4 Useful Websites to Improve Your Productivity in Academic Writing
Especially for beginners and junior researchers
Since getting my bachelor’s degree, I have decided to pursue an academic career. During my graduate studies, I not only completed intensive coursework but also wrote research papers. One thing I particularly struggled with was academic writing in English. As a non-native speaker of English, finding the right words and phrases was very time consuming and frustrating at the beginning. Later on, I found useful online resources that help me improve my academic writing significantly. In this article, I will share the online resources that I have found most effective.
1. Academic Phrasebank by The University of Manchester
This website is the best academic phrase bank I have ever used! When I get stuck with my academic writing or when I need some inspiration for finishing a paragraph in my manuscripts, I benefit from this website.
It has several sections such as “introducing work referring to sources”, “describing methods”, and “reporting results”. Let’s say you have to write or revise the discussion section in your manuscript. When you go to the “discussing findings” section, you will see many sample phrases from which you can choose and incorporate into your manuscript.
You may not immediately find what you are looking for; however, after you read all those phrases, I am sure you will come up with a suitable phrase for your manuscript.
This website also offers general language functions. I often use this section when I need to revise my manuscript. For example, if there is a key term that I need to explain in more detail in my manuscript, I use “defining terms” under the general language functions to look for sample phrases. These phrases often help me better explain the term.
Besides this Academic Phrasebank, there are many other similar resources available online. There is also an academic word list developed by the Victoria University of Wellington and a software program by which you can have an embedded academic phrase bank in MS Word.
2. Learnhigher
Learnhigher offers numerous free resources related to academic writing. You can find short podcasts, helpsheets, handouts, writing activities, and so on. Depending on your writing skills and purpose, Learnhigher offers many options for you.
I remember that I often struggled with writing a report about the findings of my research in the early days of my academic career. To help with this issue, Learnhigher has a category called “report writing”. This section provides several resources specific to report writing.
If you are interested in learning different techniques that can help you improve your writing skills, Learnhigher also provides PDF handouts and worksheets that present examples of those techniques.
3. Writing Centre Resource Guide by Dalhousie University
Writing Center of Dalhousie University has a great collection of writing resources for students and researchers.
The website has numerous categories. For writing a research paper, I really enjoy their sources under the category of “Undergraduate Students” and “Graduate Students”. When you click on these categories, you will see a list of resources. Then, you can choose which item (e.g., online articles, PDF documents, videos) you would like to read. Some items on the list pop up in a new tab or some items are directly downloadable.
From writing to publishing a research paper, there are many steps. For each step, you can benefit from the resources on this website. When you click on “Writing for publication” under the category of “Graduate Students”, you will find a collection titled “Mastering the Art of Scientific Publication”. In addition to resources on writing a research paper, you can also find other writing guides such as writing a project proposal, preparing a CV, and drafting a cover letter on this website.
4. Researchgate (and similar websites)
You may have already heard of the technique of ‘imitative learning’. This technique is widely used in various learning areas. With this method, you imitate other ‘professionals’ until you build your own style.
“I seriously have stolen all my moves from the greatest players.”
Although some forms of “imitation” is controversial in academic writing, imitative learning can be very useful for novice researchers when they incorporate this technique into their writing carefully. You may want to check out this paper to understand how to use this technique safely in academia.
To utilize “imitative learning” in your academic writing, you should find the experts and professional researchers in your field. Researchgate offers an environment for researchers to build their academic networks. In this academic platform, you may find not only researchers in your field but also open-access research papers aligned with your research interests. By reviewing those papers, you may find researchers whose writing styles could be a good template as you build your own writing style.
In addition to Researchgate, there are also similar websites — such as Mendeley and Academia — that provide access to a large network of researchers and their publications.
Hopefully, you find these websites useful for your academic writing.
Good luck!
