The writing expectations of higher education can be intimidating, and you’re not the only one struggling with structure, expressing ideas and developing an argument. Are you working on a piece and need some help?
Here are five tips you need to improve your writing.
1. ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS
The first step is to organize and prepare your ideas. This will help you to better structure your writing, and help your readers follow your arguments and overall flow of logic.
Next, provide detailed background to your chosen topic or subject. Contextual information will most likely be included within your introduction, but may also need to be referred to throughout your work. How you set the context will vary depending on your assignment. It may involve giving descriptions of theories and concepts, giving a historical account of attitudes or beliefs, or a simple description of a problem.
Using themes is a great way to add structure to your writing, as themes can help you link different aspects of your course learning together and show your growing understanding. Themes can be used to demonstrate differences and similarities between schools of thought and theoretical approaches and also to help you frame an argument or conclusion.
Use linking words and signposting to connect your ideas. These help make clear to your reader both how your argument progresses logically from one point to the next and how each new point is relevant.
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2. WRITE YOUR OUTLINE
Having an outline is crucial - you can’t complete an extended piece of writing without first outlining what you intend to do. This will also save time by allowing you to structure your ideas clearly and concisely.
Think of your outline as like a map of your essay. It should show what each paragraph will contain, in what order paragraphs will appear, and how all the points fit together as a whole.
There are several ways to arrange your outline; you can use bullet points to arrange information and display points, a spider diagram, a flow chart or even a table. Creating an outline allows you to easily survey the information you’re trying to present and how to best present it to your reader.
3. EXPRESS YOUR IDEAS
All good writing should express ideas clearly and with conviction. In essence, you need to show your reader that you:
Understand the significance of an argument or perspective – You should balance a variety of viewpoints and consider evidence from different sources. You should also try to find your own academic ‘voice’ when communicating your argument.
Can use relevant evidence – Your writing needs to pinpoint specific evidence from the texts you’ve read that support your arguments and claims.
Can make strong conclusions – Your conclusions must always correspond to the evidence presented and analysed in your work. Ask yourself, are your conclusions consistent with the rest of the text?
Can defend an argument – You need to show the ability to defend an argument against charges such as bias, lack of supporting evidence or incompleteness with a reasoned and articulate argument.
Image from the Critical Reading and Writing course
4. USE OF PARAGRAPHS STRATEGICALLY
One common way to organize academic paragraphs is to begin with the general and move toward the specific.
This means that the paragraph starts with a general introductory statement, sometimes called a main point or a theme statement. This is followed by more specific supporting details and may include examples, and the paragraph will then often finish with a concluding statement.
This pattern of paragraph structure can be used across a variety of subject areas.
5. THINK ABOUT “STAR”
The “universal” principles of good writing can be best summed up as “Structure,” “Tone,” “Audience,” and “Relevance”—often abbreviated as “STAR”
The target audience plays an important role in determining the type of written work and its content and style and is probably the first STAR principle you should consider when you start to write.
Writing for a specialist audience usually follows a formal style and structure and often uses highly specialized or technical language.
However, you should always consider accessibility, particularly if your writing is aimed at a non-specialist audience such as the general public. In this case, should have a more informal style and use less technical terms.
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