Guide to Academic Writing

Requirements to the language patterns

- The papers should be written in Academic English which envisages the complex sentences,

proper citations and official language;

- Please avoid using colloquial English, shortenings (Im, dont, wouldnt) and slang words;

- Please avoid using rhetoric questions unless it is mentioned in the requirements to the paper;

- Do not use first person pronouns unless it is mentioned in the instructions. Some types of papers

allow the usage of first person pronouns (I, we) such as, for example, reflective papers, personal

statements, resumes, motivation letters, letters of purpose etc.

- Please, avoid being too wordy in your papers. It is good to use the proper English language

with the linking words, however, they should not constitute the whole paper.

Example: Therefore, summing up the aforementioned, it is possible to conclude that the concept

that has been previously outlined and explicitly explained is of paramount importance for the

current paper.

- Mind the number of words in sentences. We do not require from you to count the number of

words in each of the sentences but it would be beneficial if the sentences were no longer than 30-

35 words.

- Please, be careful with punctuation. Do not use excessive and unnecessary punctuation if the

sentence can be simply divided into two separate sentences without the loss of meaning. For

example, compound sentences connected with the semicolon are easy to divide into the separate

simple ones. English grammar and punctuation rules differ from your native language, therefore,

if you are not sure do not try to use its rules in English punctuation.

- Please, avoid using a semicolon.

- Please, review the rules of using Oxford comma. It is also called serial comma and is a final

comma in a list of things. Its use is mostly stylistic but it can make the meaning of the sentence

clearer.

http://thewritepractice.com/why-you-need-to-be-using-oxford-commas/

- Do not mistake the words similar in pronunciation such as, for example, its and its.

- Be careful with the sentence structure. Try to use direct word order. Remember that English

mostly requires SPO (subject predicate object) sentence structure.

- Before submitting your paper, do not forget to proofread it.

General requirements to formatting

- Please, make sure you format the paper according to required citation style. Remember, MLA,

APA, Harvard, Chicago all require different title pages and headers.

- It is recommended to use 1-inch margins from each side.

- We use the font Times New Roman, size 12 with double spacing unless different is provided

in paper requirements.

- One page equals 300 words. Please, do not write less or more. Sometimes clients need strictly

this amount of pages. If the client requires, for example, 1 page single-spaced you will be paid for

the two pages.

General requirements to the structure of the paper

- Please, provide the title page for the paper if the required formatting style is APA, Harvard or

Chicago.

- If the paper is longer than 6-7 pages, it would be beneficial to provide the table of contents if

the paper can be logically divided into separate parts.

- Usually, we do not require abstracts of the paper, however, it can be mentioned in the clients

requirements.

- Please, keep in mind that abstracts, table of contents, reference list, and appendix are not

included in the world count. If you have accepted 7 pages long paper, it means that you have to

write seven pages of body paragraphs + reference list + table of contact + appendix and abstract if

necessary

- It is beneficial to follow the common sentence structure that has an introduction, body

paragraphs, and conclusions but, please, do not make neither introduction nor conclusions too long.

It is unlikely to work when the three pages long paper includes a 1-page long introduction.

- In case you are referring to the interview or a picture, consider including it in the appendix.

Appendix might also include too long tables, diagrams, transcript of the interview, photographs

etc.

- It does not, however, mean that the body paragraphs cannot include any tables or diagrams. In

contrast, it is even favorable to support your claims with the statistical data, tables, charts and so

on if they do not take too much place. But remember that it should be relevant and helpful in

proving your idea. You should refer to them since they perform a supporting function. Please, do

not use tables to simply fill the word count.

Thesis Statement

- Thesis statement expresses the core idea of the paper. It is beneficial to provide the thesis

statement to each paper, however, it is mostly required in the essay. Each essay requires a

thesis statement.

- The whole development of the essay depends on the successful formulation of the thesis

statement.
- It is recommended to avoid thesis statements with ambiguous points of view stating that

this variant is ok under certain circumstances and the other variant can be relevant under

other circumstances.

- Please, make sure you provide clear and explicit thesis statement that highlights the main

ideas of the essay.

- Remember that you are going to prove the thesis statement with the arguments you are

going to provide later, therefore, make sure to make it relevant and fully cover the topic of

the paper. In other words, a thesis statement is a hypothesis you will need to prove

throughout your paper.

- Please, do not mistake thesis statement and the introduction of the topic. It is not

recommended to rephrase the instructions in the thesis statement or dwell upon the main

parts of your essay.

Introduction

- In most of the cases, it is appropriate to include an introduction in the paper.

- Remember that introduction should not be too long.

- It should be relevant to the topic of the paper.

- You might provide some background information regarding the paper in the introduction.

For example, if you are writing the case study about the company you might provide some

background information there like when the company was established, what is it target

audience or most famous products etc.

- A good strategy is to introduce the topic in the introduction + add the thesis statement and

explain the relevance of the topic to the course, society or in general.

- If the client provides specific instructions regarding the items that should be included in

the introduction, please, make sure to follow them.

Conclusions

- Conclusions are the final part of the paper.

- If the paper contains a thesis statement, conclusions should rephrase the thesis statement.

- In the conclusions chapter, you should summarize the main points that were made

throughout the paper.

- Remember that you cannot introduce any new points, ideas or even sources in the

conclusions.

- Please, do not make conclusions too long.

Types of papers

Essays

- Mostly the essays require from you proving one claim or comparing the two claims.

- Remember that each essay should have an introduction and a thesis statement. It is ok if

the thesis statement comprises the whole introduction.

- The structure of an essay requires a couple of convincing arguments that can prove and

expand your thesis statement.

