What is Academic Discourse?

Writing classes and textbooks use the term “academic discourse” to describe the kind of writing they want to see. That term often makes people think of old men in tweed jackets smoking pipes. But academic discourse happens everywhere outside of campuses and journals. Most professionals use a form of academic discourse. They just don’t call it that.

For writing teachers, the phrase “academic discourse” acts as a shorthand to describe a set of attitudes, habits, and practices. Using academic discourse by itself doesn’t make you liberal or conservative. It just means that you engage in critical thinking about issues, question your own beliefs, resist assumptions and bias, listen to other perspectives, and look for evidence to support your own beliefs.

True, academic journals hold other criteria when it comes to the structure and format of the writing itself, including citations. Academic writing can often seem dense or confusing. These traits only apply to certain disciplines. As you’ll see, many academic journals print articles accessible to wider readerships. When you come across written or spoken arguments, or even informative articles, look for these traits listed below. Try to incorporate them into your own writing and thinking.

Characteristic One: Multiple Perspectives 

The best academic writing engages a conversation on a topic and references other viewpoints. Academics do this throughout an essay or book, even on the sentence level through references to other researchers or even phrases that allude to conflicting opinions indirectly. Phrases such as “As some work suggests” or “the consensus is that” imply that while an idea is dominant it is not the gospel truth.

Characteristic Two: Complex, Multi-part Thesis and Argument

American popular and political culture has encouraged us to make simple arguments that can be used as “sound bites” in broadcast news. However, academic arguments can almost never be boiled down to a single sentence or phrase, because any topic always has multiple issues. An academic thesis on marijuana use would immediately clarify and specify whether it’s condemning or supporting marijuana at the state or federal level, whether it’s about the medical use of marijuana, whether it focuses on marijuana use in adults or teens, and so on. An effective thesis statement has to be somewhat narrow, and so it takes time and space to develop.

Characteristic Three: Qualifications 

Academic writers have to be careful about coming on too strong. While other genres like political speeches or opinion columns are judged by how confident they sound, over-confidence can make an academic seem foolhardy. Thus you’ll see more words such as “might, may, could, most likely, possibly” and phrases such as “in most cases,” “in particular,” “a tendency toward,” “not necessarily,” “not always the case,” “as we understand it,” “as I suggest,” etc. This allows writers to disagree with parts of each other’s arguments in a civil way.

Characteristic Four: Concessions 

Related to the first characteristic, concessions often aim at allaying anxiety or disagreement from readers and anticipating their doubts. Such phrases include “It is true that” or “Most people may rightly think that…” By doing this, academic writer acknowledge things in the real world that may contradict their claims.

Characteristic Five: Larger, more complex vocabulary

Academic writers are often accused of using “big, pretentious words” to convey their ideas. Some writers will use big words for their own sake. However, effective writers will use bigger words in order to convey complex ideas more concisely, ideas that would otherwise take several words awkwardly strung together.

Characteristic Six: Length

Academic writers are also sometimes accused of writing long, wordy paragraphs as well as lengthy, 30-page articles that are dull. Some writers do this. However, the length of articles and even paragraphs has a point. Academic and professional audiences demand lots of evidence before they accept someone’s opinion. They want every aspect and detail of the evidence examined, and they want a clear explanation of how that evidence has or hasn’t been discussed by other scholars. Doing that takes a lot of space.

Conclusion

Cultivating these traits and habits into your writing will add depth and value. Above all, academic discourse promotes curiosity and open-mindedness. Learning requires us all to resist easy assumptions and bias towards ideas or opinions that fit our current worldviews. We approach scientific, cultural, and political issues from many sides and seek evidence to inform us. Academic writing embodies these characteristics.