Back
Researchers June 25, 2020
Dispelling Myths About Academic Writing and Impact
Source: Unsplash

If you hope to make an impact in the world as a researcher, the fact is that you must become a strong academic writer. While the two jobs are not the same, they’re interwoven closely together. Not only do you need to be able to write academically to pass the majority of your classes on your way to obtaining your degree, but you’ll need to be able to compose your research findings comprehensively enough to create a final product for submission. And if your goal is to make an impact on the field you’re working in, that final piece must be written coherently.

However, the interrelation of academic writing and impact has morphed over the past decade as the digital era has brought changes unlike any ever seen before. Along with these changes come myths about academic writing and impact that make some would-be scholars more intimidated than necessary about entering the field of research. The world needs more good researchers to continue to improve, so those myths must be dispelled.

It All Started as a Child...

Well-meaning advice is part of the life of an instructor starting from pre-school. It’s sometimes hard to determine if what is suggested is a nugget of wisdom that should be listened to closely or a passing trend in the ever-swinging pendulum of education.

Myths about which types of learning are best for the child all the way to how food impacts the ability to learn have been volleyed about for decades.

But when it comes to higher institution writing, the truth is that your previous experience and education are no longer an excuse. It’s your job to know what you don’t know, and then go figure out how to learn it.

Confusing Myths and the Truth About Academic Writing

Part of what makes academic writing so intimidating is the thought that it has to be done a certain way in order to be correct. Here are some common myths and the truth behind them to guide you into a comfort zone of writing:

●      There’s a specific way an academic piece must be written. This is partly true and partly false. On one hand, there’s a structure for you to follow, which makes it easy to know what you have to include, depending on the subject you’re writing about.

On the other hand, there’s no right or wrong way to approach the content. If you feel confident about the meat of the paper but not the introduction, start where there. The introduction will follow later when you feel less pressured because you already have a really good flow going.

●      You can’t write a good paper if you don’t have perfect grammar. Grammar, mechanics, syntax, and other elements of writing are important, yes. But you don’t have to be a master of these writing traits in order to create a well-written academic paper.

If you have the content and a really good first draft, all you need from there is an editor to revise your paper for you or a tutor to teach you which areas you need a bit of strengthening in. Even famous authors have editors to go behind them because their job is to write the content, not to know all of the linguistic rules.

●      You either know how to write or you don’t. This might have been the case when you were younger, but now that you’re in a university setting, there’s nothing that should be holding you back from learning how to write.

An academic paper has structure and formatting to guide you. There are tutors willing to help you learn these guidelines and the rules of the language you’re writing in. There are programs, like Impactio, with templates for you to insert your content easily. The only excuse anymore is your lack of willingness to put the effort in.

These myths have made the idea of academic writing more stressful than the activity itself. By dispelling the false ideas and approaching your writing task with the truth, you can alleviate some of the pressure and move forward to getting the job done and making an impact!

Impactio Makes Academic Writing Easier

Part of the pressure behind a scholar’s research paper is the uncertainty of how they are going to prepare their work for final publication. Impactio, an all-in-one platform designed specifically for experts like you, takes the guesswork out of this concern.

With Impactio, scholars can easily build professional academic resumes and turn citation data into charts, graphs, and tables without wasting valuable time to demonstrate research impact with insightful reports.

When you have a program that does the hard part of creating an academic profile for you, all you have to do is what you do best - create the content from your research! Impactio is there to guide you in putting together the structure and formatting so you can get back to doing the work that can help you make an impact on the world.

Tags Academic WritingResearch
About the author
Jason Collins- Writer
Jason is a writer for many niche brands with experience “bringing stories to life” for both startups and corporate partners.
Jason Collins
Writer
Jason is a writer for many niche brands with experience “bringing stories to life” for both startups and corporate partners.
Related Articles