Academic Writing

There are as many forms of academic writing as there are disciplines, departments, and individual lecturers. There are also common expectations and rules that tie them all together. The pages in this section will point you to some of the most common forms of written assessment, and give you a starting-point for developing your own work.

Writing at university is different to writing in other contexts because it requires a high standard of evidence and value-neutrality, or the avoidance of simple opinion in favour of a robust and careful argument. In other words, you can’t just assert something because you believe it; you need to offer supporting evidence, form a coherent position, and take other points of view into account. You also need to reference your work to an adequate standard, pointing out where any ideas you've used come from.

These threads run through all of the specific information here about different forms of academic writing. More detail on the values underpinning academic writing can be found in Being at University. Details about particular forms of academic writing are broken down in TASH under these headings:

• Essay
• Project report
• Lab report
• Undergraduate dissertation
• Postgraduate dissertation or thesis
• Abstract
• Precis or summary
• Journal article
• Poster
• Reflective journal
• Proposals

For University of Sheffield users, there is also a Library resource list, suggesting some print materials to help develop your academic writing.