Some things just come easier to us than others. For you, it could be that you’re phenomenal at picking up math skills, or you can read a book and comprehend the entire plot within a few hours. Maybe you’re an athlete who excels in their sport. Whatever it is, it’s an amazing ability that other people covet. But you want to do well at academic writing, and right now, it isn’t where you want it to be.

That’s perfectly okay. None of us are experts at everything, no matter how much it looks otherwise on the outside. We struggle with areas that we want to excel in, and the only way to get better is to research tips and practice. You’re on the front end of that, or you wouldn’t be reading this article. You want to boost your writing skills for academic studies. These tips can help you as you embark or continue on your journey of self-improvement.

Why Using a Proper Writing Style is Vital 

Writing fictional stories is the preferred style for many of us. It’s easier because there’s no “wrong” way to be creative and use your imagination. But academic writing has a solid foothold in research, and you must know how to put together a story in a nonfiction fashion.

Whether you’re in graduate school or a professor in a higher education institution, academic writing is part of your world. And if you’re not thrilled with your abilities, you can continue to develop them over time. The key is to stick with a formal style, avoiding conversational tones and short, simple sentences. Follow the rules of academic writing, like staying unbiased, keeping an independent opinion and professional tone, and skipping abbreviations.

From there, when you need to write academically, use these tips to improve your skills.

How to Improve Your Academic Writing Skills

The very first thing you should do, if you haven’t already, is get familiar with free and paid versions of editing software like Grammarly and Hemingway. These platforms are designed for all writers. To use them, you copy your text and paste it into the program’s document. Depending on what version you’re using, the program then gives you feedback about your writing. This can help you learn what your consistent mistakes are, and teach you ways to stop making them.

Next, focus on your voice. In school, you “learned” about active and passive voices, but chances are, you still have no idea what they mean because most of us don’t. Using Hemingway is a great way to see where you’re using passive voice, and Grammarly often offers suggestions on how to replace passive with active sentences. Active voice is a stronger way of saying something. In short, it simply uses action words in place of their passive counterparts. An example would be, “In the experiment, the cheese was eaten by the test subject.” The active version of this is something like, “The test subject ate the cheese provided in the experiment.” Using active voice simplifies the sentence, yet makes it stronger

A third way to improve your writing is to get familiar and confident with different types of punctuation. The em-dash, for instance, is an impactful way to avoid using hyphens incorrectly or unnecessary ellipses to form a pause. Semi-colons can separate two complete sentences that complement each other, and a colon is helpful when you have a list following a phrase, or you want to make a point.

Using those various punctation methods can also segue you into the next way to better your writing: varying your sentence structure (see what we did there?). Avoid simple sentences by combining your words using commas, semi-colons, em-dashes, and colons. In fact, if you use punctuation correctly, there’s no limit to how long your sentence can be. Mark Twain was an expert in the multiple-page-long sentence structure.

Finally, one of the most common mistakes academic writers make is repetition. Never use two synonyms in one sentence to describe the same thing. “The fish was large and massive” is repetitious. Repetition also occurs with word choice.

A good rule of thumb to try to stick to is never to use the same adjectives, nouns, verbs, or other main words in connecting sentences. Find a synonym that replaces them. As an example, you wouldn’t want to say, “The two politicians debated the topic in last night’s event. The topic was a hot-button one at the event.” The words “topic” and “event” are repeated, and it decreases the impact of your writing.

With these five simple methods included in every paper you write, and a quick review through a program like Grammarly or Hemingway, your academic prose is on its way to expert-level.