6 Bad Habits to Avoid in Academic Writing

Writing an academic paper is not similar to other forms of writing. It requires patience, knowledge, and the use of proper sentence construction. An academic paper should be informative, polished, and well structured. As a student or researcher, you should learn about bad habits and not repeat them in your academic writing. In this article, we discuss 6 bad habits to avoid in academic writing.

09.06.2021

6 Bad Habits to Avoid in Academic Writing

This article discusses 6 bad habits to avoid in 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.

Writing an academic paper is not similar to other forms of writing. It requires patience, knowledge, and the use of proper sentence construction. Being a proofreading and editing services provider, we often find that many researchers and students make dramatic mistakes in their research paper writing without following academic guidelines. An academic paper should be informative, polished, and well structured. As a student or researcher, you should learn about bad habits and not repeat them in your academic writing. In this article, we discuss 6 bad habits to avoid in academic writing.

1. Using lengthy and complex sentences unnecessarily

Academics papers require clarity in sentence construction. However, many students and researchers use lengthy and complex sentences in their writing. They use excessive conjunctions and acronyms to make the sentence more attractive. In reality, it makes the sentence harder to read and understand. Writers often move from the main topic and arguments while they use long and complex sentences. However, you may follow these basic rules for flawless writing:

  • Try to keep each sentence average of 15–20 words.

  • Sentence length may vary from topic to topic but make writing a mixture of short, lengthy, and medium sentences.

  • Try to use simple sentences to make your paper easy to read.

  • Use small subheadings instead of bland long paragraphs.

2. Overuse of passive construction

Excessive use of passive voice is just another way to make your writing more complex. Academic writing requires clarity in tone as well as dynamism and universality. However, using passive voice frequently can spoil the purpose of your research paper or essay.

3. Collecting information from Wikipedia

Collecting information from Wikipedia to write an academic paper is another form of malpractice. When you search anything on Google, Wikipedia links appear at the top, but you can’t consider it a trusted and scholarly source. Anyone around the world can edit these sites. That is how Wikipedia operates. Instead of Wikipedia, you can use online journals and databases such as Google Scholar, Core, and ScienceOpen.

4. Plagiarism

Plagiarism refers to stealing someone else's hard work and writing. Plagiarized content doesn't only affect the uniqueness of your writing but also violates academic guidelines. If your academic paper is caught with plagiarism, it will be rejected for sure. Moreover, it has the worst impact on your academic career.

We can divide plagiarism into two sections: Intentional plagiarism and unintentional plagiarism. Intentional plagiarism means that a student or a researcher copies others’ work intentionally, while intentional plagiarism can occur due to several reasons i.e., researchers might not have the idea of a subject, or they don’t get enough time. Unintentional plagiarism happens when a student or researcher can’t cite the references properly, or they may miss adding quotation marks or many other reasons.

Plagiarism is the activity in which another author’s works, expressions, thoughts, ideas, or language are copied or stolen and published. Such activity is highly frowned upon and if someone’s work has plagiarism, it becomes susceptible to fines, penalties, dismissal, and at times, even imprisonment. Having your work marked as plagiarized is highly humiliating and may cause an end to one's academic career. Therefore, having your work checked for plagiarism is a mark of authenticity and originality. As a writer, this evidence of originality is extremely essential.

To detect plagiarism in writing, researchers can use online plagiarism checker tools. However, researchers can also consult experienced proofreading and editing services to detect and remove plagiarism from the entire paper.

5. Avoiding revision

Don’t ever skip the revision part. At the time of the final revision, you can proofread and edit your assignment to make it error-free and more attractive. There can several mistakes associated with spelling, grammar, styles, readability, etc. It is a vital part where you have to use your patience and knowledge of grammar. However, many writers leave this part to expert proofreading and editing services.

6. Not consulting an expert for proofreading and editing for help

Consulting experienced proofreading and editing services is the last step before submitting your final assignment. While writing an assignment, it is not always possible for a researcher to keep everything organized. They unintentionally leave several loopholes related to structure, styles, grammar, use of sentences, and everything mentioned above.

Especially, non-native English speakers often make several mistakes in the choice of words and grammar in research papers. Writers must have a solid knowledge of the content they write. They are expected to give the primary framework of an article, essay, story, novel, thesis, or any literary piece. However, they might make numerous typing and literary mistakes while writing. These mistakes become a primary reason for rejection and unclear creation of content.

