This document provides basic rules and tips for effective academic writing. It recommends using formal, concise language without slang, vague terms, or filler words. Key points include using simple, clear sentences in an active voice tailored to the target audience. Writers should avoid complex sentences, jargon, cliches and metaphors. The document also emphasizes the importance of revising, editing, and practicing writing to improve.

1. BASIC RULES FOR
EFFECTIVE WRITING
AYNUR MURAT

2. There are some basic rules that make writing clear, formal and
concise. Here are a few of them;
 Don’t use “something” or “thing” in essays, because these
expressions make essay vague, non-descriptive
Don’t quote from the original source, try to paraphrase it,
because you write an essay to share your opinions, not authors’
Don’t use informal language. Academic writing should be formal
and should’t include slang words.

3.  Don’t use “and so on” , “and so forth” or “etc” in your writings
 Don’t begin a sentence with coordinating conjunctions(for, and,
nor, but, or, yet, so).
 Don’t begin with sentences that say "in this paper, I will talk
about …”. All of the sentences should inslude direct information
 Indent the first line of all paragraphs and observe a one-inch
margin on both the left and right-hand side of your pages

4.  Don’t use metaphors and cliches
use "you" when you mean all people in general. You may
say "we" to refer to all human beings
Paragraphs should be well-structured (topic sentence,
support sentences, concluding sentence) and can not less than
5-6 sentences in length (except for the introduction and
conclusion, which may be 2-4 sentences in length

5. There are some mistakes that non- native writers
make;
 don’t use “nowadays.” Instead, use “today, currently,
recently.”
Rather than using first, second, third, etc. as transition
words, use some different words like ‘’ to begin with”
Don’t use ‘’so’’ as an adjective. ‘’very’’ is much better.

6.  Don't use ‘’in this life, in this world.’’ they are
meaningless. Using these words implies that there is
another world to be compared. There isn't another life or
another world
Especially isn’t a transition word, it is an adverb, so instead
of especially, use ‘’ in particular.’’
Some says that ‘’ I am agree.’’ This is wrong. It must be I
agree.

7.  when you talk about your plan for future, don’t use
‘’dream.’’ It is generally used for images we see during the
sleep.
Some say ‘’discuss about’’. This is wrong. Discuss is never
followed by a preposition.
‘’ United States’’ is wrong. It must include an article, so
‘’the United States’’ is used

8. There are some other tips for effective writing;
Expess, not impress: a good writing isn’t about the
numbers of words you use or the effectiveness of adverbs.
The important thing is to be understood
Simple sentences work best: a writer should write simple.
Long and complex sentences make readers bored. Plus,
simple sentences are understood by all readers.

9.  Know who your target audience is: ıt is very
crucial to know your audience, because you write
your essay according to them. You need to know
how much they know about the topic, how can
you expess yourself.

10. Read it aloud: ıf you read your passage
aloud, you will notice your mistakes. When
you write it silently, you may not notice
some problematic parts, but reading it
aloud helps you see these mistakes

11.  Avoid using jargon as much as possible: Not
everbody in your audience knows the specific
terms you use. They may not be the experts of the
issue, so just use general terms so that everbody
can understand it

12. Use the words that you are familiar with,
don’t look for interesting and fancy words: ıf you
try to use new, interesting words, you may make
more mistakes. Less but true words are always
better

13.  Use active rather than passive:Instead of ‘’the
price was established by the real estate vendor.’’
‘’the real estate vendor set the price’’ is better.
Being positive is better than being negative:
Being positive is always better. Your writing seem
better with positive statements

14.  Set aside time for revising and rewriting–
after you’ve written the whole content: when
you start to write don’t be so meticulous, but
then revise and rewrite it. It will be better

15. Good writing is simply always writing.
Write as much as possible, because
practising is a very important issue.