Students have an end number of essays, assignments and emails to write on a daily basis. And to have a couple of tips and tricks up your sleeve for the best outcome to your written project is never a bad idea. Now, these strategies are not for informal writing to friends and family but strategies for professional writing.
We have tried to keep the article short but brief, informative but also fun as well. We have taken these ideas from multiple sources to combine the best strategies for you to write powerful and engaging content.
Table of Contents
1. Contractions
The first tip on how to improve your writing is doing not to use contractions. It does not sit well with academic writing. So some examples of contractions are don’t, can’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t, isn’t, haven’t and hasn’t. These short forms are known as contractions and should be avoided as much as possible.
So, these contractions would be:-
- Don’t – Do Not
- Can’t – Cannot
- Couldn’t – Could Not
- Shouldn’t – Should Not
- Wouldn’t – Would Not
- Isn’t – Is Not
- Haven’t – Have Not
- Hasn’t – Has Not
It is always better to write the full word instead of using contractions when it comes to academic or even formal business writing.
2. Avoid there is/there are
One of the reasons why you should avoid using there is/there are when writing is because when we write, we want to write our ideas down clear and concise. Avoiding long sentences instead make sure your sentences are to the point. However extra words are somehow present in the sentence which are not required.
For example -:
- There are many issues that citizens face with the government.
- Citizens face many issues with the government.
- There are many projects that the organization supports.
- The organization supports many projects.
By getting rid of there is/there are, your sentences become stronger and more brief.
3. Avoid words like really/very/a lot
The reason why you should avoid using really/very/ a lot is because it weakens your sentences and moreover your writing. Your writing is not as strong as it can be. Instead of using really/a lot/ very, try using a stronger word that makes the sentence look more formal.
Here are some examples-:
- Many students think college is very hard.
- Many students think college is difficult.
- His statement was really controversial.
- His statement was controversial.
- A lot of the students end up missing their classes
- Many students end up missing their classes
- A lot of time is wasted because of procrastination
- Much time is wasted because of procrastination
4. Passive Voice vs. Active Voice
Now our fourth strategy to have powerful writing in academic is knowing the difference of when to use the passive or the active voice. If you are in the sciences, the passive voice is much more appropriate to use but if you are studying history, humanities, social science or psychology, avoid the passive voice and prefer forming your sentences in the active voice. Passive voice takes away the feeling of authority, which in turn makes your sentence weak. It would be much better to use the subject, the verb and the object in this order. As in academic writing, we want strong sentences. And strong sentences have the subject or the action at the beginning of the sentence.
For example-:
- Passive Voice
- Strict rules were implemented by the principal
- The Principal implemented strict rules
- The match was won by the home team
- The home team won the match
5. Use Strong Verbs
Believe it or not, there are strong verbs and there are weak verbs as well. Now you may ask, what a strong verb is and what a weak verb is. Let’s understand this with an example-:
- Weak verb – She gave assistance to the old lady
- Strong verb – She assisted the old lady
- Weak verb – They made an objection
- Strong verb – They objected
- Weak verb – She conducted an investigation
- Strong verb – She investigated
As it comes to forming sentences, it is always better to write a sentence with a verb and a noun present when the noun could be used as its own verb, to make sure to use it in its formal form. These are some of the main strategies students could use vastly and quickly use to improve their academic writing and nail those straight A’s.
