Effective academic reading and writing contributes to the advancement of knowledge, your ability to think critically and sharing of scholarly work during your time at university. You will find that the process of both reading and writing is interconnected. You will start by reading, to gather information and develop a deeper understanding of a topic, which then transitions into writing in order to communicate your findings, insights and arguments effectively.The information and resources on this page will help you to develop and enhance your own style of writing, whatever your subject or level of study.
Academic Reading
You will be expected to do a lot of reading during your time at university and this reading will benefit your studies in several ways. You may be asked to complete some reading before a lecture or seminar, this type of reading will help you understand more about the topic you are studying and allow you to contribute to class discussions.
You will also need to read to complete your assignments, this type of reading demonstrates evidence of how you have engaged in wider research. Reading widely will help you to:
identify different arguments
consider research methods and findings
spot patterns or themes, which will enable you to…
make connections between writers and sources, which will help you to…
form your arguments and reach conclusions
Reading is an essential part of your research and will usually account for the biggest chunk of your study time – and that’s okay. Reading should be carried out in advance of writing and carefully factored into your planning time.
Academic Writing
Academic writing may seem different to other writing experiences you’ve had; however, it is important to realise that writing is a process and skill which you will develop over time (and not overnight). Your tutors understand this, and you are not expected to be a fully competent academic writer at the start of your course.
Planning and Structure
Planning should be a crucial part of your overall approach to academic writing. By planning your assignments thoroughly, you ensure that your work has a consistent, balanced structure and that your arguments follow a logical flow with respect to the assignment in question. Make sure you are familiar with what each section of an assignment should look like. Our Essay Plan Guide explains what should be included within the introduction, main body and conclusion of an assignment.
Unpacking the assignment question
Where to start? Understanding clearly what the assignment question is asking you to do is a good place to begin. Take time to read it thoroughly, perhaps several times, and check you know what you are required to do. If you have any questions or do not understand the assignment, speak to your tutor for clarification. Assignment questions use key direction words, which help to explain what you need to do to answer the question. These words may seem similar, but do have a distinct meaning, you can find out more about direction words by reading our Unpacking the Assignment Question Guide.
Learning Outcomes
You should remember that to answer the assignment question fully, you need to ensure you meet the learning outcomes too.
Writing a plan is a good way of ensuring you have thought about the learning outcomes and factored them into your plan – a detailed plan will help you stay focused and meet the learning outcomes within your writing.
You can watch this video to understand more about learning outcomes.
Assignment Plans
There are many ways to write a plan, ranging from a mind-map to a simple bullet point list, the important thing it to choose and consistently use a format that suits you. Assistive Technology can also be used to help create a plan, MindView 7 allows you to create a plan online which can be easily edited.
Reflective Writing
Reflective writing provides an opportunity to consider and explore a scenario or your own experiences. This may be in a specific setting such as on placement in a school or in an area of healthcare. It requires you to reflect, as a practitioner, on your own practice or a process and then link your reflections to further new knowledge. This then leads to the identification of actions, which can be implemented later, or suggestions to enhance professional practice or performance.
Planning
Produce a planning grid to capture reflections if you have not yet completed the experience or event
Reflective writing still requires engagement with critical thinking and reading
Set time aside for research and wider reading
Structure
Like a conventional essay, a reflective piece of writing still requires a structure. You should still expect to produce an introduction, main body and conclusion.
You may be asked to use a model of reflection within your writing, for example:
Gibbs’ (1988) Reflective Model
Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle
Driscoll’s (1990) What Model
The ERA cycle (Jasper, 2013)
These models can help provide a structure to follow and allow you to assess all levels of an experience or event. They also help you to identify when the process is complete.
Aim for a balance of your own perspective and demonstrating you are well informed. In your paragraphs, you will weave in new knowledge to support your reflection and make connections. Be mindful of your learning outcomes and regularly check you have the right focus.
Writing Style
Whilst most of your academic assignments will be written in the third person, reflective writing requires a different style.
