The main purpose of academic writing to is to communicate your ideas and research, in such a way that the knowledge can be developed by others. Our five defining features of academic writing relate to this central aim.
For tips on what is and is not an appropriate and effective academic style, see our list of Academic Style Dos and Don’ts. We discuss the use of ‘I’ in academic writing here.
Further guidance on appropriate style in academic writing is available from the University of New England here, and the OWL at Purdue here.
Image: Human Touch by Tom Beard
We were inspired to identify five key features by the Royal Literary Fund’s five ‘fingerprints’ of academic writing, but our list is slightly different from theirs.