Help to improve my written work..!

[becka9058]

I am coming to the end of the first year of my degree. I have had pretty consistent grades from my assignments or written work over the year and I am happy about it but I would like to better myself over the summer.

Basically, in all my feedback that I have had in order to improve; they have all basically said that I need to expand my 'academic language'. Now, where I do know exactly what this means, I was wondering if any of you could spare the time to direct me to some resources such as some books or websites that have helped you 'think' in academic language whilst you are writing assignments. I was to change my way of thought when I am putting sentences together for essays so that by mid year 2 I will have developed it enough to right it 'automatically' in said format.

Thanks to those who contribute!

[203bravo, MSN, APRN]

There is no "academic language" The key to successful writing is 1st know who your audience is and write to their level.. 2nd I would strongly suggest getting a thesaurus (written copy) and continually use it to find alternate words that can be used.. and 3rd people forget about the pure power of reading.. and not just whatever the current hot nonfiction best-seller happens to be. but reading works that make you think..

Writing like anything else takes practice,, the more you study it and do it the better you get :)

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I would advise you to READ academic work. That, in my opinion, is the best way to learn to WRITE in an academic style. It gives you an idea of the vocabulary, sentence structure and overall flow of academic writing.

It takes time.

[JJ1994]

I think the important thing to remember is that writing is not like a conversation. If possible, take another English or writing course. I'm assuming you've already done English 1 and 2 but most colleges have other writing classes where you can get a lot of practice and helpful feedback. I took to writing pretty easily but struggle with punctuation. When i came to college, I spent some hours in the writing lab where a tutor helped me work on it and I do a lot better at it now. If your school has something like that, it could be very helpful.