This will possibly include:
Using a first-person narrative voice when reflecting on your own personal experiences or a scenario
Using the third-person when referring to key literature to help support your main argument
More freedom to be slightly more emotive and subjective
Expecting to still use an academically appropriate tone and utilise vocabulary appropriate to academic writing – Academic Phrasebank is useful for providing guidance with developing your phraseology
Remembering that signposting and transitional phrases will still be important to support the reader through your written work
Avoiding being too descriptive, you should aim to be analytical, as far as possible
Expecting that citations and a reference list are likely to be incorporated
Further Learning
There are lots of useful resources to help you write a report available from the University Library, you can access books and eBooks by searching Discover More, and access lots of free videos tutorials and online courses on LinkedIn Learning.
During your time at university you may be asked to write different types of reports, depending on your field of study. Whilst both report writing and essay writing involve communication and organisation of ideas, report writing may be a style you are not as familiar with or not yet had opportunity to practice. Reports often explain the findings or results of a project, are structured with headings and sub-headings, and there are different types of reports, making report writing a complex task.
Explore the sections below for support on how to effectively plan, structure and write academic reports reports but you should remember to follow any guidance provided by your tutors, as the structure and content of reports can vary widely depending on your discipline and the specific assignment guidelines.
Report Vs Essay Writing
Report Writing
Reports are typically focused on conveying information or presenting findings from research or investigations. They aim to provide factual and concise information in a clear and organised manner. Reports are concise and often have a practical purpose, such as informing decision-making.
Essay Writing
Essays are focused on presenting and arguing or defending an argument or viewpoint. They aim to explore and analyse a topic from various angles and are much more discursive in style.
Structure
Although reports vary, most academic reports include a variation of the structure below. You will notice that, unlike an essay, the use of headings and subheadings will be required. You may need to adapt your approach once you have digested the specific assignment guidance on structure and/or content provided by your tutors. This may be included in your module handbooks, assignment briefs, Learning Outcomes or on BlackBoard.
Title page
includes the title of the report, your name, the date, the course name and number and the name of your institution.
Contents page / contents table
Can help readers navigate the document easily.
Abstract / executive summary
A brief summary of the report’s main points, including the research question, methodology, key findings, and conclusions.
Introduction
Introduces the topic, provides context, states the purpose of the report and outlines the structure that the report will follow. It often includes a clear statement of the research question or problem being addressed.
Literature review
Reviews relevant literature and research related to your topic. It demonstrates your understanding of existing knowledge and helps establish the significance of your research.
Methodology
Describes the methods used to conduct your research. It explains how you collected data, what tools or instruments you used and the rationale behind your choices. This section should be detailed enough for someone else to replicate your study.
Results / findings
Present your findings in a clear and organised manner. You might choose to use graphs, tables, charts and textual descriptions to communicate your data effectively. Using these can enhance the clarity, organisation and overall effectiveness of your document. These visual aids serve various purposes and can make complex information more accessible to your readers.
Discussion / analysis / interpretation
Analyse and interpret the results presented in the earlier sections of your report, such as the results or findings section.
Conclusion / recommendations
Wrap up your report by summarising the main points and presenting the final takeaways from your study.
References
In text citations and references are essential components of an academic report.
Appendix / appendices
Allow you to include additional material that support your main findings or arguments but might be too detailed or lengthy to include in the main body of the report. These sources of data might include tables, graphs and charts but could also include transcripts or questionnaires or any longer document which you might wish to summarise or refer to within the main body. You will need to cite any appendices within your text (…as evidenced in Table 1…) and if you are summarising data within the report you would also include the full details in your appendices (…see Appendix A for full survey results…).
An academic report should be written in a formal academic tone of voice and, unless your tutor identifies otherwise, in the third person. Report writing uses clear and concise language and sentences are generally shorter than in essays and may include features such as bullet point lists to summarise information. The focus is on presenting information objectively and minimising the author’s personal presence.
The contents of your report should be analytical, and the SEED (Statement, Expand, Evidence, Develop) or PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link) paragraph structure may help you with your writing. However, as reports include headings, each paragraph, section or sub-section does not need to flow into the next in quite the same way as in an essay.
Reports require accurate citation and referencing of sources to support any claims or findings presented. The emphasis is on maintaining the credibility and validity of the information provided. Check out our Referencing toolkit for an interactive opportunity to learn more.
