There are various skills you need in order to be able to write good academic English texts. Whether you are writing a simple essay, a report, or a research paper you will find the support and resources you need here.

The Skills You Need

You need good skills to write well. Some of these skills are general ones such as research and planning which you can use in other fields. Others are more specific such as understanding cohesionConcerning the way in which certain grammatical items (such as pronouns) and words can connect a sentence to previous (and, sometimes, later) ones., text patternsParticular organisation of clauses and sentences usually in the form of a paragraph or series of paragraphs which has a particular rhetorical purpose. and collocationThe tendency of a particular word or phrase to be found in the proximity of another.. The best way to improve your skills is to read well-written texts by skilled writers and read a lot in your specialist area of interest or study. But by studying some of the key elements of academic texts you can accelerate your progress. All the examples on this site are sourced from authentic textsTexts written by specialists for other specialists or for the general public, but not for English teaching purposes. written by people who are experts in their fields. So you can be sure that the examples are written in good idiomaticLanguage which is accepted as current usage. English.

How to Plan

Planning is essential and in the long run it saves you time. Even if you only need to write a short essay you can speed up the writing process by spending a few minutes sketching out a plan. You can learn about how to plan an essay on the essay planningGo to the 'Planning page.' page. You can't plan unless you understand your task. Make sure you can do that by understanding the elements of a task directionGo to the 'Task Analysis page.'.

How to Research

If you need to write anything longer than a short essay you'll probably need to do a little research. So you need to improve your researchGo to the 'Research page.' skills. You should do this in order to be able to find relevant and reliable information quickly.

Learn about Paragraph Structure

All writing has some kind of structure. It helps the reader to understand the flow of your argument and it helps you as a writer organise your ideas. On this site you can learn about common text patternsGo to the 'Text Patterns page.' such as problem and solutionGo to the 'Problem and Solution page.', cause and effectGo to the 'Cause and Effect page.', advantages and disadvantagesGo to the 'Advantages and Disadvantages page.' and so on. You can also learn about topic sentencesGo to the 'Topic Sentences page.' and supporting detail, thesis statementsGo to the 'Thesis Statements page.' and what to include in an introductionGo to the 'Planning page.' or conclusionGo to the 'Planning page.'.

Learn about Cohesion

Cohesion means how elements of your text are connected together. Cohesive devices are important in a text. They allow the writer to avoid boring repetition and they provide important pointers to previous parts of the text They also sometimes point forward or indicate relationships between parts of a text.. They are the "glue" which holds the text together. There are various types of cohesive device and you can see how they work on this site. They are reference Go to the Reference page, substitutionGo to the 'Substitution page.', ellipsisGo to the 'Ellipsis page.', conjunctionGo to the 'Adverbials page.', and lexical cohesionGo to the 'Lexical Cohesion page.'. Once you understand how they work you'll quickly recognise them in the texts you read and be able to use them yourself to good effect.

Learn how to Quote and Paraphrase

Often you need to refer to sources you believe are relevant to your discussion and in this case you have to quote or paraphraseTo rewrite text in different words or phrasing in order to simplify or summarise the original text. information from these sources. You must abide by the style conventions writers use when quotingGo to the 'Quotations page.' or paraphrasingTo rewrite text in different words or phrasing in order to simplify or summarise the original text.. This is important so that readers can locate the sources you refer to, and so that you avoid any suspicion of plagiarismGo to the 'Plagiarism page.'.

Learn how to Cite

There are certain style conventions you need to follow when you quote or paraphraseTo rewrite text in different words or phrasing in order to simplify or summarise the original text.. You need to cite your sources. This often means using in-text citationsGo to the 'In-text Citations page.' and sometimes signal phrasesGo to the 'Signal Phrases page.' to introduce your quotes or paraphrases. If you do a lot of writing you'll also need to learn how to use one or two citation or bibliographic toolsGo to the 'Bibliographic Tools page.' to help you manage your database or sources.

Understand Collocation

If your first language is not English, one of the most important things you can do to improve your writing is to understand collocationThe tendency of a particular word or phrase to be found in the proximity of another.. This simply means which words or phrases tend to be used with others in particular contexts. There are examples of collocation on the noun phrasesGo to the 'Noun Phrase Collocation page.' page and in the glossaryGo to the 'Glossary page.'. You can also see many examples in the AWL Collocation DictionaryGo to the 'AWL Collocation Dictionary page.'.

Learn about Data Literacy

If you write academic reports you'll often have to understand how data is presented in graphical form such as line graphsGo to the 'Simple line graph page.', bar chartsGo to the 'Simple bar chart page.', pie chartsGo to the 'Simple pie chart page.'. You'll probably also need to write about or comment on data presented in graphical form so the describing graphicsGo to the 'Describing Graphics page.' page will help you to get familiar with the kind of language used to do this. You can also see how experienced writers use graphics in their articlesGo to the 'authentic graphics page.'.

Learn how to Review

Writing is a cyclical process. You need to reviewGo to the 'review page.' what you have written in order to improve your text and correct any mistakes. Learning how to review is key to improving your writing skills. This means using checklistsGo to the 'checklists page.' to review and check your writing, persuading others to review your work, and understanding any feedbackInformation provided by a reviewer or examiner on the value of a piece of writing with suggestions about how it might be improved. you have been given.

Improve your Vocabulary

The single most important thing you can do improve your writing is to improve your vocabulary and deepen your understanding of how words and phrases are used in context. Most of this will come from extensive reading but focussed active vocabularyGo to the 'vocabulary page.' learning will help you accelerate this process. Choosing the right word or phrase is also a key skill in academic writing, especially for second language learners. The word choice pageGo to the 'word choice page.' can help you with choosing suitable vocabulary and what to avoid. There is also an extensive collection of academic vocabulary exercisesGo to the 'academic vocabulary exercises.' to help you with words from the Academic Word ListA list of words presumed to be more commonly used in academic writing than other types of discourse. and you can also improve you understanding of the use of academic words in authentic texts by consulting the academic word of the dayGo to the 'academic word of the day page.' page.

Learn some Grammar

You cannot write well without a firm grasp of grammar. We follow the conventions of grammar because it facilitates communication. This is especially important in academic writing where we need to very clear and precise about what we mean. Academic writing is also information rich because it often uses structures such as complex noun phrasesGo to the 'noun phrases page.' so you need to understand how these work. You also need to understand how information is presented in various types of clause patternsGo to the 'clause patterns page.' and why we choose one rather than another (to draw attention to particular information, for example). You should also pay attention to punctuationGo to the 'punctuation page.'. Again, because it helps with clarity and precision.

Use the Glossary

There is an extensive glossaryA list of definitions and explanations of words and phrases, such as this one, explaining terms used in a particular content area, arranged alphabetically. of over 670 terms and phrases along with many examples of structures used in academic writing. All the examples have been selected from authentic texts. There are also links to further information elsewhere on the site.

Understand the meaning of academic writing

Academic writing is is different from other types of non-fiction writing. Consult the academic writing pageWhat is academic writing? to learn about what academic writing involves, and about its core values.