Jargon In Academic Writing

Academic Arena

“Writing is an exploration, you start from nothing and learn as you go.” – E. L. Doctorow

Academic writing refers to a style of expression used by researchers to document their discipline specific study in a standard written structure. It is characterized by a formal tone, a determined focus on the research problem and precise word choice. It may include formal academic rhetoric or jargon to convey unambiguous and agreed meaning to researchers of their respective fraternity. Academic writing can vary depending on the subject, the methodology and the intended audience; however it follows certain conventions which can be summed up as:

Standard Language:

Academic writing does not encourage colloquial language, regional dialects,

Logically sequenced ideas and appropriately organised discourse is easy to follow and understand. The introduction should include details of how the rest of the paper is organised. However, the scholar should not be engaged with background information or description of the issues alone. One of the most important ways of contextualising a study is describing a research problem. In fact, some description may be needed because it cannot be assumed that the reader knows everything about the issue at hand. But the paper should emphasize the methodology adopted, analysis and interpretation of the findings and their

It may be appropriate to use jargon in discipline specific writing but is best avoided when writing for general audiences. Overuse of jargon can make your writing obscure and complicated. A scholar must aspire to achieve clear and elegant prose that minimises reliance on specialised terminology.

Scholarly Conventions:

Another vital aspect of academic writing is the scholarly convention of citing sources and providing a list of references. References allow the reader to identify and verify the sources the scholar may have used and to scrutinize the veracity of his findings. It is better to acknowledge the source of one’s ideas, research findings or quoted text to protect oneself from the allegations of plagiarism. The MLA format for in-text citations and the works cited section is widely used.

While writing the paper, the scholar must use appropriate headings and sub-headings, identify and mention the acronyms used, avoid slang or colloquial language, avoid contractions and usage of first person and second person pronouns should be done only as and when