Most academic writing requires rigorous research and analytical skills. Students who are required to write on specific topics in their courses will often have to follow a strict schedule to meet academic requirements. They may be expected to spend a few hours a week in class, read a certain number of books, attend seminars or workshops, or take part in extracurricular activities such as sports. This type of schedule demands diligence and organization skills and can be very challenging for a college freshman or senior.
The difficulty level of the academic text that students are required to write will affect how successful they will be in completing the assignment. Freshman students may not be prepared to write on topics that are more complex than what they have learned during their academic years. For example, a survey may be a complicated topic for them to write about in their first attempt, but they have probably learned enough to at least understand the concept. Sophomores will have more difficulty understanding and following the intricacies of their assignment.
To increase student success when it comes to academic writing, students should use a variety of writing styles. They should always present their opinion in a clear and concise manner. In order to build strong writing skills, they should also be able to demonstrate their originality. When they present their ideas, they should give specific examples rather than simply repeating what others have written. Each idea should have its own supporting facts, illustrations, or figures.
Freshmen often experience difficulty in writing about a single topic because they lack sufficient background information to write about that topic. College students should begin by reading as much as possible about the topic they are assigned. In this way, they will be prepared to write about the topic with greater depth and understanding. Reading widely and studying the literature will also help students to determine the main points that they wish to discuss in their essays. A student’s own personal experiences and opinions should be given more weight than what other people may have to say about a particular topic.
Sophomores should take care to arrange their work and presentation in an organized fashion. It is best for them to begin each essay with an introduction and end with a conclusion. If a student wishes to compile a series of essays, he or she should plan the structure and detail of each one. This will help to keep the work concise and to avoid unnecessary repetitions. When completing academic work, students should try to avoid writing in a typical fashion and instead present their thoughts in an original way.
As with all academic writing, a student should edit before submitting the work for publication. They should make sure that their essay is free from grammatical errors, tense and sentence construction errors, and all spelling and punctuation errors. Any student wishing to publish his or her work in an academic journal should first edit the piece before submitting it.
Finally, in academic writing, it is important for the student to read the suggested paper carefully and to have his or her friends or relatives read it as well. The more feedback the writer receives, the better he or she can improve the paper. The final copy of any academic writing should be completely revised. It should be checked for errors and copied word for word from any previous copies that it may have received.