Companies and freelancers offer editing and proofreading services to enhance your write-up. Dedicated organizations nourish a skilled team of editors and proofreaders who check your write-up and correct anything that is at fault. The solid reasons to consider editing and proofreading services are:

  • To professionally eradicate the grammatical mistakes that make your writeup unclear.

  • The editing service will make your literary piece confident to read and listen to with a vivid painting of pictures through words.

  • Your writing will get a professional outlook.

  • You will save time as re-reading long pieces require much time and effort. In the meantime, you can finish up writing a new piece.

  • The written piece will get a structure with an appropriate title, subheadings, and paragraphs.

  • You will receive suggestions to make your content better.

In a nutshell…

Writing research papers and assignments seamlessly is important for your academic career and future. Please don’t take it lightly. However, if you are looking for a trusted proofreading and editing service, you may contact Best Edit & Proof. Our experts are dedicated to easing your academic career. You may reach us for more information.

Do you need an expert to review and edit your manuscript?

Have you completed writing your manuscript? Do you want someone to review the entire article and make necessary changes if required? If yes, we bring the most trusted and efficient editing and proofreading services near you. At Best Edit & Proof, our experts will edit and proofread your papers to make necessary changes. 

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 styles of writing. 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!

Kindly 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.

Editing and Proofreading services

24/7 customer support | Live support

If you need support for editing and proofreading services, contact us. You can also e-mail us or use the 24/7 live chat module to get direct support. We have a 24/7 active live chat mode to offer you direct support along with qualified editors to refine and furbish your manuscript. Alternatively, you can text us through our WhatsApp business support line.

Editing and Proofreading services

Stay tuned for updated information about editing and proofreading services!

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

For more posts, click here.

Do you like this article? Make sure to share and subscribe!

They Also Read

Academic Writing
A Brief Guide to Understanding Research Methods
09.06.2021

Starting an academic study can be an overwhelming task. After all, it is a very systematic way of studying and involves many procedures and methods that you cannot skip or go around. One of the most prominent parts of research is the research methods that you adopt to get your results.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
4 Common Types of Academic Writing
09.06.2021

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.

Continue Reading
Editing & Proofreading Academic Writing Proofreading
Proofreading Improves Your Writing
09.06.2021

Proofreading improves your writing, and it is a highly crucial step for a perfectly written academic paper. It necessitates a broad-ranging comprehension to fix a paper excellently and requires English proficiency to identify and correct errors. When you want to ensure that your paper is error-free in terms of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting, you need a proofreading service.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
5 Common Research Writing Mistakes: Tips to Avoid Them
09.06.2021

Writing a research paper involves scrutinizing a plethora of research material to bring forth plausible conclusions. However, no matter the degree of impeccability and thoroughness of the research, successfully transmuting it into words takes a grave amount of practice and endurance. Thus, it is not uncommon to see amateur and even veteran scholarly writers commit research writing mistakes in their papers now and then. Following the narrative, this article will describe 5 research writing mistakes that frequently blemish the works of academic writers. It will also shed some much-needed light on the tips to amend and avoid these mistakes.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
Business Writing vs Academic Writing: Four Primary Differences
09.06.2021

Some might say that the only difference between academic and business writing is the fact that the former is practiced by scholars while the latter by professionals. However, when perused closely, one can discern some stark as well as nuanced demarcation between the two. For individuals, such as college graduates, who need to occasionally shift between academic writing and business writing, knowing these differences can help them format their respective documents appropriately.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing
How to Write an Argumentative Essay: Four Helpful Tips
09.06.2021

Some essays use logical and factual data to sustain their claims. They are known as argumentative essays and form a significant proportion of all essays written by scholars and students during their academic tenure. This article demonstrates how to write an argumentative essay by dividing the writing process into four detailed steps. Hence, readers looking to augment the plausibility of their argumentative texts should ensure to abide by them.

Continue Reading
Academic Writing Dissertation & Thesis
How to Write a Dissertation Methodology in 7 Steps
09.06.2021

A methodology section explains the entire process of data collection and analysis based on logic and philosophy. This section is an unavoidable part of a dissertation or a research paper. Considering errors in the methodology section enervates the entire dissertation. Here, we bring you a general guide on the steps to compose a flawless methodology section for a dissertation.

Continue Reading