Course: An Intermediate Guide to Writing in English for University Study

Are you considering applying to study in the UK? If you don’t have British A-levels or equivalent qualifications, the IFP from the University of Reading provides you with a pathway …

Are you considering applying to study in the UK? If you don’t have British A-levels or equivalent qualifications, the IFP from the University of Reading provides you with a pathway …

At various points in the course it has been mentioned that there seems to be more use of impersonal language in academic writing. This may involve avoiding the use of …

In the academic world knowledge is socially constructed, that is to say that for new ideas or knowledge to be widely accepted, substantial evidence has to be provided and where …

In this video Jonathan explains why it is essential to use correct verb tenses in your academic writing. To help you identify the correct verb tense, Jonathan recommends you ask …

Writing as a collaborative activity Writing is often regarded as a solitary activity, and to a certain extent this is true. Even on collaborative writing projects, most initial drafting of …

Congratulations on completing an Intermediate Guide to Writing in English for University Study. We hope you’ve enjoyed the course and it has helped you to improve your academic writing skills. …

In this video Jonathan returns to Patrick’s essay; this time to examine and dissect the conclusion. As you will see, typical features of an essay conclusion include: a re-statement of …

Now that you’ve completed the exercise in the previous Step, let’s look at how Erla structured the conclusion to her essay. 3 – In summary, Iceland has been growing significantly …

In this video Jonathan returns to the example of Patrick’s essay about food waste, to examine and dissect the introduction. As you will see, Patrick’s essay includes many of the …

Now that you have completed the exercise, take a look at how Erla structured the introduction to her essay. 4 – Over the last few decades there has been a …

The conclusion is one of the most challenging parts of the essay to write. You have included all your main points, put forward your viewpoint, hopefully supporting these with references …

Sometimes students think that writing a plan is a waste of time but in fact, it helps give clarity and structure to the way your final product will look. The …

Your introduction should give the reader an idea of the main focus of the essay, and include some of the following features: a move from the general theme to the …

This table shows some common prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs used in academic writing. Language function Prepositions/ prepositional phrases (come before noun phrases) Conjunctions (join two clauses in one sentence) Adverbs/Adverbial …