You must also remember to proofread and edit your report. Our SPaG guide can help you avoid making some of the most common mistakes when writing your assignments and our Proofreading toolkit provides some useful strategies to ensure you submit your best piece of work.
Further Learning
There are lots of useful resources to help you write a report available from the University Library, you can access books and eBooks by searching Discover More, and access lots of free videos tutorials and online courses on LinkedIn Learning.
Being critical during your time at university is an essential skill that you will be required to demonstrate. You will be asked to think critically and to show criticality when reading as well as throughout your writing. Being critical can help you to produce strong, logical arguments based on informed judgements and ensures you can independently justify that argument.
Explore our brand new Being Critical Toolkit to learn more about how to be a critical thinker, reader and writer.
Whilst direct quotations have their place if you need to give an exact definition, paraphrasing demonstrates greater depth in that it shows you understand what you have read. If you are struggling to paraphrase, it may suggest you don’t fully understand the material, it is therefore not unusual to have to reread information a few times before you can paraphrase effectively.
Being able to paraphrase effectively within your academic writing is a key skill to develop. Not only does it show your tutor you understand the material you have read and are able to put it across in your own voice, it also helps avoid plagiarism and aids you to bring together different sources in your discussion.
Quoting, paraphrasing and referencing
It is not enough to use synonyms and change a few words, you also need to change the sentence structure and order of ideas. As such, paraphrasing is a skill which improves with practice, but there are things you can do to help develop this skill. When writing notes, try and put things in your own words, rather than copying text directly. Or, summarise the points after you have finished reading, rather than highlighting / writing as you go along. You could also try explaining the theory / concept to a friend in your own words.
Remember you still need to reference a paraphrase, just as you would if you were quoting text directly. Whilst you have used your own words, it is not your idea you are discussing and should therefore cite the author. Visit our referencing pages for further information on the difference between citing a quotation and paraphrasing.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) are important aspects of academic writing and any formal written communication. Paying close attention to these elements of your writing is part of cultivating the formal tone and reliable voice of good academic writing. The SPaG guide can help you find out more about how to do this and how to avoid making some of the most common mistakes when writing your assignments.
When you’ve spent a long time writing your assignment we understand the last thing you want to do is spend even more time looking at it, but valuable marks can be retained through development of your proofreading skills.
We all make mistakes, and your brain can easily trick you into missing obvious errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar when you’ve become accustomed to your writing. Therefore, it is important to set aside time at the end of the writing and editing process to have a break. Then come back to your work with fresh eyes to complete your proofreading.
Once you get in the swing of proofreading you will become familiar with the mistakes you make, and a good way to recognise and record these for your next assignment is to use a proofreading checklist. When using the checklist, it is easier to read and check your assignment for one thing at a time, rather than rushing to check for everything in one read through. Remember to also consider academic style and tone of voice when writing. Plan in enough time to check your writing thoroughly, several times.
Top tools for proofreading
Use Word spelling and grammar check
Use a dictionary and a thesaurus
Use English grammar book or websites
Use a fresh pair of eyes: ask friends / family who are unfamiliar with your subject to give your writing a once over. They don’t have to fully understand the content, just look for errors you may have missed
Use a printer, pen, highlighter, post it notes – whatever works for you
Use a Proofreading Checklist and add to it each time you receive feedback
Top techniques for proofreading
Give yourself time, factor proofreading time into your assignment planning and make sure you’re in the right mindset
Print your assignment out – increase line space to 1.5 or 2 for easy reading
Read in sections from the bottom up – we don’t mean reading backwards (!) read your final paragraph first, then the second to last and then the third to last…
Once you’ve made all your changes in the document zoom out to check layout across the whole document
We know that when a deadline is approaching, submitting your final piece of work can be stressful enough without unexpected hitches, so try not to leave your submission till the last minute. Remember to give yourself space to breathe by preparing in advance.
Plan in some time prior to your deadline to explore the Turnitin submissions videos. They will help you to become familiar with the submission process, and if followed correctly, will ensure that the final moments before you click ‘Submit’ will be as worry-free as possible.