessary. If when writing an academic paper, we want to appear more cultured than we are, it will be noticed. That is why it is important that we familiarize ourselves with these words little by little and that we look for their meaning well before starting to put things. That we do not fully understand. Furthermore, the fact that a word is used often in our subject does not mean that we should use it all the time; for the writing to be correct and read well, you must use synonyms.
Quotes
When writing an academic paper, it is important to take good care of the appointments that we are going to use. Citing correctly is vital if we do not want teachers to detect plagiarism in the text. Furthermore, when listing our conclusions, we have already said that they need to be well argued. So, quotes will play an important role in this. It is not the same to say “I think we learn better with the example they give us than with the words they tell us” than to say “as Albert Bandura claimed in his theory of social learning (Bandura, 1977), we acquire behaviors through observation”.
Common mistakes
In addition to spelling and punctuation errors, it is also common for us to have errors in the form of writing. It is important that we use short sentences and non-convoluted text. Mostly ghost writers must write simply and with the reader in mind. Just because we have read indecipherable academic texts over and over again does not mean that they are well-written or that they should be written that way. Writing is a form of communication and you should get your message across as directly as possible.
Nor should we use “the same” in an anaphoric sense. However, even if our teachers do it, it is not well done. The same applies to the expression “based on” which should be replaced by “based on”. You have to put full stops so that the text breathes. Avoid gerunds as much as possible and not go around the same idea over and over again.
