4 Common Types of Academic Writing

As a student or anyone in the academic field, you need to know about your text even before you start writing it. In academic writing, there are so many rules, regulations, styles, and guides that you need to follow. Naturally, to write a good piece of work, you need to make sure that you know about what you are writing. Similarly, it is important to know about the different types of academic writing before you get started on it. This guide discusses the various types of scholarly writing.

08.11.2021

4 Common Types of Academic Writing

This brief guide discusses four common types of academic writing. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.

As a student or anyone in the academic field, you need to know about your text even before you start writing it. In academic writing, there are so many rules, regulations, styles, and guides that you need to follow. Naturally, to write a good piece of work, you need to make sure that you know about what you are writing. Similarly, it is important to know about the different types of academic writing before you get started on it. This guide discusses the various types of scholarly writing.

About academic writing

Academic or scholarly writing is a type of writing used in scholarly publications and universities. It is used for writing for any academic topics, including academic journals, books, thesis, research papers, dissertations. When it comes to academic writing, the main point of difference from conventional writing style is its formal and straightforward tone. Therefore, you can distinguish an academic work through its characteristics such as:

  • Formal tone

  • Unbiased in nature

  • Precise, straightforward, and clear

  • Well-structured and constructed

  • Factual with properly cited sources.

These are the few characteristics that can help you distinguish academic writing from conventional writing. This writing is strictly used for official and academic works and not for personal or informal content.

The different types of academic writing

Depending on your topic and academic content, you might have to take a different approach to your academic writing. Based on that, academic work can be classified into the following four major types.

1. Descriptive writing

Descriptive writing is one of the simplest and most used academic writing types. The main purpose of descriptive writing is to state facts and inform the audience. So, when you hear these terms in any academic piece — report, summarize, identify, record, define — know that it is descriptive academic writing, which is mostly used for school-level writing and completely theory-based projects.

2. Analytical writing

Analytical writing is the next type of academic writing commonly used in the academic field. When you are working on an academic study, you usually do not only use descriptive writing. You must mix and match different types of writing to convey your message to your target group. Therefore, aside from simply informing, you need to also organize your information in a way that allows your readers to understand the content better. Instead of simply stating your facts and data, you also explain what they are and how they are related to each other. Phrases such as ‘’examine,’’ ‘’compare,’’ ‘’relate,’’ ‘’contrast,’’ and ‘’analyze’’ are the most common words used in analytical writing. 

How to get better at analytical writing:

  • Plan out your data and information before writing.

  • Try understanding the relationship between your factors before grouping them.

  • Dedicate one paragraph or section to one analytical category.

  • Always use a crisp and clear introduction.

3. Persuasive writing

In simple words, persuasive writing involves all the things that an analytical type of writing consists of, with the addition of your opinion — hence, persuasive. Here, along with all facts and information, you derive your opinion out of them. It may be as an interpretation, argument, recommendation, or evaluation of the facts. Whichever it may be, make sure to support your arguments with evidence. Words such as ‘’evaluate,’’ ‘’argue,’’ and ‘’discuss,’’ signify a persuasive form of academic writing.

4. Critical writing

Critical writing is used for advanced pieces and works. This type of critical writing is considered another level in persuasive writing, apart from your opinion, you need to state another viewpoint. Usually used for research, dissertations, reviews, and critical analysis, here you need to talk of your opinion while discussing another viewpoint. For example, for research works, researchers usually discuss existing researchers’ opinions before emphasizing their opinions. Here, phrases such as ‘’evaluate,’’ ‘’debate,’’ ‘’critique,’’ and ‘’disagree’’ denote critical writing.

If you need us to make your manuscript shine, contact us unhesitatingly!

Best Edit & Proof expert editors and proofreaders focus on offering manuscripts with proper tone, content, and style of academic writing, and also provide an upscale editing and proofreading service for you. If you consider our pieces of advice, you will witness a notable increase in the chance for your research manuscript to be accepted by the publishers. We work together as an academic writing style guide by bestowing subject-area editing and proofreading around several categorized writing styles. With the group of our expert editors, you will always find us all set to help you identify the tone and style that your manuscript needs to get a nod from the publishers.

