How to make academic writing a whole lot less painful

For most of us, academic writing is not fun. You can have all the passion in the world for your chosen subject, but translating that passion into a 15,000-word essay is a challenge, especially if you’re a non-native English speaker. Though you may never learn to love churning out essays, we’ve come up with a few tips to hopefully make the process a little less torturous.

1.     Plan, plan, and plan some more – If you’ve got three months to write an essay, use those three months. Spend a considerable amount of time planning how you’re going to write it, and you’ll waste a lot less time worrying about the structure when you’re actually composing the document.

2.     Research – a solid research base is key to any successful academic work. Red Pen recommends establishing this base long before you start writing. Keep a well-organised document with your research readily available during the writing process.

3.     Avoid wordiness – while it’s tempting to try and bulk up the word count, this can usually do more harm than good! If you can say something in 10 words, don’t complicate your work by trying to say it in 30. Here at Red Pen, we try to stick by the rule that “simple is always best”.

4.     Edit and proofread – it may be difficult to proofread and edit your own work, but we consider editing and proofreading an essential part of the writing process. You can always ask your friends to give your essay a read, but if they don’t fancy it or are just as busy as you are, send your document to Red Pen Bristol, as making students’ lives easier is what we do best!