You may be used to writing for specific purposes in your professional role and it may seem that academic writing is far wordier and more abstract or theoretical. This is often because in academic writing you are showing your working and using the writing to explore different perspectives and discuss the evidence fully. This thinking may go on behind the scenes in professional writing, but often only the outcomes and recommendations are shown in order to make it economical to read.
The sub-menus to this page include:
Similarities
Professional writing shares some commonality with professional writing, they both:
Differences
It can be helpful to think of academic writing as a different genre with different conventions, style and expectations. Being aware of these differences can help you adapt your writing for an academic audience:
| Writing for an academic audience | Writing for a professional audience |
|
Written to demonstrate your learning and meet marking criteria |
Written with a specific purpose and audience in mind (e.g. patients, healthcare professionals, managers) |
|
Written in continuous prose with complete paragraphs and full sentences |
Can sometimes be written using bullet points and very short paragraphs of a few lines |
| Explores ideas | Presents information |
|
Discursive – fully discusses the evidence used to justify arguments/points |
Concise – may consider the evidence but summarises this for the audience |
|
Evaluates different points of view and establishes a position based on this |
May have evaluated evidence ‘behind the scenes’ but usually presents outcomes and/or recommendations |
| Often uses theories or abstract frameworks and applies them | May not be as theoretical but based on professional standards/protocols |
| Always has full references | Can be referenced, use a bibliography or may not need references |
|
Draws conclusions or hypothetical recommendations |
Makes specific recommendations to be acted upon |
Your written work may be interesting, well structured and informed. Yet it may still make a bad impression because of poor proof reading.
Part of your assessment will usually relate to the standard of your written English. It's important to pay attention to things like tenses, gender, plurals and the structure of your sentences, especially if you have rewritten or moved sections of your work. It's easy to lose marks - but it's also easy to make sure you don't.
This brief guide offers ten brief tips to help you to proof read your work as effectively as possible.
| Please note: we cannot proof read your work for you, or recommend professional proof reading services. It is always better for you to learn how to do your own proof reading, as only you know what you were trying to say. It may be useful to see the University's policy on the use of editorial and proof-reading services. |