4 Ways Blogging Can Improve Your Academic Writing

Just as not every writer is a great researcher, not every researcher is a great writer. While that’s okay, you won’t build much of an academic career if your writing is poor, unclear, or disorganized. The good news is that anyone can learn to write well if they put in the effort. 

Writing is a skill you can acquire and hone with practice, and blogging is a great way to improve at it. If you’re a scholar or a researcher who consistently submits articles to academic journals for publication, you can also use your blog to attract new readers and draw attention to your work, cultivating an online presence that helps grow your influence in your field. It’s a win-win situation. Plus, if you have a blog, you can share your portfolio on the same website, thus giving your audience access to all your academic work. It’s a fantastic way to get more exposure, boost your career, and make an impact in your field and the world.

If you’re currently writing a blog post that needs some professional editing and proofreading, click here for an instant quote. Keep in mind that you need to put your best foot forward even on a more casual medium such as a blog—it will all reflect on you as an academic. If you’re writing a research paper, check out our deluxe academic package, which offers a range of exclusive services to ensure you’re meeting all submission requirements and submitting a high-quality article for publication. 

So, how does blogging help you improve your academic writing? 

1. Blogging turns writing into a habit

The best way to stick to something is to incorporate it into your routine, which is why all authors try to make writing a daily or at least a regular habit. Scheduling writing into your routine can help you improve at it because you will learn, gain confidence, and polish your skills every time you sit down to write. You’ll gradually get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. However, you should also make it a habit to read others’ writing and identify what makes it good or bad.

Practicing any type of writing will develop your overall competence, but not all writing is the same, so focusing on the type you want to master is a good idea. If your goal is to write better academic papers, concentrate on blogging about your areas of expertise and topics you’re passionate about. After some practice, you’ll start to notice your words flow much more naturally. 

Blogging also offers a wide range of multimedia possibilities, which can make your posts more engaging for the audience and more fun for you to put together. Creating graphs, tables, and charts for your blog posts can help you generate better graphics for your research papers, especially if you collect feedback from your readers.

2. Blogging helps you find your voice and style

Being consistent in your writing practice will also help you define your voice and style—these are integral elements of strong writing but can take time to find and perfect. Blogs tend to use relaxed and simple language, so even if you’re explaining complex concepts and ideas, write in your authentic voice and have fun with what you’re sharing. 

Decide on the image you want to project—you might want to adopt a more formal and professional tone (though not quite as formal as in an academic paper), or you might prefer a casual tone with slang and jokes sprinkled in. Anything goes as long as you can pull it off confidently and consistently. It might not be the same style you would use in your journal submissions, but defining your voice will strengthen your writing. 

Another advantage of blogging is that since you can write, edit, and publish a blog post in a matter of hours or days, you can easily and quickly tweak anything that’s not working and try anew. Get creative and don’t be afraid to experiment with different formats and approaches that push you out of your comfort zone—remember that your blog is a space for you to learn and grow as a writer. You can even tell your readers that you’re trying new things—this will make them more inclined to forgive any deviation from your usual style and may prompt them to provide helpful feedback.

3. Blogging teaches you to write clearly and concisely

Since a blog is accessible to everyone on the internet, most scientists and researchers consciously use plainer language in their blog posts so that more people can grasp their concepts. By doing the same, you can get more eyeballs on your paper, gain wider and more mainstream exposure, and possibly even draw more people to your field by awakening their interest. 

Using simpler vocabulary isn’t just for blog posts—it’s great even for scholarly articles, which don’t need to be overly complicated to sound intelligent. In fact, you’ll sound more intelligent if you can write clearly and plainly, thus communicating your ideas more effectively than someone trying to show off with big, fancy words. That said, clear writing isn’t only about using simpler words: It’s also about being concise and intentional with your structure and explanations, whether you’re writing a blog post or an academic paper. This entails paying attention to sentence structure and the expressions you use, which you may be able to simplify without losing the meaning. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that blog posts shouldn’t ramble too much. Unless you’re publishing a long read and labeling it as such, try to keep your posts under 1,000 words, or you’ll risk boring your audience. If you have an overabundance of content, just split it up into multiple posts. The lower word count and the simpler language help bloggers focus their posts, creating more easily digestible pieces. This is also great practice for writing journal articles, which are most effective when they zero in on a particular theme instead of veering off in different directions. 

4. Blogging connects you to your audience

One of the great things about blogging is that it gets you much closer to your audience and allows you to interact with it directly—something you can’t really do when publishing your work in an academic journal. Although your blog won’t have the prestige of a vetted, peer-reviewed publication, it can have a wider reach and help new readers discover your work. Laypeople won’t be interested in reading scientific papers anyway, so your titles and professional demeanor will generally be enough to lend you credibility in their eyes. Fellow experts won’t put as much stock in your blog as in your academic papers, but it can be a great way to direct more peers to your published work.

Knowing the makeup of your audience (which you can learn thanks to analytics) and interacting directly with your readers can help you make your writing more accessible. Finding out what your audience likes and dislikes about your writing or style or the way you explain things can be invaluable feedback. It’s important to keep in mind that the audience for your blog and the audience for your papers may differ, so don’t automatically adapt your academic writing style based on your blog feedback—simply use it to improve your overall writing skills.

Blogging can help you gain confidence and find your voice and style, which will strengthen your academic writing. Along the way, you can also build an online presence, attract more followers, and generate more buzz around your research. Watch your own progress as your writing gets better with every post, and reap the benefits of your hard work next time you submit a paper to a journal. 

If you’re just starting your writing journey and would like expert help to perfect your journal article or blog post, check out our combined proofreading and editing service!