Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, academic writing is a specific skill that can seem complex and challenging if you’re new to it.

“For a variety of socio-cultural and political reasons, writers experience conflict as they attempt to negotiate traditional academic discourses,” admit Linda A Fernsten and Mary Reda, in their paper ‘Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing.’ Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing. In other words, not all of us come from the world of academia (and neither should we), but it can be hard to get to grips with the seemingly endless lists of rules and styles.

We know that many of our learners face second language and cultural challenges too as they learn to write in an academic style.

Ken Hyland gives an excellent example in his paper, ‘Authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic writing’.

Hyland explains that while first-person pronouns lend writing authority and personality, many English second language writers aren’t comfortable using them precisely because of those connotations with authority, which might feel uncomfortably like bragging in their own cultures.

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