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What is Scholarly Writing Style?
In today’s post we will work on with the important guidelines for developing a scholarly writing style for thesis writing. In typical research paper writing, primary emphasis is laid on the need for intellectual candor i.e. integrity and honesty. By adhering to intellectual candor, you are sending out the message that none of your work is plagiarized or arrives at false (influenced) derivations.
The commonly talked about “basic characteristics of scholarly writing” means the formal tone which is almost beaurocratic in nature. In addition to adopting a formal tone, the writer must be prepared to make multiple revisions and maintain the patience & composure for repeated edits.
The subsequent guidelines for developing a scholarly writing style include the generic layout of a scholarly paper:
Essential Do’s of Scholarly Writing Style
Tenses
Your tenses have to be spot on every single time in a scholarly paper to pass on a professional image. You bring in the past tense when making references to events that took place in the past. The present tense comes in to play when talking about important books & documents.
Referencing with Text Citation
All footnotes, citations, endnotes and the bibliography portions must obey the rules of the style that you have been asked to adopt for the scholarly paper i.e. APA style, MLA style, Chicago Manual style etc.
Proofreading
A writer who is satisfied with the 1st draft is seriously in for it; it should never be turned in, no matter what. The best practice is to go through drafts over and over again & keep taking down notes as you go along.
As a scholarly writer, you want to ensure that each facet and paragraph of the research paper maintains the flow and slides smoothly into the following text. A hotchpotch image is never one that sends out a positive image. Remember, “First impression is the last impression” holds more true here than any other place.
Be Conscientious About Your Grammar, Vocabulary and Spellings
An instinctive action after completing a document on MS Word is to run the “spell check” tool. This feature is limited in its potential; you yourself will be the best judge of word choice and flow. No matter what, take time out to read the whole document yourself and request others to read it too; it’s easy for us to miss out errors in our own work.
Do Not’s of Scholarly writing Style
Plagiarism
As stated in the initial part of this excerpt, plagiarism is an absolutely NO when it comes to scholarly papers. It is perfectly ok to cite other people’s work as long as you are giving them their due credit.
However, incorporating the over usage of references leads the reader to believe that either you are lacking original content or even the possibility that you probably didn’t create the whole document by yourself. It helps to paraphrase instead of punching in quotes.
Unnecessary Verbiage
Cut down on the excessive verbiage and keep it simple; keep it real. Academic writers get carried away when trying to reach the minimum word count prescribed by the academia.
They feel the easiest way to do that is to add extra words. For example, “David Smith was a man who could shoot a can of beer a mile away” can simple be stated as “David Smith could shoot long range targets”. The average per-sentence word count should be 20.
Jargons & Slang
unless a particular word is part of a direct quotation, slang is another big NO in scholarly writing. The reason is real simple; you want your words to be understood by everyone – whether they’re from the generation before you or after you. If you belonged to the 2000s generation, picked up a research paper from the 70s and came across ‘… a rat’s ass” – it would probably take a while for you to decipher that expression. So bottom line; keep it real & simple.
Using the 1st – 2nd Person
You always incorporate the 3rd person in a scholarly paper. Even if you have to make a reference to yourself, you will not say ‘I’. Instead, that thought is written as, “The author…” Similarly, do not use ‘You’ or ‘We’ either.
Active/Passive Tone
Using the passive tone to say something adds unneeded words. It also carries the risk of losing the reader. Therefore, the active tone is always easy and recommended. “Microsoft introduced its Windows Live service last year” (Active Tone)
The Windows Live service was introduced last year by Microsoft” (Passive Tone).
Verbiage Retrenchment
Don’t try to make up for crossing the maximum word limit by retrenching words such as ‘Did not’, ‘Could not’, ‘Should not’, ‘Cannot’ etc. These words should appear in their original form instead of the retrenched ‘Didn’t’, ‘Shouldn’t’, ‘Couldn’t, ‘Can’t’ form.
Four Tips on How to Develop Scholarly Writing Skills
Developing proficient scholarly writing skills needs extensive research and a solid debatable topic where you can present your reviews backed up by unmistakable evidence – from your own evaluation or somebody else’s work. The first step in authoring your scholarly essay writing is to make an outline of the work you need to do – includes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Whatever you plan to write, goes into this. Let’s go over some tips to develop your scholarly writing skills.
