You may think you have a good grasp of academic writing because you have been writing for years and are now a college student. But there are significant differences between what you write in high school and what you write in college. College-level writing demands could be vastly different from anything you’ve done before. Middle school and early high school English studies lay a foundation, but by the time students reach college, many have forgotten the fundamentals they learned. Additionally, switching from unconventional to academic writing might be challenging for individuals who haven’t studied English in a while.

What Is Academic Writing

“Academic writing” is any piece of writing created in a formal educational setting. This type of writing typically provides a reaction to the topics discussed in prior works. Academic writing may differ significantly from other forms of writing you have done in the past, despite the seeming simplicity of this term. In certain cases, it is not until a student receives constructive criticism that they fully grasp the meaning of academic writing. The two most significant factors for academic writing for college students are the Academic setting and your intended genres of writing in that setting.

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How College Writing Procedures Differ

Realize that there is no one, all-encompassing definition of academic writing for college students and high school levels. Before entering college, many teachers believe that their pupils should be able to analyze texts, develop the specifics of an idea, and construct a piece of writing using sound mechanics. The ability to think, speak and write more abstractly multidisciplinary level may be of greater significance to a college professor. However, there will always be outliers, and the line between academic writing for college students and high school is still hotly contested.

High School and College Societal Variations

High school and college campuses have vastly different cultures, much as the transition from youth to maturity. Learning occurs in stages throughout childhood. You may put what you learned as a child to good use after you become an adult. Knowledge was valued in the high school environment, and students were encouraged to seek it from various sources, including their instructors, guidance counselors, parents, and textbooks. As you progress through college, you’ll learn to examine texts and material on your own, becoming less reliant on the personalized guidance of faculty and staff. You will be urged to work together, but more for critical discourse than for receiving direction.

College Academic work

Consider the concept of “gender roles,” which describes societally-accepted disparities in the expected behaviors of men and women. Gender roles can be explored in numerous disciplines, including anthropology, film, and psychology. There may be some crossover between the topics, but you wouldn’t approach the writing for both courses similarly. A common assignment in anthropology courses involves describing the division of labor between men and women in a given country. Identifying and analyzing the gender roles exhibited by characters in a film may be a class assignment. You can be required to summarize the outcomes of a gender roles experiment or compare and contrast the results of two comparable research projects in a psychology course.

Assigning a fixed number—three, four, ten, or more—of distinct academic writing genres would oversimplify things. Don’t conceive of writing as a fixed form you need to learn because every assignment in every subject is different in some aspects. However, there are ways of writing that necessitate various forms of expression. One’s strategy toward accomplishing the assignment’s stated writing objectives constitutes one’s approach. The phrasing of teachers’ homework typically serves as a tip-off to the method. When given a writing task, the first thing you should do is look for any keywords that can provide insight into the paper’s focus or tone. These points can also inspire your paper’s structure and development. Examine the task for the following key phrases:

• Define: To explain, investigate, or characterize a term, notion, or phenomenon.
• To paraphrase means to state again, using one’s own words, the central idea or ideas of another’s writing.
• Identifying and explaining the constituent pieces of a system, phenomena, or concept.
• Classify—classifying items into distinct categories based on their shared qualities.
• to compile disparate parts or ideas from multiple sources into a unified whole.
• Compare/contrast. Examining major parallels and divergences between three or more entities.
• To assert something and provide evidence in support of it.

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Be Aware Of Plagiarism. Take This In

These days, plagiarism is a significant issue in educational institutions. Plagiarism can be as overt as rewriting someone else’s work or as subtle as stealing someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own. Even though Turnitin, a service used by many educational institutions to identify instances of plagiarism, might not be able to identify the latter, be assured that your professors certainly will. To help you avoid plagiarizing, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the many kinds of plagiarism and how they rank in terms of academic dishonesty and frequency.

Get Some Assistance. Educate Yourself; Enroll In Some Classes

Learning how to write academically might be especially challenging for those studying abroad. Fortunately, many universities now provide “English for academic purposes” courses, including those geared at students whose native language is not English. International students with difficulties with academic writing might participate in these, which the English language teaching department typically organizes.

Conclusion

Writing requirements and expectations in high school and higher education are highly contextual. However, particular broad distinctions remain pretty constant: In comparison to high school, college students are given more responsibility for their actions. Students at the university level are pushed to think more abstractly, with greater self-awareness and a clearer understanding of their thought processes.