1. ACADEMIC WRITING
By Richard Nordquist

2. Definition
The term academic writing refers to the forms of expository (пояснительный) and argumentative prose used by university students, faculty, and researchers to convey a body of information about a particular subject.
Generally, academic writing is expected to be precise, semi-formal, impersonal, and objective.

3. Central values of academic writing
Now you belong to academic society and must be aware of the central values to which its members subscribe:
Truth. Your paper will demonstrate that its writer can use the knowledge and methods of the discipline in which it has been assigned to reveal something that is true.
Evidence. Scholars in all disciplines use credible evidence to support the truths they find Always document your sources for this evidence.
Balance. Academic convention suggests that you present your inferences, assertions, and argument in neutral, serious, ninemotional language and be fair to opposing points of view.

4. Methods of Academic Writing: "They Say/I Say"
The best academic writing has one underlying feature: it is deeply engaged in some way with other people's views. "To make an impact as a writer, you need to do more than make statements that are logical, well supported, and consistent. You must also find a way of entering a conversation with others' views - with something 'they say.'

5. SENTENCE STRUCTURES in Academic Writing
The sentences in academic writing are often longer and more intricate (сложные для понимания) than the sentences in popular magazines. Academics strive to go beyond what is quick, obvious, and general. They ask questions based on studying a subject from multiple points of view, to make surprising connections that would not occur to someone who has not studied the subject carefully.

6. Purposes of Academic Writing
[Marilyn S.] Sternglass (1977) identified four general purposes of writing in university courses: to make knowledge conscious, to help remember facts, to analyze concepts, and to construct new knowledge Specifically, [students] used writing to translate concepts into their own language, move from gathering facts to analyses of them, and adjust themselves to the task demands of specific courses and fields.

7. The Continuous Nature of Academic Writing
Academic writing is not the printed display of one's fully formed thoughts. It starts with flawed (несовершенный), incomplete, vague hunches (интуитивные догадки), ideas and concepts. But, if you exploit its inherent 'revisability,' it allows you to come full circle, to revisit ideas long after you first thought of them, to explore the same things in different ways, to experiment, to revise, to repeat and reconceptualize - all of these are arguably central to the essence of scholarship which you exercise every day in other academic tasks

8. Academic Writing Style
 Characteristics of academic writing include:
a formal tone,
use of the third-person rather than first-person perspective (usually),
a clear focus on the research problem under investigation, and
precise word choice.
Like specialist languages adopted in other professions, such as, law or medicine, academic writing is designed to convey agreed meaning about complex ideas or concepts for a group of scholarly experts.

9. Stylistic elements of academic writing
I. The Big Picture Unlike fiction or journalistic writing, the overall structure of academic writing is formal and logical. It must be cohesive and possess a logically organized flow of ideas. This means that the various parts are connected to form a unified whole. There should be narrative links between sentences and paragraphs so the reader is able to follow your argument and all sources are properly cited. The introduction should include a description of how the rest of the paper is organized.

10. Stylistic elements of academic writing
II.  The Tone
Throughout your paper, it is important that you present the arguments of others fairly and with an appropriate narrative tone. When presenting a position or argument that you disagree with, describe this argument accurately and without loaded or biased language (перегруженное или предвзятое изложение). In academic writing, the author is expected to investigate the research problem from an authoritative point of view. You should, therefore, state the strengths of your arguments confidently, using language that is neutral, not confrontational or dismissive (снисходительный).

11. Stylistic elements of academic writing
III. The Language Clear use of language is essential in academic writing. Well-structured paragraphs and clear topic sentences enable a reader to follow your line of thinking without difficulty. Your language should be concise, formal, and express precisely what you want it to mean. Avoid vague expressions that are not specific and precise enough for the reader to derive exact meaning ["they," "we," "people," "the organization," etc.], abbreviations like 'i.e.' ["in other words"], 'e.g.' ["for example"], and contractions, such as, "don't", "isn't", etc.

12. Stylistic elements of academic writing
IV. Academic Conventions Citing sources in the body of your paper and providing a list of references as either footnotes or endnotes is a very important aspect of academic writing. It is essential to always acknowledge the source of any ideas, research findings, data, or quoted text that you have used in your paper as a defense against allegations of plagiarism. The scholarly convention of citing sources is also important because it allows the reader to identify the sources you used and independently verify your findings and conclusions.

13. Stylistic elements of academic writing
V. Evidence-Based Arguments Assignments often ask you to express your own point of view about the research problem. You need to support your opinion with evidence from scholarly sources. It should be an objective stance presented as a logical argument. The quality of your evidence will determine the strength of your argument. The challenge is to convince the reader of the validity of your opinion through a well-documented, coherent, and logically structured piece of writing. This is particularly important when proposing solutions to problems or recommended courses of action.

14. Stylistic elements of academic writing
VI.  Thesis-Driven
Academic writing is “thesis-driven,” meaning that the starting point is a particular perspective, idea, or “thesis” applied to the chosen research problem, such as, establishing, proving, or disproving solutions to the questions posed for the topic; simply describing a topic without the research questions does not qualify as academic writing.

15. Stylistic elements of academic writing
VII. Complexity and Higher-Order Thinking One of the main functions of academic writing is to describe complex ideas as clearly as possible. Often referred to as higher-order thinking skills, these include cognitive processes that are used to comprehend, solve problems, and express concepts or that describe abstract ideas that cannot be easily acted out, pointed to, or shown with images.

16. Avoid the following mistakes in academic writing
Personal nouns.
Excessive use of personal nouns [e.g., I, me, you, us] may lead the reader to believe the study was overly subjective. Using these words may be interpreted as being done only to avoid presenting empirical evidence about the research problem.

17. Avoid the following mistakes in academic writing
Directives.
Avoid directives that demands the reader to "Do this" or "Do that." Directives should be framed as evidence-based recommendations or goals leading to specific outcomes.
Informal, conversational tone using slang and idioms.
Academic writing relies on excellent grammar and precise word structure. Your narrative should not include regional dialects or slang terms because they can be open to interpretation; be direct and concise using standard English.

18. Avoid the following mistakes in academic writing
Wordiness. 
Focus on being concise, straightforward, and writing that does not have confusing language. By doing so, you  help eliminate the possibility of the reader misinterpreting the design and purpose of your study.
Descriptive writing.
Describing a research problem is an important means of contextualizing a study and, in fact, some description or background information may be needed. However, the content of your paper should focus on methodology, the analysis and interpretation of findings, and their implications as they apply to the research problem and not background information and descriptions of tangential issues (второстепенные вопросы).

19. List of references
1 Richard Nordquist. Academic Writing 2 Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Academic Writing Style