What are the 4 Types of Academic Writing?

Date: 20 Oct 2022

Whether you are a graduate or an 8th-grade student, you need to know about the topic and the text before writing your paper or essay. 

But in academic writing, there are plenty of more things that you have to remember, such as writing guides, styles and referencing guides, etc. 

Along with this, it is also essential you completely know what topic you are writing about. And most importantly, you have to understand the different academic writing styles before writing your paper.

So stay tuned and keep reading because the following guide has covered the four types of academic writing, which will help you to choose the right approach for your paper.

Four different types of academic writing:

Following are the 4 types of academic writing styles that every student should know before writing their paper. Because without this guide and knowledge, you might not know which approach to use for your paper.

Descriptive Writing:

The type of writing in which an individual has to provide the complete information and the facts which will descriptively define the topic is known as descriptive writing. An essay, a project report, and an article overview are examples of descriptive writing.

A well-described paper or assignment includes the identification, report, writing, summary and definition. If you find these things in any academic paper, understand that it is descriptive writing.

Middle school students and primarily theory-based topics use the descriptive writing style.

Analytical Writing:

Analytical writing is one step higher than descriptive writing in academics. Mainly an analytical paper includes descriptive writing too. But additionally, it requires you to restructure the facts and figures you have defined into different groups and parts.

Instead of just writing the information and facts descriptively, you have to break this information into parts and reorganise them to help the reader clearly understand your topic or research.

Analytical writing usually follows the descriptive explanation and answers to the questions like ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘is what.

If you find the terms like ’examine,’’ ‘’compare,’’ ‘’relate,’’ ‘’contrast,’’ and ‘’analyse’’ then understand that it is a type of analytical writing.

This writing style is mainly used by university-level students who are supposed to write research proposals, Literature reviews, dissertations, etc.

Tips for writing a better analytical paper.

• Fork out some time in planning and gathering information and facts from the different resources.

• Divide the information you gather into parts and make the relationship between them, such as pros and cons, this vs that etc.

• Always keep your topic structure, introduction and context straightforward & easy to understand for the reader.

Persuasive writing:

The type of academic writing in which analytical writing (gathering and breaking the information into relationships) and the author's opinion are known as persuasive writing.

In a persuasive essay, at least one compelling element should be included, whether in the main body or the paper's conclusion.

The central theme of persuasive writing is to present your findings, point of view and evaluation of a process that the proper evidence will support; it might be the already published research or any author who has researched it.

If you see phrases like 'argue', 'evaluate', 'discuss', and 'take a position', understand it is persuasive writing.

Critical writing:

Critical writing includes all the features of persuasive writing. But in a critical essay, other than defining your point of view and arguments on a topic (persuasive writing), you have to research and write about at least two points of view along with your own.

You might explain the already published research and analyse the objectives of that research. After that, you can give your alternative arguments or interpretations.

Critical writing demands potent writing skills and an understanding of the topic as a whole. Because in this writing type, you must first discuss the researcher's point of view and arguments and then write your own opinion.

Some ordinary papers requiring critical writing knowledge are high-level undergraduate dissertations or research work, postgraduate research papers, P.hD thesis, and literature reviews.

If you find the words "evaluate," "debate," "critique," and "disagree" in any paper or book, then understand that it is the critical writing style.