English manuscript formatting service

You can also avail of our assistance if you are looking for editors who can format your manuscript, or just check on the particular styles for the formatting task as per the guidelines provided to you, e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian styles. Best Edit & Proof editors and proofreaders provide all sorts of academic writing help, including editing and proofreading services, using our user-friendly website, and a streamlined ordering process.

Get a free quote for editing and proofreading now!

Visit our order page if you want our subject-area editors or language experts to work on your manuscript to improve its tone and style and give it a perfect academic tone and style through proper editing and proofreading. The process of submitting a paper is very easy and quick. Click here to find out how it works.

Our pricing is based on the type of service you avail of here, be it editing or proofreading. We charge on the basis of the word count of your manuscript that you submit for editing and proofreading and the turnaround time it takes to get it done. If you want to get an instant price quote for your project, copy and paste your document or enter your word count into our pricing calculator.

Academic writing

24/7 customer support | Live support

Contact us to get support with academic editing and proofreading. We have a 24/7 active live chat mode to offer you direct support along with qualified editors to refine and furbish your manuscript.

Academic writing

Stay tuned for updated information about editing and proofreading services!

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn,  Facebook, Instagram, and Medium.

For more posts, click here. 

They Also Read

Academic Writing
An Easy-to-Follow Guide for an Impeccable Literature Review
08.11.2021

After a concise overture of the concerned discipline in the introductory section of a research paper or dissertation, the literature review should begin by delineating the significance of and the most critical works in that discipline. This handout provides six easy-to-follow steps for an impeccable literature review.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
Top 5 Mistakes Students Make in Academic Writing
08.11.2021

Whether it is an academic essay or any other thesis paper, all the papers are directly or indirectly associated with one’s future. Therefore, making mistakes here means compromising with the future. However, students are fond of making some habitual errors while composing an academic paper. Let’s learn those mistakes and make sure not to repeat them in your turn.

Continue Reading
Grammar Rules Academic Writing
Four Common Punctuation Errors in Academic Essays
08.11.2021

Imagine a text written without the periods, commas, and colons. It would certainly be difficult to read. In academic writing, an author may be easily misunderstood when ambiguous sentences are used. Inasmuch as the essence of punctuation marks in writing, especially academic essays, cannot be overemphasized, the appropriate use of these punctuation marks is even more critical.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
6 Tips for Writing Better Assignments
08.11.2021

Writing assignments is not like any other homework you’ve ever done or will do in your academic life. Writing assignments demands unrestrained dedication and plenty of willpower. You cannot just open a book and copy-paste its contents with some rephrasing. To write a better assignment, you need to work hard, you need to research, plan, draft, and edit carefully. Writing an assignment paper is one thing and writing an impactful assignment paper that instills a positive impression of you in your professor’s books and elicits good grades out of him/her is another one. The following tips will help you write a perfect assignment paper.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
8 Effective Tips for Blog Writing
08.11.2021

Blog writing is an effective way to share your knowledge and ideas with your target group. Here you can dive deep and talk about your favorite topics, showcase your expertise and attract an audience or readers interested in your work. However, creating a perfect blog post can sometimes get overwhelming – from choosing the right topics to selecting the proper format for your articles to picking images that generate interest and engagement, it's no less than a task.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing Dissertation & Thesis
Dissertation Submission Checklist: 5 Important Tips
08.11.2021

The dissertation writing process is a lengthy, extensive and multi-faceted undertaking spanning several months (or even years). It is an exacting exercise comprising several steps, each with its own requisites that scholars need to fulfill duly. Hence, regardless of how strategic and meticulous a scholar's dissertation writing approach is, there are bound to be certain inconsistencies - grammatical errors, incoherent phrasing, inappropriate synonyms, formatting errors, etc., - even in the final draft.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
How to Specify Study Variables in Research Papers?
08.11.2021

We may define a study variable as an attribute of an object of study. Suppose you wish to establish a sound experimental design. In that case, selecting variables to measure is exceedingly crucial.

Continue Reading