Writefull – Why is Academic Writing so hard and How can Writefull help?

Let’s explore the most common problems researchers face and how Writefull can help in tackling them effectively.

1. A Style of Its Own

Academic writing has a style of its own that sets it apart from spoken language and other forms of written language such as emails, blogs, newspapers and fiction. It employs a formal register, which means avoiding conversational language. It is neutral and objective, so the use of adjectives or adverbs that convey judgement (e.g. ‘great’, ‘terrible’) is inappropriate. Additionally, it often incorporates technical vocabulary or assigns generic words, technical meanings.

How Writefull helps:

AI-trained models are designed to provide language feedback tailored to scientific writing. They replace informal words and casual phrasings with formal or neutral alternatives. Writefull’s contextual spell checker, for instance, ensures the accurate spelling of highly scientific terminology. Beyond basic proofreading, Writefull offers five writing widgets that generate language aligned with academic conventions.

2. Following Conventions

If you’ve read numerous published articles, you’ll likely have observed recurring patterns in how authors word certain information. This is because papers typically follow a similar structure, comprising of an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusion. The purpose of each section is also consistent across various papers: introducing the aim of your study, identifying gaps in existing knowledge, presenting key findings, and so on. Adhering to these structural and phrasing conventions will make your text clear and easy to comprehend.

3. Structure and Signposting

A journal article is a substantial piece of work, typically spanning several thousand words, while a Master’s dissertation or PhD thesis is significantly longer. To ensure clarity and readability, effective signposting is crucial. This can take different forms, such as headings, transitions between sections, or summarising key points at the end of a section before moving on. Ideally, your scientific paper should flow like a cohesive story, where each part links to the previous one. However, the effort of crafting well-structured sentences can sometimes overshadow the importance of maintaining a clear overall narrative.

How Writefull helps:

The Sentence Palette can assist by providing phrases to summarise your findings (e.g. “Taken together, these results suggest that…”), which are useful when concluding your paper. It also includes a list of connectors—words or phrases used at the beginning of a sentence that link it to the previous (e.g. ‘as a result’, ‘however’, ‘furthermore’, etc.).

4. Conciseness

Even though a manuscript can be as long as 8,000 words, conciseness remains essential. Many researchers struggle to fit their entire study within the word limit imposed by their target journal. As a result, cutting down words is often necessary before submission. This involves deciding what to omit or condense which is a challenging yet unavoidable part of the writing process that ultimately enhances the clarity of your paper, as shorter sentences are often easier to understand.

5. Synthesising Information

Certain sections of an academic text are easier to write than others. The hardest parts are often found at the beginning and end of the paper—the introduction and conclusion. These sections are designed to set the stage and wrap up the work, respectively, and play a critical role in shaping readers’ perceptions of your research. Furthermore, crafting a strong abstract can be particularly demanding, as it requires condensing your entire paper into just a few hundred compelling words. The title also poses its own challenges, as it must encapsulate your study in just 15 words or so.

6. Avoiding Plagiarism

Even with the best intentions, accidental plagiarism can still occur in academic writing. Forgetting to credit a source or using someone’s wording too closely constitutes to plagiarism, and such mistakes can happen easily when you’re immersed in writing or lose track of your references. If you’re unsure what counts as plagiarism, avoiding it becomes even more difficult. Yet, the consequences of plagiarism can be severe.

Conclusion

Academic writing presents more challenges than what we have already mentioned, some of which are common to all types of writing. Writefull addresses those challenges as well. Writefull’s Proofreading mode provides language feedback to correct grammatical errors, while the Language Search feature suggests words and synonyms that are appropriate for your sentences.