1. Working on Your Basic Grammar, Punctuation, and Vocabulary
Having a sound grammar and vocabulary is an imperative while if you want your research to be understood and taken seriously. It includes your basic agreement between subject and verb, appropriate pronoun usage, and well-structured sentences. A writer should know where to put a period and comma, using active voice over passive voice makes your reasoning a stronger and bolder look.
2. Signup for an Online Course
No matter how much of a consummate individual you are in your field, but many people struggle to formally jot down their findings and presenting their views. It’s a strange reality that students are expected to write when they have never been taught to do so.
3. Analyze Every Evidence According to Your Study
It may be tempting to write about side notes relevant to your work, but you must always ask yourself “Does the evidence support my findings?”, if not, then never include excess information in your writeup.
4. Draft a Supportive Conclusion
This may be one of the areas which go overlooked in research writing. Your conclusion is the piece of work that connects all the dots. A proper conclusion is the analysis of the key evidence and how your work supports these arguments. A scholarly article is as good as the conclusion put forth.
How To Write A Scholarly Journal?
It is not a mere surprise that most of the scientists are taught to collect data and results but only a few of them get to write well. Learning how to write well is a highly encouraged trait. There are some grey areas which you might want to work on.
1. Create a Template for all the Drafts and Manuscripts
As you are going to write, and not once, it is desirable that you create a template for future use. This will not only happen to save time, but it will keep you focused overall.
2. Never Repeat Yourself
No matter how necessary you feel to make the reader go over the same ideas, but sooner you get rid of this temptation, the better.
3. Gather Your Literature and Bibliography Before You Start
This will help park your work relevant to other researchers in your field. It will be easy to transfer all the domain knowledge. Cite your fellow researchers as much as you can but never plagiarize their work
4. Create Tables and Results First
While discussing results, it is imperative that you have all the necessary figure, graphs, and tables ready.
Tips for Writing Scholarly Article Review
An article review is an evaluation of work of another writer. Article review is often assigned to peers and sometimes even professionals with relevant experience. Understanding the arguments and supportive evidence is necessary for an accurate summation.
Plan about what to write
Having a strategy allows you to cater the needs of the research assessment and having a plan eases out the way in scoring points and climbing the success ladder. Also, it motivates you to keep publishing work.
Peer Review
Even in the initial stages of writing, make sure to consult your work with your peers and colleagues, and over the time keep the draft reviewed extensively before submitting the final journal.
Communal Writing
Most researchers write in solitary but writing in communal boosts your confidence, increases your focus and fluency.
Be Relentless, be Resilient and Do Not Lose Focus
Over the time, you will develop these skills, or you own this skill set. Nevertheless, it is easier when you work in groups and build up these.
General Layout of Academic Papers
Introduction
There are 3 major elements of the introduction paragraph:
- Clearly explain the issues (topic) your scholarly paper will tackle
- The course of action adopted to discuss the focal topic
- Why the issue(s) need to be studied.
Formulating Your Thesis Statement
The thesis statement sends out a clear message about your take on the issue at hand. For example, “Suicide rates are on the rise among U.S veterans” will be the proposition you will be looking to justify in the academic paper
Background Information or Review of Literature
In this segment, you provide some of the facts that validate your claim. You may choose to delve deeper in to the background info if you feel that it helps the reader comprehend subsequent knowledge easily.
Main Body : Argument & Analysis of Your Thesis Statement
Some academic counselors refer to this portion as the “Literature Review” while others resort to calling it “Points of Discussion”. Either way, this is where the bulk of your research is accumulated. You bring in all the facts & statistics that you have and prove each point one-by-one.
Working on Your Conclusion
The conclusion should be well thought out. It should not be a mere repetition of previously stated facts. Instead, write down remedies and recommendations that can help counter the issue which in this case is the growth rate of suicide amongst U.S veterans.
Through this excerpt, you understand the general rules that play a role in the creation of a robust scholarly paper. However, simply reading guidelines for developing a scholarly writing style does not make one a good writer. Instead, it takes dedicated effort, practice and constant consultation with senior instructors that help shape your distinctive writing caliber and style.
