Academic writing

Before you start writing an assignment, you need to know what you are going to answer. This is stated in your assignment text. Therefore, read the assignment text carefully and slowly, preferably aloud to yourself. Feel free to look at one sentence at a time if you think there is a lot of information.

There are two things you need to be clear about before you start writing:

1. What does the assignment want you to do?

The assignment text states what you are going to answer. Often, but not always, you will encounter the terms "discuss" and "account for" / "explain". These do not mean the same thing.

• "Explain" / "account for"

Here you must summarize, reproduce, describe or present a subject in your own words. You should not have an opinion about the content. The explanation must be neutral, comprehensive and balanced.

• "Discuss"

Here you must use argumentation to develop your own points of view, often based on material you have accounted for. An interesting discussion sets different (reasonable) claims against each other. See more about argumentation, claims and justifications under "How do I use sources?". Often you should discuss different theories, standpoints or positions against each other. Your discussion will most often be better if you look at differences or tensions between theories, standpoints or positions, instead of looking at similarities. Feel free to use examples to illustrate.

2. Which and how many tasks should you answer?

Some assignments have only one question to be answered, others have many. Sometimes you have to answer all the assignments, other times only choose some. Find out what applies in your case.

When you have understood the assignment text, you can start writing. You don't have to wait to write until you have figured everything out. No first drafts are perfect. Write first, edit afterwards!

But how do you start writing?

Some like to start writing the assignment itself right away, and rather change it as they find sources and come up with good points.

Others like to make an outline first. This is an overview of what you want to include in your assignment, for example what you should include in the introduction or points you want to include in your main section.

If you don't know how to start, a good tip is to write down everything you can think of about the topic. Some like to formulate this in a list, others in a mind map or in a text. If you can collaborate with others, you may get good ideas from talking to a fellow student.

In academic texts, the content is the most important thing, and the language must be adapted so that the content comes across. Therefore, your language must be clear, precise and neutral.

Avoid oral language, private reflections and strong characteristics. Feel free to cut superfluous words that do not strengthen the argumentation, such as adjectives and small words. Do not use complicated words and expressions if you can use an equally precise common word.

If you are unsure how advanced your text should be, a good piece of advice is to assume that the person reading your text is an ordinary person who has never heard of the topic before.

In an academic text you must argue. This means that you must make a claim (how something is) and justify it (why it is so). It is common for each paragraph in the main section to present one claim with associated justification. In academic texts, this justification must come from already existing knowledge. This means that you should not make up an answer, but retrieve knowledge from academic sources such as textbooks and journal articles.

When you have made a justification, you must tell the reader where you found the knowledge. You do this by referring. Read more about this on the page about "referencing". 

A good tip is to start with your curriculum literature and recommended literature. You can search for sources in the library's databases, for example Oria. Learn more about search techniques and where you can search for relevant literature on the library's website. (internal links to the library pages on "search technique" go to tips for searching and "where you can search" to where should you search?) If you need help finding more sources, you can also contact the library.

Search & Write  deals with the entire process of writing assignments. Here you get help with search techniques, how to read academic texts, how you can proceed with the writing itself and how to set up references correctly.

Office package  (Link to information about the office package on nla.no: IT's pages?) including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and storage in OneDrive, you have free access to as a student at NLA.

EndNote  is also freely available for NLA students.

If you are wondering about something, you can also contact the library or supervisor/subject manager in your subject.