Academic writing is unlike other forms of writing. It is bound by several strict rules and conventions that should be followed. When we speak about academic writing, we are speaking about writing meant for scholarly settings. This includes:
Scientific reports
Conference papers
Student academic papers
White papers
To achieve success in your academia, you should learn and be aware of these academic writing conventions. To be fair, memorizing these rules is likely not practical. They can be quite nuanced and specific.
The best approach is to be broadly familiar with them and rely on academic resources like academic style guides such as APA and CMoS and, of course, the EminentEdit blog.
In this article, I discuss some of the basic rules and conventions of academic writing to ensure that you always submit academic work you can take pride in. This includes rules on 1. Verb tenses, 2. Abbreviations and contractions, 3. Formatting numbers, 4. Using personal pronouns, 5. Active vs. passive voice, and 5. Inclusive language.
1. Verb tenses in academic writing
The rules and conventions for verb tenses in academic writing vary based on the section of the paper. Most academic writing follows the IMRaD format. This stands for Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Other relevant parts of the paper include the abstract.
Generally speaking, the abstract of a paper uses the past tense. It is a concise summary and report of your experiment or study, so it should be written in past tense.
The introduction is more complicated. Generally speaking, it uses the present tense. However, if the introduction includes the literature review, this is usually written in past tense. After all, you are speaking about past studies, so past tense would be appropriate.
The method and results sections are generally written in past tense. The logic that belies this is that these are outcomes from an experiment that has already been carried out. However, there are some exceptions for the results sections.
If you are reporting on or explaining a statistics table, for example, explaining the nature of the relationships between two variables, this can be written in the present tense.
The discussion section, like the introduction, should be written in the present tense. Why are both the introduction and discussion sections written in present tense? This is because they both speak about the relevance of the experiment or study to a current problem.
The introduction provides the background of the problem and explains why your study is important in terms of tackling the problem. On the other hand, the discussion section explains how your results shed new light on the problem. Either way, the problem is portrayed as being relevant and current.
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2. Acronyms & abbreviations
Academic writing typically avoids contractions for common words and follows strict rules for acronyms. A typical convention is that abbreviations for common words like “do not” should be avoided and the full term should be written out. For example, it should be “do not” not “don’t.”
Acronyms are words written in abbreviated form. They typically cover the names of organizations, lengthy scientific terms, and so on. For example, WHO is the acronym for World Health Organization.
When writing acronyms for academic writing, acronyms are first written in full, with the acronym written in parentheses. Later, the acronym should be used throughout the text instead of the full term. However, the full term may be used at the beginning of sentences.
3. Formatting numbers
The rules for formatting numbers in this article rely mainly on the APA style guide. When writing numbers less than 10, they should be written out. For example, it should be “nine,” not “9.” Any number above 10, should be expressed in numerals.
However, if a number begins a sentence, it should be written out in full as a word. Words should also be used for common fractions. For example, “Three-fourths of the participants.”
Numerals are used when describing age or years. For example, “The study was carried out over 3 years.” You should also use numerals for mathematical expressions or for numbers that come before units of measurement.
For example, “Teachers awarded students with certificates if they scored in the top 3%.” Lastly, when writing centuries and years, avoid using apostrophes. For example, it should be “the 1900s,” not “1900’s.”
4. Using personal pronouns
It is often believed that personal pronouns should not be used in academic writing. However, this is not always the case. Personal pronouns include "I,""we," "me," and "us." Since academic focuses heavily on being unbiased and objective, it is believed that these pronouns should be avoided.
Generally speaking, this is true. It does come across as more professional to avoid the use of such pronouns. Nonetheless, there are cases when it cannot be avoided and should be used. Avoid personal pronouns only when it makes sense to do so and when it sounds natural to.
Apart from this, it would be best to restructure sentences to avoid the overuse of personal pronouns. This normally means relying on passive constructions. This is especially pertinent when the study is carried out by one individual. For example, take the sentence:
I carried out the study between June 12, 2023, and April 16, 2024.
This should be revised to a passive sentence:
The study was carried out between June 12, 2023, and April 16, 2024.
The pronoun in this new construction is taken out altogether. This means you often have to choose between using active verb forms (which are typically seen as better than passive forms) and sticking to this academic writing convention.
5. Active vs. passive voice
In academic writing, it is often recommended that you should write in active voice versus passive voice. This advice is given as academic writers are too frequently guilty of overusing passive voice and making their writing sound boring or lacking in energy.
But before we proceed, what is active or passive voice in writing? In active voice, the subject of a sentence performs an action. In passive voice, the subject of the sentence is subjected to the action. This means that in active voice you emphasize the person who does the action. In passive voice, the actual action or process is emphasized.
Active voice is recommended also because it makes writing sound clearer and less awkward and stilted. For example, here is an example of a sentence in passive voice:
Passive: The test was failed by over one-third of the participants in the study
Active: One-third of the participants in the study failed the test.
The active sentence is shorter, less awkward, and gets straight to the point. Active sentences tend to invigorate your writing. However, sometimes passive voice is necessary. This is especially true when writing the methods and materials for scientific papers.
Here is a passage explaining the procedure for tissue culture:
Sterile plant tissue samples were excised from the donor plant and were sterilized using a suitable disinfectant. The tissue samples were then placed onto a nutrient agar medium under aseptic conditions and incubated in a controlled environment. Growth and development were monitored regularly, and any contamination was recorded.
Passive voice is used throughout because the researcher has to emphasize the process of tissue culture preparation. Why is this necessary? One of the core principles of scientific experimentation is repeatability. By emphasizing the procedure of their experiments, researchers are creating a practical record that can be followed and repeated by other scientists.
6. Inclusivity
Inclusivity and sensitivity in academic writing are crucial. It means using unbiased language when referring to individuals from specific demographic and gender backgrounds. The point is to not cause offense or portray these people as subordinate to other subgroups of individuals.
So how do you go about using inclusive language? You do so by trying as much as possible to not categorize people according to their gender or demographic. Let's take a look at some of the academic writing conventions you can employ to do so.
1. Avoid gender bias. If you don't know someone's gender, you should avoid using gendered nouns. For example:
Correct: Each participant had to give their consent before taking part in the study.
Incorrect: Each participant had to give his or her consent before taking part in the study.
It is also increasingly acceptable to use the "singular they" when you are not sure of someone's gender.
2. Avoid gender-paired words. There are certain words related to professions that make a distinction based on gender. Such terms are referred to as gender pairs. For example, "actor" for a male actor and "actress" for a female of the same profession. This would look something like this:
Server instead of waiter/waitress
Flight attendant instead of steward/stewardess
Property owner instead of the landlord/lady
Business person instead of businessman/businesswoman
Police officer instead of policeman/woman
Using this type of language can save you from causing unnecessary offense in cases where you are not sure of a person's gender.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, February 03). Academic Writing Conventions: Tense, Acronyms, Etc. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/academic-writing-conventions |
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