How to Write an Academic Article | Tips from Expert Writers

If you are a high school, college or university student, you need to be aware how to write an academic article on any topic. If you think now that it is virtually impossible, try to take a look at article writing from a different perspective. The thing is that when you know the structure, you will not have difficulties regardless of the type of the topic or overall academic complexity of writing. Therefore, if you are struggling with article writing and do not know precisely how to write an academic article, you should definitely read the article provided below.

Article Writing Tips

If you are not confident in your writing skills and are sure that you are bad at article writing, check out the strategies composed by our company’s professional writers and learn how to write an academic article.

Step 1. Decide on your article topic

The topic you choose should be first and foremost interesting for you. However, you should also take into consideration your target audience. After you have chosen your topic, you need to make sure you have sufficient time for its exploration. Sometimes, this process of preparation (or pre-writing stage) takes even more time than the actual process of writing. Therefore, make sure you have at least one free week for gathering information on the topic, reading, and reviewing the necessary literature.

Step 2. Provide a rough draft

Sometimes writing a rough draft on the chosen topic resembles free writing since you need to write anything that comes to your mind. Moreover, this process of draft writing may also serve as a brainstorming strategy, which will help you focus on specific ideas and choose the most important of them.

Step 3. Focus on the needs and interests of your target audience

Having decided on the topic of the article, you need to think about the core purpose of article writing. As such, your purpose of writing will depend on the target readers. As such, while you are writing, please make sure that the manner and style of writing as well as vocabulary choice is understandable and comprehensible by your target audience. If you wonder how to write an informational article, keep in mind that you need to outline a few aspects (three on average) that you will explain and discuss in your article. The discussion, explanation or interpretation of specific notions should be carried out in simple words. If the audience has specific needs in getting information about certain terms or concepts, you need to meet their demands to make sure your article is successful.

Step 4. Research the topic

If you wonder what makes an article strong, it is the supporting evidence that you introduce to the article to explain or interpret specific issues. When developing your article, it is recommended to rely on expert opinion and provide statistics and other illustrative data to sound stronger and provide adequate support. Apart from statistics, you can also provide citations or direct quotes from some credible research. You can also refer to some movies, videos, articles, books, etc. Moreover, you can even provide examples of real-life experience. When providing reference to the sources, make sure you format them appropriately according to the required format and citation style (APA, MLA, Oxford, Harvard, Chicago, etc.). An important thing to keep in mind is to refer only to credible and legitimate sources. For example, if you take sources from scholarly databases, be sure that the articles there are peer-reviewed. As such, they can be considered trustworthy.

Step 5. Improve your draft and elaborate on it

After thorough research, it is high time to return to your draft and improve it in terms of structure and ideas development. Make sure you choose the main ideas that are worth consideration. Remember that you cannot cover the whole topic in a single article. Therefore, make sure you identify the most important aspects and focus on them. It is better to cover some 2-3 aspects in depth rather than try to address a broad topic at once.

Step 6. Make your article specific

One of the basic things to remember when you wonder how to write an academic article is to make it specific. If you have chosen some 2-3 aspects or notions to explain, double-check whether they are clear to your audience. If you provide some new information, make sure it is clear as well. If your purpose is to inform, try to make your article easy to comprehend and understand.

Step 7. Read the final draft from beginning to end and revise it

After you have finished writing your article, revise it. Take a break after writing and then read it from the very first to the very last sentence. First, edit it in terms of content, i.e. search for mistakes in sentence structures and the way you communicate your message across. Second, after you have improved the content, switch over to proofreading the paper in terms of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. In the process of revising and editing, you may seek help from your friends or family members: you can simply ask them whether they understand what you write about and whether the idea conveyed is easy for them to comprehend.