Writing Advice Myths — Unraveling The Truth

Many students feel intimidated at the thought of writing an academic paper. They feel constrained by the many writing advice myths that abound about college writing. Our education system has depicted academic writing as an impenetrable forest. Writing advice myths prevent students from learning how to write an academic essay effectively and with confidence.

Definition: Writing advice myths

Before you compose your first essay, you will have absorbed many English grammatical rules with numerous do’s and don’ts that will remain with you during your time at university. Some of these rules vary, but most are widely accepted – and are included in our guide to writing advice myths. However, the truth is that many of these practices are actually writing advice myths. We’ve debunked five of the most popular writing advice myths below so you can write with greater freedom.

5 common writing advice myths

Debunking these writing advice myths can help you become a better writer:

• Writing advice myths: A thesis sentence should be one sentence long.
  Although we can frequently use one sentence as the thesis of a piece, it would be a mistake to believe that all essays should always consist of one sentence as the thesis. Clarity and comprehensibility are of greater importance. This rule can be broken if two or three sentences are required to express your ideas. A complex argument may even use a paragraph to explain its opening statement.
• Writing advice myths: Always avoiding the first-person pronouns “I” and “we”.
  Using personal pronouns in some circumstances is ill-advised in academic writing, although there is no formal rule. Students are often taught that academic writing should aim to be as objective as possible, whereas first-person pronouns indicate subjectivity. Moreover, using the third person enables the author to easily convey that anyone exposed to the same sources would reach the same conclusion. Therefore, the first person should be only used for stating personal opinions; the question is whether there is ever room for this in academic writing.
• Writing advice myths: Using advanced words only.
  The widespread belief that adorning academic writing with little-known phrases, obscure literary devices, and suchlike will impress the reader needs to be amended. For example, using complicated language strewn with archaic or unnecessary embellishments might make it appear impressive on a surface level but it will certainly irritate a professor jaded by years of exposure to similar pretensions. Keeping things as simple and coherent as possible is of the utmost importance.
• Writing advice myths: Summarizing everything in your conclusion.
  You might have learned this myth back in the days when you were writing those five-paragraph essays at secondary school. Your conclusion in those days likely contained the same information as your introduction, although slightly paraphrased. However, you want to leave the reader with a powerful conclusion for longer, more complex academic papers. To achieve this, consider the overall purpose of your paper and the message you want to convey to readers. Is there a way to express this in your conclusion? If your research uncovered new questions that could be explored in future research, include this in your conclusion.
• Writing advice myths: Using the 5-paragraph method always works.
  Again, at high school, many of us were taught the standard five-paragraph format for writing an essay: an introductory paragraph, followed by three supporting paragraphs, and ending with a concluding paragraph. This is one of the most pernicious writing advice myths – many students erroneously think they should adhere to this format for their entire time at university. We were taught the five-paragraph format to comprehend the basic structure of an essay. However, once you need to write papers at the tertiary education level, you will need to compose lengthier and more complex arguments, so more than three paragraphs are required to express your thoughts. Of course, you still need to include an introduction and conclusion, but feel free to use as many paragraphs as required to share your research and deliver your argument.

Other writing advice myths and bad advice

• Writing a research paper is frustrating.
  Many hold the misconception that enjoyable writing doesn’t qualify as genuine work — that it isn’t exhausting, worthy of compensation, or deserving of admiration. This misguided advice often comes from friends, family, random individuals online, and even major companies. Yet, most of these people aren’t writers and lack firsthand experience in the field. Thus, it’s wise to approach such myths with skepticism.

Common mistakes

• Inserting quotes without giving context
  It is your responsibility to provide your reader with context for the quotation. The context should set the introductory scene for when, where, and under what circumstances the quote was spoken or written.

• Only citing direct quotes
  Citing your sources in the correct format recommended by your institution is essential for establishing credibility and avoiding claims of plagiarism.

• Thinking that proofreading and editing are unnecessary
  Even the best writers or scholars stand to benefit from professional editing and proofreading services. Sometimes, gifted writers may need editing services the most – this is one of our writing advice myths that you should disregard!The main reason for this is that writing an academic paper or a book means the author is inherently profoundly involved in the writing process; necessary to produce an exceptionally well-written essay, but it is challenging for the author to step back and objectively assess the quality of their own writing.