The Importance of Writing Style

How Not to Write an Academic Essay

In this course, Dr Andrew Bell (King’s College London) explores how not to write an academic essay. In the first lecture, we think about the importance of writing style in conveying points and arguments. Next, we think about word choice and how using complicated vocabulary can often make writing less accepted, rather than making the writer seem more intelligent. In the third and final lecture, we think about how writing can be scored, exploring key readability statistics to assess writing samples. Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

The Importance of Writing Style

In this lecture, we think about the importance of writing style, focusing in particular on: (i) the key link between writing style and clarity of arguments (ii) the importance of writing style in readers’ perception of the writer.