Academic writing is a formal style of writing.

• It uses grammatically correct sentences and punctuation.

• It appears neutral and avoids emotional language.

• It avoids conversational words: you know, things like, stuff and abbreviations: can’t, won’t, doesn’t, shouldn’t.

• It uses verbs that avoid expressions of absolute certainty such as: give the impression of, tend to, appear to be, consider, think, doubt, indicate, recommend, show.  

• Your view is the basis of your argument BUT you need to back up your position with evidence from academic sources.

• It demonstrates analysis and evaluation of arguments from recent academic evidence.

• It presents your ideas and evidences in a logical and progressive manner.

• It contains a bibliography.

This academic phrasebank provides language you will need for introducing your work, referring to sources, describing methods, reporting results, discussing findings, and writing conclusions. (Source: The University of Manchester).

It includes help with general language functions, such as being cautious, being critical, classifying and listing, comparing and contrasting, defining terms, describing trends, describing quantities, explaining causality, giving examples, signalling transition, and writing about the past.