Academic writing

Useful links and tips

• Signposting

  A well-written text has an organized structure. By using words and sentences that signal how the text should be read, called signposting, one can clearly guide the reader through the text.

• Academic writing

  Academic Writing in English
  This website from the Finnish Virtual University includes information about cohesion, grammar, punctuation and style. Each section has an exercise(s) for you to work through.

  Academic writing
  This website from Texas A&M University Writing Center covers different aspects of academic writing. There are even a few video presentations to watch regarding different topics.

  A Visual Guide to Essay Writing - how to develop and communicate academic argument
  This is a link to a book in PDF format. The guide takes you through the entire writing process, from how to plan your time to how to develop your argument. There are many helpful pictures, figures and examples included in the text. A guide to writing that is pleasant to read.

  Academic Writing Module
  This website from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, is a self-directed study for academic writing, specifically writing paragraphs. You need a JavaScript enabled Web Browser to view the program.

  Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
  This website provides you with some general writing help. There is information about free writing, punctuation, six problem areas (subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, pronoun reference, shift in tense, shift in person and misrelated modifier), basic sentence concepts and choosing your subject.

• Writing lab reports

  University of New South Wales – Academic Skills Centre
  This webpage from the University of New South Wales, Australia is a guide to writing lab reports for students in undergraduate science, technology and engineering subjects. It is also available in a PDF version.

• Writing abstracts

  How to write an abstract
  This is a slide show from the University of California, Berkeley, USA explains what is included in an abstract. It also provides examples of abstracts from different disciplines, such as, History/Social Science, Humanities, Biological Sciences, Engineering

• Posters

  Build an Impactful Poster
  This webpage from Monash University, Australia provides a link to a guideline for preparing a science poster and some samples as well as a link for tips and tricks for creating an effective poster.

  United States Geological Survey - Posters for Scientific Meetings
  This PDF covers planning the poster, scientific content, design, text, lettering, mounting, packing and displaying the poster.

• Grammar

  Guide to Grammar and Writing
  The website offers help with grammar on the sentence level, paragraph level and the essay and research paper level. There are also Power Point presentations on grammar and writing that you can download.

  University of Toronto - Writing
  This website from the University of Toronto, Canada is geared towards to those who have English as a second language and need grammar help.

• Academic language

  Academic Phrasebank
  This is a resource for academic writers. It provides common phrases used in academic writing. The phrases are organized into the following categories: Introducing work, Referring to the literature, Being critical, Describing methods, Reporting results, Discussing findings, Writing conclusions, General functions.

  Selecting vocabulary - Academic word list
  This webpage provides you with the most common words used in academic writing. It gives the headword, other words in the family and a link to the definition.

  Academic writer
  The index lists in alphabetical order different terms and parts of academic writing. Each term provides an explanation and example(s). The website also has information about paragraphs, style, evidence and language.

  Using English for Academic Studies
  This website is a guide for students in higher education. It has information about: Accuracy, Assessment, Background, Links, Listening, Materials, Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary and Writing.