8 tips to supercharge your academic writing

Editor’s note: This article was originally written by Triona McBride and has been reviewed and edited in July 2026 by the Expert Editor’s editorial team to meet our latest editorial standards.

Sitting down to a new academic writing project is always a challenge. A 15,000 word article is daunting to anyone; for some a 2,000 word essay is just as frightening and for many a 60,000 word thesis or dissertation is downright depressing.

It can, however, be done. There are thousands of students, inexperienced in writing academic documents, who write essays, theses, dissertations and journal articles successfully, so don’t despair. There are things that can be done which make your life easier (and no, that doesn’t include getting an editor to write it for you!).

Here are eight tips to make any student a more prolific and accomplished academic writer:

1) Plan your writing

If you have a few months to submit, then plan to separate your sessions; it’s tiring and taxing to write for nine hours straight, so plan for an hour or so twice a day, and the output will be better than from a 15 hour slog, as well as being more manageable for you.

If you feel like you’re on a roll on a particular day, then you can keep going, but knowing you only have two hour-long slots will reduce the scale of the project in your mind, rather than trying to do full days on your weekend or pulling all-nighters the week before a project is due. It will also make your life easier closer to the submission date, as you’ll have more time to fact-check and review your own work for errors.

2) Just begin!

My primary advice is just begin. Get some words down on paper or typed up. The sooner you have some words on the page, the easier you will breathe. Honestly. It’s actual science: researchers have found that expressive writing sessions can measurably lower blood pressure and stress over time, so don’t be surprised if you feel calmer after getting your thoughts down on the page.

Remember that you know what you’re writing about, most likely better than most people, whether it’s your area of business, the story inside your head, or the research you’ve spent the last eight months carrying out. So, if you can just get your ideas down on the page in some order, the rest will come more easily.

3) Go easy on coffee (yes, EASY)

You’ve probably ignored my previous two tips, as even full-time writers procrastinate with the best of them, but please listen to this. Go easy on the coffee — despite its reputation, research suggests moderate coffee drinking doesn’t actually dehydrate you, but it’s still worth breaking things up with a glass of fresh juice (as green as possible).

It’s actually nutritious too (helpful if you’re in the final days of your thesis and have only been scoffing soggy pastries from the local garage). And if you’re feeling run down, consider swapping a caffeine pill for a Vitamin B pill now and then — just note they work differently: B12 helps your body convert food into energy and mainly makes a difference if you’re actually low on it, rather than giving the instant jolt caffeine does.

4) Get a sweat up

If you’ve been sitting for a while and are feeling sluggish, get up and do something that raises your heart rate – like dance to the radio or your iPod. I’ve even heard of a seven-minute work-out which is becoming popular among writers.

Fresh air is even better, so if you can run around the block in fifteen minutes the exercise and intake of oxygen will improve your flow. Try not to take long breaks, as you can get very distracted by anything else, mostly because you want to.

5) Don’t get too emotional

Try not to get emotional; this is writing – not death, divorce, or rearing a toddler. The world will not end if you don’t get 5,000 words done today, and if you miss the submission date, you will not die.

Crying, tearing your hair out, and anger are just delaying tactics and they achieve nothing. It also never helps the words on your page. They will stay the same, even if you cry whilst writing them. Put a little note on your computer that says “No Histrionics.” (Yes, I am a fan of tough love).

6) Forget about the word count

Don’t do a word count or even worry about it until you’re about halfway through (If you’re using double-spacing, that’s about 25 pages in on a 15,000-word document).

The amount of words is nowhere near as important as the quality of them, and if you’re writing what you know, most people end up needing to reduce their words when reviewing, not add more.

7) Less can be so much more

Don’t analyse your word choices too much, particularly in academic writing. People trying to dress things up in a fancier way than they need to is a pet hate of mine. Say what needs to be said in the straightest way possible.

If you are writing a thesis or dissertation, it is definitely the way to go, as more than likely you will irk your professor by including unnecessary and frivolous words, unless you’re an English major with a distinct flair for the language.

To accompany what I’ve just said: please cut out excessive use of modifiers. By this I mean adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. When writing academically, I don’t care if a research text is “somewhat” incomplete, or a source is “very” old.

Too many times, people get carried away with the use of these words. Even when you are writing fiction, telling us the “view was delightful” is completely pointless. If you can’t describe it beautifully, don’t tell me it was beautiful.

8) Editing and proofreading

Finally, get someone, ANYONE, to edit and/or proofread your work. I am a professional editor, and I still get other people to edit my work (and I always will). If you are crafting a large piece of work, you simply don’t see the errors yourself. Even with 1,000 words, you will miss things in your own work that others spot.

A friend will notice where you’ve written “the the” in your thesis and you won’t. A professional will notice when you’ve used the word “informant” (which means spy) rather than “source”. It brings down the whole work if you have misspellings and errors, and it distracts the reader from what really may be quality work. With a decent edit, the work appears polished and ready for submission and can gain “A” grades, good feedback and even launch an academic career.

So, now you’ve spent seven minutes reading this, put the information to good use and start writing. You can take a break in an hour for a juice and dance!