From a Pro: 5 Academic Writing Tips I Wish Every Writer Knew

Two people sitting at a table with books open in front of them. One person is writing in a book while the other person is pointing to something on the page.

If you’re about to submit something academic to an editor, whether it’s a journal article or dissertation, you’ve probably had a lot of academic writing experience. Even so, I find it’s usually valuable to go back to basics – to consider the fundamentals of academic writing if you haven’t thought about them in a while (or ever!). Getting the basics right may well save you and your editor unnecessary back-and-forth, so I’m going to share my go-to academic writing tips with you.

I’ve been in the editing game for ten years, spending a lot of that decade working at a university writing centre and lecturing in academic literacy and English literature. I’ve seen a lot of academic writing, and evidence suggests that I’ve helped improve it as well! When I refer to getting ‘the basics’ right, I’m talking about sentence structure, paragraph structure, and quote incorporation. They’re a close-knit family, and they share some grammatical genetics, so don’t let the overlap surprise you.

Table of Contents

    1. Activate Your Sentences

    We can all agree that a sentence is made up of words. Where we might not agree is how to order those words. There are many ways to get this wrong, but there’s also more than one way to get it right! Let’s consider the active and passive voice.

    The active voice keeps your writing concise by bringing the actor and the action to the beginning. These sentences are also typically easier to understand on first reading, which is why editors recommend them when it comes to plain language (or plain English) writing.

    There is an assumption that you must use the passive voice in academic writing to stay impartial (or to appear to stay impartial – blog post for another day!). There are ways of keeping your sentences active without resorting to the passive, should that be your wish.

    In my academic literacy lectures, where the powers that be didn’t always encourage writing in the first person, I would teach my students how to write ‘around’ themselves. You’ve probably done it without realising. It’s a way of hedging – of playing it safe. Instead of you – the author – arguing in favour or against something or other, pin the responsibility and the risk on the thing that you are writing: This paper argues that…

    2. Make Your Writing Sing

    Develop your own academic writing style. You might want to consider word choice and sentence length. Although academic writing is largely about proving how you got from point A to point B, you are allowed to make the journey an interesting read. There’s this fantastic tip from Gary Provost’s 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (1985) that I always shared with my students to illustrate the value of varying your sentences. You may have seen it online (it’s probably his most popular tip):

    You can write academically and still write music! If you want to learn more about how this is possible in academic writing, try Helen Sword’s Stylish Academic Writing (2012).

    Your stylish sentences may quickly morph into paragraphs. Academic writing pretty much depends on this progression. Can you remember what makes a paragraph a paragraph? The short answer is that a paragraph explores an idea, with ‘one idea per paragraph’ being the eternal refrain. But how do you explore an idea in formulating a paragraph? The PEEL method is just one approach.

    3. PEEL Your Paragraphs

    If the acronym isn’t food-related enough for your tastes, imagine that your paragraph is a citrus fruit and unpeeling it reveals segments or sentences. Each of these sentences should adhere to one of the letters in PEEL. So, your paragraph should at the very least be four sentences in length, but I would certainly welcome more (and I’ve never met a citrus fruit containing only four segments).

    This is the method I taught all my students, regardless of whether their majors were law or literature. I was also careful to explain that this is just one way of going about it. To my mind, it’s a logical and easy way to ensure cohesive and comprehensive paragraphs.

    You begin with the Point of your paragraph. Also known as the ‘topic sentence’, this sentence should encapsulate the main idea of your paragraph, whether its purpose is exposition or argumentation.

    ‘Stylish’ academic writing enhances clarity, engagement, and intellectual impact.

    The two Es are interchangeable and repeatable within a paragraph. I usually start with Evidence. This is where quotes, paraphrases, and citations come in. The evidence you provide needs to back up the Point of your paragraph.

    (Alternatively, you could use this sentence to Explain (or elaborate on) the preceding sentence.)

    According to Helen Sword (2012), effective academic writers present complex ideas in clear, precise language, craft their sentences with care, and write in a way that reflects both intellectual energy and creative flair.

    To ensure that your intention is clear, you would then Explain the Evidence. If required, you can provide more Evidence after that, ensuring that you spend time Explaining it.

    (Alternatively, you could use this sentence to supply evidence in support of the preceding explanation.)

    This implies that academic prose should do more than deliver information; it should do so in a way that captures the reader’s attention and invites thoughtful engagement.

    Finally, you Link everything together. Start by writing a summative sentence that concludes the paragraph but links to the next one (I always described this as ‘hinting at what’s to come’).

    By emphasising precision, elegance, and liveliness, scholars can communicate complex arguments more effectively.

    Also, use this opportunity to check your linking throughout your paragraph. I find it helpful to work backwards through your paragraph:

      • Does your Linking sentence summarise your current paragraph and Link to the next one? Does it follow logically from the preceding sentence (Evidence or Explanation)?
      • Does your Explanation Link to your Evidence?
      • Does your Evidence Link to or support your Point?
      • Does your point Link in some way to your overall thesis or argument?

