Academic writing is a formal style of writing which is evidence based. It is intended to provide credible information to the reader in a logical, structured waythat enables the reader to understand the key aspects of complex material. It also seeks to be analytical and critical and never assumes anything as an accepted truth. Academic writing prepares students for the kind of rigour needed by senior managers in the world of business and public service when presenting reports on important issues.

Academic writing encourages brevity, clarity and accuracy, but with sufficient detail to carry weight. This reflects thatin the real world senior managers do not have endless amounts of time for reading large volumes of prose.

Academic writing also assumes no prior knowledge of the reader (except in certain circumstances) and so the writer must orient the reader effectively, and lead them carefully through their material without confusing them. It is a skill, like any other, that improves with practice.

There are some basic rules to remember:

• Always write in the ‘third-person’ rather than the ‘first-person’ unless otherwise directed. In other words, DO NOT use sentences with the words “I, me, we, you, your” in them. Instead, write using the following style… “It could be suggested that…. The factors affecting leadership will now be considered… The author’s own experience suggests that…”
• Do not use slang, colloquialisms or abbreviated words such as ‘they’re’ or ‘it’ll’ or ‘don’t’. Instead use the expanded version of these words, such as ‘they are’, ‘it will’ and ‘do not’.
• Ensure you write in proper paragraph format of between 8-14 lines. Although this is not an absolute minimum and maximum line-count, be aware that the shorter paragraphs come across as bullet points and give your text a kind of stop/start feel to the reader. If the paragraphs are too long, your reader becomes exhausted and your points start to blend into one another. Keep paragraphs focussed on a single point or argument, or a particular aspect of a discussion.
• Always use a font size of 11 or 12, use margins as shown in this document, and justify the margins of your text so that it gives your reader an easier read.
• All mentions of academic sources, models, frameworks, etc, along with statistics, facts, figures, quotes or opinions and assertions require a citation, a bit like this (Johnson, 2016). These ‘citations’, or short in-text references, should link to a full reference in your end-of-paper reference list, so that the reader can track down the sources of your material if they wish to read into a subject in more detail. It also acts as an overt demonstration of credibility of your material. Without citations and references, your text is essentially just your opinion, and worth no more than the opinion of ‘the man in the pub’.
• You must also use citations and references to give due credit to anybody whose material you are using to argue your point. Using material without giving it credit is called plagiarism and is an ‘academic offence’. In university, it will get you low marks and normally a fail. In the real world, it could get you in trouble with copyright and intellectual property issues.

Next we should consider the material itself. Whenever you receive an assignment task, the first thing to do is analyse the question itself. Ask yourself “What is it actually asking me to do?”

If it is asking you to explain, state, or identify, then it is testing your depth of knowledge. If it is asking you to consideror applysomething then it requires you to demonstrate how a theoretical concept can be related to the real world or a specific context. If it says analyse, or explain, then it is asking you to deconstruct an issue and show your understanding of the interrelating issues. If it asking you to evaluate, then it is asking you judge an issue, or model, or theory,often against another, weighing up relative strengths and weaknesses of each. If it is asking you to synthesise, constructor create(only at master’s level or higher) it is essentially asking you to create your own concepts or solutions to an issue.

So… When you first get your question, analyse it, then plan out your answer on some scrap paper before you even start writing. The following table gives an example of how you might plan an assignment…

Doing this has a number of benefits. Most importantly, it stops you from wandering off topic or forgetting to include important information. It also helps you to control your word count. The secret of academic writing is not what to include, but what NOT to include. If you put too much information into your assignment, it can end up being very descriptive and may lack analysis and evaluation.

When writing an academic assignment, there is a sequence you can use for each point of discussion:

• Introduce the issue/problem
• Identify, introduce and briefly summarise the relevant theory that will help you analyse the issue/problem
• Apply the theory to the issue/problem/case-study scenario, demonstrating how the theory works in the ‘real world’.
• Analyse (or evaluate; or both as required) the issue/problem by deconstructing it, layer by layer, so that you can show how different aspects of the issue interrelate.
• Use examples of practice or research from industry or academic sources to support your analysis and argument.
• Summarise your discussion, then move on to the next point.
• DON’T FORGET TO CITE YOUR SOURCES AND EVIDENCE

To give you an idea of the kind of sequence needed, below is an example of my own work from a Master’s degree paper on Terrorism which scored quite highly…

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The modern rebuttal of perceived American/Western imperialism was initially led by Al Qaeda, which by 2000 had established itself as an effective network of dedicated activists. Following the group’s devastating second attack against the World Trade Centre in 2001, its credibility soared amongst jihadists and it became the exemplar to all Middle-Eastern terrorist groups (Karsh, 2007). Moreover it became a loose umbrella network for numerous jihadist groups, not just regionally, but world-wide.

The Al Qaeda ‘brand’, which at one point was as strong as any international corporation, and which displayed many of the features of a firm according to Coase’s definition, as cited by Oliver Hart (Economica, 2008, 75, 404–411), changed dramatically in 2013, when the original incarnation of the Islamic State split from its Al Qaeda sponsors, with approval from the Al Qaeda core. The Al Qaeda brand is now “no longer a centralized organization but a loose ideology that any group can appropriate and apply as it sees fit while gaining the mystique of a recognized brand name…” (New York Times, 25 January 2014). William McCants, of the Brookings Institute, describes the shift:

“Al Qaeda is kind of a ready-made kit now… It is a portable ideology that is entirely fleshed out, with its own symbols and ways of mobilizing people and money to the cause. In many ways, you don’t have to join the actual organization anymore to get those benefits.”

(William McCants, quoted in New York Times, 25 January 2014)

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Remember to use Harvard Referencing technique, both for citations and full references. The list of references at the end of the paper should be in alphabetical order. You should use reliable sources only. These include text books, academically rigorous papers from university libraries or sourced through Google Scholar, academic or industry journals, and government websites and statistics (such as the gov.uk sites and the Office for National Statistics). You can use an online assistant such as Neil’s Toolbox to help you format references until you get familiar with the Harvard system.

Finally, you can help to build your knowledge of the business environment by reading a ‘grown-up’ newspaper regularly. The red-tops are of no use. You need to be reading the Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Financial Times or Independent, as these provide more rigorous and accurate analysis of the news. You should be aware that all these newspapers, even the Independent, have a political bias, either right or left. This is not an issue, as long as you keep an open mind when reading their material and remember that they all have their own ‘angle’.

This concludes a whistle stop introduction to academic writing. It is not exhaustive, but it should be enough for those of you who are new to academia to make a decent start with writing assignments. My top tips are as follows:

• Be succinct and get to the point
• Use simple language that makes sense
• Be precise with your explanations and analysis – avoid being vague and generic
• Reinforce everything with evidence
• Remember to take care of the basic skills such as referencing, spelling and grammar. Do not lose easy points!

Good luck. Keep at it.