Tips for Academic Writing to Reach a Mainstream Internet Audience
If you are a professor or graduate student, you know more about your field of study than most of the writers giving written sermons on opinion pages, Quora pages, Sub-Redditt’s, Twitter feeds, and possibly bookshelves right now. Your research and education informs your point of view. You know what you’re writing about — but commentators might know better how to write for a general audience.
This means that the voices who have the most to contribute to public discourse are often getting drowned out. If this is something you struggle with, here are some writing tips to reach a broader audience:
Don’t approach your introduction like it’s the warm-up before you get to the good stuff. Approach it like your only chance to attract your reader into your thoughts. Your lead is your opportunity to engage your reader: You’re conveying that your words are worth the reader’s effort. If you have writer’s block, look at the opening paragraphs of a practiced columnist, someone like Maureen Dowd or Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times to see how they successfully hook readers.
Keep it clean. Make your points in a concise manner. You’re not lecturing a captive audience you’re trying to connect with a reader. You don’t need to satisfy a critical peer review by including all relevant literature and every possible supporting point. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences,” Strunk and White advise in The Elements of Style. Eliminate anything that doesn’t give your reader recognizable value. And cut phrases that create clutter, such as It could be said that… or It is important to note that... If it weren’t important, you wouldn’t be noting it.
Use short sentences and paragraphs. You’re writing to engage your reader. Don’t waste their time when they could be doing a thousand other things. The opportunity cost of reading your article is doing anything else on the internet. If reading your piece feels like work, most readers will quickly opt out. Treat your audience’s time with respect by making the reading experience enjoyable. Don’t write block-paragraphs that an eye gets lost in. Don’t write winding sentences that a person must re-read to understand.
Be willing to modify your wording, tone and framing. If the way you discuss your field of study isn’t resonating with popular audiences, reconsider how to transmit your enthusiasm, key points, and knowledge. What’s interesting to you isn’t necessarily interesting to a popular audience. Let go of wording, framing, and tropes that fail to draw readers, even if they work in an academic setting. You’re attempting to promote your knowledge for mass audiences, and achieving this is a trial-and-error process.
Below are some writing resources that might also help:
Writing Effective Op-eds by Duke University
Academic Writing by Luke Strongman. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
How to Start Writing for the Public by Victor Ray, Inside Higher Ed
The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White
Polish your academic writing by Helen Coleman. London; Sage Publications
