10 Important Elements of Scholarly Essay Writing

There are many things you learn in school, none of which include how to write a scholarly article well. You may have come across one or two or even three tips here and there on how to write a research paper. However, no course in an educational institute is specifically devoted to teaching students how to write scholarly essays.

However, that is not to say that learning how to write a scholarly essay is a lost cause. This article provides necessary information on scholarly writing, what it entails, and how to write like a professional.

What is a Scholarly Essay?

A scholarly essay, also called ‘scholarly article,’ ‘scholarly writing,’ or a ‘research article,’ refers to a category of writing used in all academic fields. It is a type of writing used to convey research findings to an academic community. A scholarly essay is full-length writing that contains original research, including the research background, study design, methodology, results, and conclusion. Scholar essay writing is not better than other types of writing; it is just a category of writing used by academia.

What Are the 10 Main Elements of Academic Writing?

The ten main components of scholarly writing include:

1. Thesis – this is the main proposition of the study; it should be an alternative truth, debatable, and with available supporting evidence. The thesis of an academic article provides a contextual insight into the entire research.
2. Motive – this is your agenda, what you aim to achieve with the research; it should get readers interested.
3. Evidence – these are data providing citations to back your thesis up; there should be enough, and it should be convincing.
4. Analysis – this is where you analyze, interpret, and discuss the data; it goes beyond summarizing or quoting to making you feel like a reasoning researcher.
5. Key Terms – these are concepts and recurring terms on which your thesis rests; they should be clear, related to the subject, and appear throughout the essay.
6. Assumptions – comprising underlying beliefs about people, general reasoning, cultures, and histories that may or may not be explored.
7. Structure – referring to a logical order supple enough to let a writer explore an essay topic rather than just hammering on the thesis.
8. Sources – referring to what journals or persons were consulted to arrive at and develop the truth of a thesis. Sources for scholarly writing should be credible, fairly cited, and efficient.
9. Transitions – these are words and languages that link parts of an argument.
10. Orienting – an abstract of the entire essay containing bits of information, explanation, and summary; it should be brief, understandable, and gracefully presented.

Standard Scholarly Essay Format: How to Write a Scholarly Essay

Scholarly essays usually follow an IMRAD structure or something close to it for the convenience of readers. At the end of a scholarly article, publications and articles consulted are presented as references or citations. The standard scholarly essay format includes:

• I – Introduction: this comprises the background, hypotheses, and aim of the scholarly essay.
• M – Methodology: this includes the study’s design, instruments used for measurements, and for what purpose they were used.
• R – Results: this entails the findings from the research and should not be a repetition of the methodology.
• A – Analysis: this is where an analysis of the data and results of the method used is shown.
• D – Discussion: this includes an explanation of how results support previous research, theoretical implications of the results, conclusions, and recommendations.

Insightful Tips for Writing a Scholarly Essay for Publication

Some insightful tips to help with writing a scholarly essay fit for publication include:

• Create a template that you can use for future manuscripts.
• Know what and what not to include in a scholarly essay.
• Avoid repeating yourself, whether in exact words or paraphrasing.
• Write the abstract after writing the whole essay and learn what should or not be in an abstract.
• Read through your essay, correct spelling, and grammatical mistakes, and let the article flow.

Finally, you should understand that the art of writing a scholarly essay takes years to master. Professionals of academic writing you see today spent time and resources to become that. If you put in the effort to learn, you’ll be able to write scholarly articles that will be heavily cited. As such, you will be seen as a highly respected expert in scholarly writing.