    4. Build Clear Links

    One way to ensure that the links between your sentences are clear is to make use of linking words. Sometimes called transition words or connectors, these words or phrases do what they say and connect the sentences in your paragraph by showing how they relate to each other.

    For example, is the point of this sentence to provide an example in the form of evidence? In contrast, perhaps you want to show how this evidence differs from the previous evidence you supplied? To summarise, linking words and phrases act as signals to the reader. They’re a way of holding the reader’s hand and guiding them through your writing.

    Stylish academic writing enhances clarity, engagement, and intellectual impact. According to Helen Sword (2012), effective academic writers present complex ideas in clear, precise language, craft their sentences with care, and write in a way that reflects both intellectual energy and creative flair. This implies that academic prose should do more than deliver information; it should do so in a way that captures the reader’s attention and invites thoughtful engagement. By emphasising precision, elegance, and liveliness, scholars can communicate complex arguments more effectively.

    5. Blend Your Quotes

    When you provide evidence in your academic writing, you may want to incorporate quotes from reliable sources. Paraphrasing shows that you’ve understood what you’ve read and has the potential to save space, so you should definitely use it (and provide citations!). But it’s always good to have some variety, so I encourage quoting when it’s relevant.

    Incorporating quotes links to sentence structure and the first E in PEEL (Evidence). Incorporating quotes well is another skill. Essentially, it’s all about maintaining the flow of your writing. How can you ensure this?

    The quote should blend into your writing, and not the other way around. If this means cutting it down or altering its structure somewhat, you’ll be forgiven, as long as you acknowledge where you trimmed or made adjustments, and you don’t change the original author’s intended meaning. It’s easiest to demonstrate.

    Here’s our quote:

    “Stylish scholars, my colleagues told me, express complex ideas clearly and precisely; produce elegant, carefully crafted sentences; convey a sense of energy, intellectual commitment, and even passion; engage and hold their readers’ attention; tell a compelling story; avoid jargon, except where specialised terminology is essential to the argument; provide their readers with aesthetic and intellectual pleasure; and write with originality, imagination and creative flair.” – Sword (2012:7–8)

    I want to blend it into my Evidence sentence from earlier. I could let the quote stand alone (with a citation or in-text reference in brackets before the full stop), but this can be risky. The link between the quote and the sentences surrounding it might not be clear, and, if I do this too often, it’ll just look like I’m avoiding blending quotes into my writing because I’m not sure how.

    An easy way to show some quote incorporation skill would be to introduce the quote. You should do this anyway. Let’s start by mentioning who it comes from.

    In Stylish Academic Writing (2012:7–8), Sword writes, “Stylish scholars, my colleagues told me, express complex ideas clearly and precisely; produce elegant, carefully crafted sentences; convey a sense of energy, intellectual commitment, and even passion; engage and hold their readers’ attention; tell a compelling story; avoid jargon, except where specialised terminology is essential to the argument; provide their readers with aesthetic and intellectual pleasure; and write with originality, imagination and creative flair.”

    It’s rather a long quote though, and there are limits to how much you can quote directly. Even though I think the quote’s interesting, it’s saying some things that are irrelevant to the argument I’m making (‘Stylish’ academic writing enhances clarity, engagement, and intellectual impact). I could cut it down somewhat, but indicate where I’ve done that. I could also indicate more of a stance on the quote I’m sharing, as simply stating that the author I’m quoting ‘writes’ something is neutral.

    As Helen Sword argues in Stylish Academic Writing (2012), “Stylish scholars … express complex ideas clearly and precisely; produce elegant, carefully crafted sentences; convey a sense of energy, intellectual commitment, and even passion … and write with originality, imagination and creative flair” (pp. 7–8).

    Master These Academic Writing Tips

    Getting your academic writing edited is valuable, and your editor may well assist you with the fundamentals I’ve shared, but their goal is not to rewrite your work. I always say that it’s not your editor’s responsibility to improve your research, and I’d argue that it’s not up to the editor to make your work ‘sing’ either – that’s up to you! Returning to the fundamentals of academic writing is a valuable exercise before manuscript submission:

      • Use the active voice where you can to make your writing concise and clear (write ‘around’ yourself if you have to).
      • Vary your sentence length to create an engaging rhythm throughout your writing (write music!).
      • Use the PEEL method for effective paragraph construction and ensure good linking.
      • Skilfully blend quotes as evidence into your academic writing.

    Emma Paulet

    Emma Paulet started out in life by being born. She lives in Pretoria, where she has spent a lot of time in higher education as a contract lecturer but is now permanently employed as an editor. She has co-authored a few academic journal articles and a book chapter, written several poems that have been published, two short stories (one published in Queer Africa 2, one forthcoming), and a play.