7 Advanced Tips on Writing Doctoral Level Essays

| Updated on March 27, 2024

Academic writing has different requirements for different levels. When you are a freshman, you are supposed to learn to write academically. Even though the standards are already high, certain stylistic and other inconsistencies are allowed. However, on the graduate level, your writing is supposed to be academically perfect.

Needless to say, reaching this perfection is not an easy task. It takes lots of practice and failures to realize what it is that you need to master to write better. Also, doctoral-level essays require students to use more advanced vocabulary and qualifying language. At the same time, certain words and phrases need to be avoided.

To get rid of this confusion and become an excellent graduate-level paper writer, we advise you to try our tips. Read more here to find out what they are!

Avoid First Person

There must be no “I think” or “I believe” in your paper. If you intend to mention your opinion, you need to rephrase it to sound professional. Most likely, you are not the only person who believes it. Try looking for other authors expressing ideas similar to yours. You can develop your thought further, but it is a good idea to reference like-minded scientists.

The use of first-person distracts readers from the main ideas in your paper. It also makes it weak. To keep the focus on things you try to explain, reference another paper to provide a basis and incorporate an example incident in a scholarly way.

Work on the Introduction

The introduction is one of the essential parts of your graduate-level and doctoral level essays. It would be best if you made others wonder what’s your argument and evidence by placing a short synopsis of your paper in the introduction. It must be interesting and catchy for a person to continue to read your work.

A thesis statement that is usually placed in the introduction gives an insight into what the whole paper is about. It is very important to write it properly. Sometimes, students only write it when the body of the essay is ready.

Write the Conclusion and Proofread

The conclusion summarizes the whole work and restates its purpose. It also leads readers to a logical ending, explaining what needs to be explained. Also, the conclusion lists a few recommendations concerning future studies. By doing that, you’ll encourage your readers to continue exploring the area of your research.

The conclusion is usually followed by proofreading. When the paper is ready, it is high time it got checked. First of all, run it through a grammar and spelling checker. Then, do a plagiarism check. Human proofreading is also needed to make sure your readers get the same message you intended to send. This service can be provided by writing professionals as well as by your friends and loved ones.

Do Not Be Vague

Academic writing is direct. There is no room for fun, jokes, juicy phrases, or other things that creative writing is full of. Remove words and phrases that make readers feel you are not certain about what you are writing about. List facts and reference scholarly articles to sound professional and direct.

Doctoral level papers do not accept any vague language or ambiguity. Your goal is not to reach the word count but to share the idea or research with the scientific community. Do not repeat the same things over and over by adding new words. If you have some room to fill, try to add new evidence and observations.

Make Your Text Flow

Consistency and logic are the two criteria that define a doctoral-level essay. If you fail to make your text flow from one argument to another, making sense to people who read it, you fail to reach out to your audience.

Thus, pay particular attention to transitions in your paper. Make sure your paragraphs do not stay aside from each other. Connect them while avoiding the common cliches. However, when you get better at writing, you need to invest more energy in a good thesaurus.

Mind the Sentence Structure

Long and complex sentences associated with academic papers are not their necessary attributes. In fact, longer is not always better. Your goal should be clarity and consistency. If you feel that rearranging a complex sentence and breaking it into a few simpler ones will do good for your readers, do it without hesitation.

Complex sentences often shift the focus from the most important things you want to share. Moreover, your graduate-level paper should be understandable to people not belonging to the industry. In most cases, this is achievable if you use simple structures and explain the terminology.

Use Credible Sources

An excellent doctoral-level paper must be based on credible academic sources. You can be held accountable for every idea you place in your essay. Thus, if you borrow it, it should come from a credible source. It can be any scholarly paper, journal article, book, or an organizational work paper. The only thing that matters is that the scientific community recognizes it as a reliable source.

All the information you rely on should also be properly referenced. You should place an in-text citation as well as a reference so that your readers can find it if they want. Thorough referencing also saves you from being accused of plagiarism.


Akansha Singhal

EdTech Writer


Related Posts
×