- Please, do not mix the arguments. Make sure to devote the separate passage to each of the

arguments.

- The good example of the structure of the passage is thesis sentence + arguments +

conclusions on the passage.

- You can always support your claims with the statistics, examples from real life cases and

references to the respectable sources.

- Please, make sure you provide the information that is relevant to the paper, do not be too

general, be more specific and tie to the core points.

- Some essays require a counterargument. The counterargument is opposite to the thesis

statement and to the arguments. In this case, the arguments besides proving the thesis

statement should also disclaim the counterargument.

- The specific types of the essay form are also compare essay and contrast essay.

- Compare essay focuses on similarities and differences whereas contrast essay addresses

only differences.

- There are two ways to write compare and contrast essays: you might either apply the block

organizational structure or point by point organizational structure.

- Point by point structure envisages that you compare the two things based on the first certain

feature, then on the second and so on.

- Block structure means that you first provide the whole analysis of one thing, then of the

other.

- For more information please take a look at

https://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/files/wl/downloads/WritingaCompareContrastEssay.pdf

Literature review

- A literature review is rather a common assignment. In contrast to common belief, a

literature review is not a simple summary of the book plot.

- If the other is not stated in the instructions, it is recommended to make the review of each

source no longer than 100-150 words.

- Please, do not limit yourself simply to the plot of the book or article.
- It would be beneficial to mention some information about the author so that to explain why

he is competent in the sphere.

- Also, please, expand on the reliability of the source and the credibility of the information

it provides.

- You can also expand on the research methods used by the author if relevant.

- Please, do not forget to mention how the sources you conduct a review on are relevant to

the topic of the paper or how they can be beneficial for reaching the research objectives.

- Please, do not simply rephrase the abstract of a book or a journal article when writing a

literature review.

Research proposal

- Research proposals differ in length and requirements.

- A research proposal is not a report on the issue but a proposal for the

report/research/dissertation.

- In the research proposal, you have to state what you are going to investigate in your

research, which topics you are going to focus on, which theories and models you will utilize

etc.

- It is also necessary to outline the importance of the topic in the research proposal. Try to

explain why it is relevant and beneficial to look into.

- You might also include some background information on the issue if you have enough

space for it.

- Please, clearly formulate research objectives and research questions. Research objectives

should more or less coincide with the research question referring to the content.
- You can highlight the methodology that will later be used in the research. Explain why the

chosen methods are beneficial and how they will help to reach the research objectives.

- Remember that you should not fully cover the topic of the research in the research proposal.

It will be conducted later and is not necessary for this part of the assignment.

- Research proposals are traditionally written in the future tense.

- For example, the following research will cover the issues of the use of the renewable energy

sources in Benton County. For the country is considered the leader in the green power

consumption, it sets the positive example to follow by the other regions. Therefore,

addressing the specifics of usage of the renewable energy sources will help to identify the

problems existing and develop the strategy for tackling them as well as provide

recommendations for other counties on their way to becoming greener.

Research paper

- Usually, the research paper has a set number of the structural part. It is usually longer than

literature review, research proposal or essay.

- Research paper consists of introduction, research objectives, research questions, literature

review, theoretical background of the paper, methodology, description of results,

discussion, conclusions and in some cases recommendations.

- You should include the thesis statement and hypothesis in the introduction.

- Research objectives should coincide in the core points with the research questions.

- Recommendations for the literature review you can find in the previous chapters.

- Theoretical background of the paper and not the obligatory part of the research. It utilizes

the findings of the literature review and reviews the usual background information together

with the theoretical models relevant to the research objectives.

 Methodology

- There is a set of basic research methods that will be appropriate for most of the research.

They are qualitative, quantitative, descriptive research, and case study.

- The qualitative research method is used to reconstruct the personal perspective on the

matter. Qualitative research does not usually require the big sample. It is based on

interviews and feedbacks.

- Quantitative research, in contrast, seeks to investigate the statistical picture of the matter.

The sample is relatively big. The data is collected via surveys or questionnaires.

- The descriptive research method is used in secondary research that relies on the review of

the literature.

- A case study is relevant for analyzing trends/behavior of the special

industry/company/group.

Report

- The topic for the report will be mentioned in the clients instructions.

- Make sure you correctly understand the topic. The report should be relevant to the topic.

- Be strict and up to the point, wordiness is not a good option in the reports.

- Reports should contain an introduction that highlights the topic, provide the thesis

statement and the background information on the matter.

- Reports do not require any personal reflection, therefore, you should simply provide the

information on the topic given.

- Please, be attentive to the paper structure. It is logical to divide reports into the subchapters.

- Would be beneficial to support your information with the statistical data and references to

the scholarly literature, compare the different points of view of the scholars.
 - Reports might include charts and diagrams.

Personal reflection

- Personal reflection is the only type of paper that requires the first person pronouns.

- In the personal reflection, you can criticize and dwell upon the strengths and weaknesses

of the item you are reflecting on.

- You are encouraged to talk about your feelings and emotions, thoughts the item provoked

in you.

- You might talk about your reaction to the item, some groundbreaking, and eye-opening

ideas it contained.

- You can also compare the ideas of the issue with your ideas and tell whether it has

somehow changed your position to the issue you are reflecting on.

DEAR WRITER,

Please always remember to stick to the instructions provided by the client. You should answer all

the questions provided in the instructions. If you feel that to fully follow the instructions you will

need additional pages, please contact the team leader and explain the situations.

Even if the instructions contain 1 big number of mini questions, you should answer all of them,

please, do not think it can be ignored.

Be careful with formatting.

Ask for the additional instructions if something is unclear.