Scholarly Writing

This section is adapted from Chapter 4 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (the Publication Manual), and it introduces the key elements of scholarly writing. It also includes tips for improving the quality of your writing. This section is only a summary; students and instructors should consult the Publication Manual for more details.

Why should I care about scholarly writing?

As explained in the introduction to this chapter, using all of the elements of good writing helps you to communicate your ideas clearly, which allows instructors to mark essays or assignments accurately. Good writing is important both in school and in the working world.
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Continuity and Flow (4.1)

Continuity is the logical flow of ideas in written work. In both written and spoken language, flow is the smooth cadence of words and sentences. Written work that lacks continuity and flow can be difficult to read and understand, because words and ideas can feel confusing or disorganized. To make sure that written work has good continuity and flow, be consistent in word choices including spelling, concepts or ideas, and organize ideas in a logical order.

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Transitions (4.2)

Another way to improve continuity and flow is to have smooth transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and ideas. Two ways to do this are punctuation and transitional words and phrases.

• Punctuation: Punctuation can signal a transition from one idea to another. It can also demonstrate a relationship between two ideas. Finally, punctuation indicates pauses, inflection, and pacing, including what we usually hear in spoken word. More information about punctuation can be found later in this chapter.
• Transitional Words and Phrases: Transitional words and phrases help to maintain the flow of ideas. They can also create links related to time (“then”, “next”, “after”, “since”), cause and effect (“therefore”, “as a result”), addition (“similarly”, “moreover”, “furthermore”), and contrast (“but”, “however”, “although”).

It can be very easy to overuse transitional words and phrases, but careful editing can help.

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Conciseness and Clarity (4.4)

The Publication Manual makes the following recommendations for conciseness and clarity in written work:

• Say only what needs to be said in your writing; be clear and precise.
• Leave out extraneous or extra material. If an essay or assignment is too short, this means that more work is needed to develop ideas and add substance.
• Choose words and phrases, and make sure that every word means exactly what you intend. Specify intended meaning if there is the potential for confusion.
• If an important word or phrase is used multiple times, use it consistently. Do not change spelling or use synonyms for key words or phrases.
• Use bias-free language. More information about bias-free language can be found later in this chapter.
• Use a professional tone and choose professional language. Do not use poetic language, clichés, heavy alliteration, or rhyming.
• Limit your use of metaphors.

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Wordiness and Redundancy (4.5)

Wordiness means using more words than necessary in a sentence. Wordiness usually occurs when we want to sound more professional, academic, or complex, but adding these extra, vague words actually makes written work harder to understand. Below are some examples from the Publication Manual (4.5):

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Redundancy means using multiple words with the same meaning in a sentence. Below are examples of redundancy in writing. The words that are underlined are redundant, and they can be omitted without changing the meaning of the phrase:

• small in size
• absolutely essential
• summarize briefly
• in close proximity to
• was exactly the same as
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Sentence and Paragraph Length (4.6)

There is no minimum or maximum sentence length in APA Style. Using too many short sentences or too many long sentence can make written work difficult to read and understand. Instead, use a mix of sentence lengths and types. The same ideas apply to the length of paragraphs.
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Tone (4.7)

In written work, tone refers to the writer’s attitude toward the reader and the subject. Just like tone of voice, tone in writing gives much more context beyond the words used. The Publication Manual makes the following recommendations for finding the right tone in written work:

• Remember that academic writing and creative or literary writing have different purposes, and each will have a different tone. Many elements of creative writing – ambiguity, inserting the unexpected or omitting the expected, shifts in topic, tense, or person – are not appropriate for academic writing.
• Present ideas in a direct, straightforward manner.
• Use language the communicates professionalism and formality.
• Avoid combative or overtly critical language.
• Use word choice, sentence length and paragraph length to create interest.
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Contractions and Colloquialisms (4.8)

APA Style recommends avoiding contractions and colloquialisms. Contractions are shortened forms of words, where an apostrophe replaces part a word or part of a word – can’t instead of cannot, don’t instead of do not, won’t instead of will not, etc. Contractions can be used in scholarly writing when reproducing a direct quotation that includes a contraction, and apostrophes can be used to indicate possession, i.e.: “the student’s work”.

Colloquialisms are information expressions used in everyday speech and writing, i.e.: to “write up” instead of “report”, “gonna” instead of “going to”. Colloquialisms are too informal to use in scholarly writing.
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Jargon (4.9)

Jargon is specialized language that is not familiar to someone outside of specific group. Often, it’s specific to an occupation, and it’s sometimes called “technical language”. An example of medical jargon is “code blue”, a phrase that means a patient needs resuscitation or immediate medical attention. An example of business or corporate jargon is SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and it’s a way of evaluating an organization or business. Using too much jargon is confusing for readers, even if they are experts in the same subject area. Use clear language, and define any specialized terms the first time they are used in an assignment or essay.

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Sources

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style. (7th ed.).