Academic English: Study Writing

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Writing at university can be a challenge for a number of reasons. You not only need to consider the content of your writing, but also how you organise it, what language you use and writing conventions which may be very different to the conventions used in secondary school, your previous field of study or a different academic culture. 

Writing is a process which can help you to develop and improve your thinking. It takes time, and many of the key stages of the writing process happen before you write your first word. For example, to successfully write an assignment, you will need to:

• understand the assignment brief (the task)

• brainstorm your ideas

• find relevant and appropriate academic source texts

• read and understand these texts

• engage with and think about these texts

• organise your ideas into a plan

• write your first draft

• revise and edit your draft... and so on

Writing well is a skill that all university students need to develop, and the resources on this page are available help you.

Study Skills Success is an online resource which can help you to develop the academic study skills you will need to be successful at university. This resource is designed for non-native English speakers and can help you not only with a range of study skills, but also with the academic English that underpins them. To improve your writing skills, try the Writing, Working with Visuals, Critical Thinking and Research sections in Study Skills Success.

EAP Toolkit

Structuring your writing

In these activities you will explore how academic writing can be organised at these different levels. You will practise recognising some commonly used organising principles and you will also examine the structure of a short academic text. 

Improving your paragraphs with topic sentences

In these activities you will learn what the characteristics of a good topic sentence are; study some examples of effective and ineffective topic sentences and practise composing a topic sentence yourself. 

Understanding essay titles

In these activities you will identify the precise meaning of some of the more commonly used key words in essay questions and then consider some general problems concerning the interpretation of essay titles.

Creating cohesion in your writing

In these activities you will check your understanding of the term 'cohesion', explore the use of different kinds of cohesion in a piece of academic text and then practise adding cohesion to improve a paragraph. 

Using examples to support written statements

In these activities you will focus on the use of examples to support general statements. You will choose some appropriate examples to support written statements, and you will identify the key words and phrases commonly used to add examples to statements and practise using them appropriately. 

The role of the introduction in academic writing

In these activities you will explore some of the common features of effective introductions and examine examples of them in context. 

Improving paragraph structure

In these activities you will analyse the structure of some example paragraphs, and then you will reconstruct a selection of effective paragraphs from formal writing contexts. 

Introduction to writing conclusions

In these activities you will consider what an effective conclusion to a piece of academic writing should contain and review some advice about writing conclusions to decide how to approach writing them yourself. 

Writing an effective conclusion

In these activities you will review some useful signposting language found in conclusions and then evaluate two conclusions to student essays. 

Typical language that academic writers use

In these activities you will consider what shared needs academic writers in different subject areas may have in terms of organising and expressing their ideas. You will also explore examples of language that can be used to express different but common relationships between ideas in academic writing. 

Expressing fact and opinion in writing

In these activities you will focus on exploring the difference between fact and opinion and consider where support is necessary for statements in your writing.

Introduction to revising your written work

In these activities you will listen to a recording of a student talking about revising a piece of written work. You will also review the key requirements when revising your academic written work. 

Practise revising written work

In these activities you will practise carrying out two important procedures in revising written work, checking the relevance of what has been written and improving the cohesion of written work. 

Proofreading a text

In these activities you will consider what aspects of your writing need to be checked at the proofreading stage, and you will practise proofreading and correcting the first part of a written assignment produced by a student for her university course. 

Introduction to describing graphs and tables

In the following activities you will consider how data should be presented within your writing, and you will examine and practise the language used to describe and refer to data in a graph. Much of the vocabulary is similar, whether you are referring to a graph, table or chart. 

Describing trends and change in graphs

In these activities you will study some of the vocabulary used to talk about change, and then you will examine how this vocabulary is used. 

Interpreting trends in graphs

In these activities you will analyse a description of data displayed in a graph and you will practise applying appropriate language to describe trends shown by a graph. 

Comparing data in graphs

These activities will introduce some of the language typically used for comparing and contrasting information in graphs and tables. You will see how different information contained in a graph can be compared. You will also explore how to describe, compare and comment on data from two related graphs. 

Finding out about plagiarism

In these activities you will explore what is meant by the term 'plagiarism'. You will listen to a tutor talking about the causes of plagiarism, reflect on some different scenarios to decide what you can and what you can't do, and consider why plagiarism is a problem in an academic context. 

Identifying plagiarism and avoiding poor practice

In these activities you will consider the differences between some key methods involved in using source material appropriately in your written academic work. You will also practise recognising examples of poor and good practice in other students' written work so that you can avoid committing plagiarism in your own work. 

Introduction to quoting and paraphrasing

In these activities you will learn about the main uses of quotation as oppose to paraphrase in academic writing. 

Using quotations

In these activities you will learn about the use of quotations in academic writing. You will consider some statements about the use of quotations and practise producing quotations in the correct format for academic writing. 

Using paraphrase in writing

In these activities you will consider some of the advantages of paraphrasing over quotation, evaluate two paraphrases produced by student writers and, finally, practise paraphrasing for yourself. 

Spotlight workshops are short interactive sessions on a range of topics which run repeatedly throughout the year. Workshops are free, fun and can help you develop your academic language and skills, enabling you to succeed on your course. The following Spotlight workshops can help you with your writing:

• An Introduction to Academic Writing
• Improving your Academic Writing Style
• Editing your Writing
• Report Writing
• Blog Writing
• An Introduction to Reflective Writing
• Reflective Writing
• Writing a Literature Review
• Writing an Executive Summary
• Using Research in your Writing

 Click here to see when workshops are running, and to register for a workshop. 

Spotlight Workshop Videos

A number of our Spotlight workshops are available as Spotlight Video Workshops. This means you can access the workshop at a time convenient to you, and work through it at your own pace. If you have already attended a Spotlight workshop and would like to review the content, the Spotlight Video Workshops below can help.

We provide a range of Writing Guides that you can download and review to help improve your writing. These guides cover a number of important topics:

• Writing for Success at Coventry University London
• Paraphrasing
• Hedging / Cautious Language
• Introductions & Conclusions
• Summarising
• Critical Analysis in writing

If you need to improve your academic writing, the following resources are available in the library for self-study:

	Bailey, S. (2015) Academic Writing for International Students of Business. Oxon: Routledge
	Greetham, B. (2018) How to Write Better Essays. Palgrave Study Skills. London: Macmillan
	McMillan, K. and Weyers, J. (2011) How to Write Essays and Assignments. Essex: Pearson
	Geyte, E. V. (2013) Writing: Learn to Write Better Academic Essays. London: Harper Collins Publishers

If you need to improve your academic writing, the following eBooks are available online for self-study by clicking the links below:

	Bailey, S. (2018) Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (Fifth edition). Routledge
	Bailey, S. (2020) Academic Writing for International Students of Business and Economics (Third edition). Routledge.
	Bailey, S. (2015) Academic Writing for International Students of Business (Second edition) Routledge.
	Bailey, S. (2015). The Essentials of Academic Writing for International Students. Routledge.
	Lowes, R., Peters, H. & Turner, M. C. (2004) The International Student’s Guide: Studying in English at University. SAGE
	Palmer, R. (2002) Write in Style: A Guide to Good English (2nd ed). Routledge