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Your curiosity about newbie academic writers and experienced academic writers may arise from at least two sources. Firstly, you may have followed a prompt to learn more about either newbie or experienced academic writers after taking our assessment on academic writing skill levels. Alternatively, you may be familiar with the terms from your interactions with other academic writers on social media platforms such as academic writing Facebook groups and Instagram pages. Whatever your case may be, it’s important to distinguish these two types of academic writers. Here’s why the difference matters.
Distinguishing Newbies from Experienced Academic Writers
Newbie academic writers encompass anyone practicing academic writing who has surface-level knowledge about the practice. They tend to be familiar with some academic writing concepts and a thing or two about how academic writing works. However, they are not competent enough to apply their knowledge to prepare academic literature appropriately. Experienced academic writers, on the other hand, are not only familiar with the ins and outs of academic writing to a sufficient degree but can also use their academic writing skills to prepare acceptable scholarly writing. These two categories provide five other sub-categories, which are the academic writing skill levels we identified previously.
The Characteristics of Newbie and Experienced Academic Writers
Newbie Academic Writers
A notable characteristic of newbie academic writers is their lack of knowledge of the principles that shape academic literature. This group contains two categories of individuals. One is the beginner-level writer who either has no clue about the basics of academic writing or has gaps in their knowledge of this area. They don’t understand the history, purpose, and characteristics of academic writing fully. The other category is intermediate-level writers. Such individuals know the basics of academic writing but either lack or have partial knowledge of academic writing skills and techniques. This deficiency prevents them from preparing quality academic papers because they can’t differentiate academic writing from other forms of writing.
Experienced Academic Writers
Experienced academic writers differ from newbie academic writers because they have mastered academic writing basics and academic writing skills and techniques. They can also use their knowledge to prepare various academic papers. This group also has three subcategories of academic writers based on the complexity of the academic writing concepts they have mastered. Therefore, experienced academic writers include:
- Advanced-level writers
- Expert-level writers
- Research writer-level writers
Advanced-Level Writers
These academic writers have mastered the academic writing concepts in beginner and intermediate levels. They have then also gained knowledge on how to use different academic referencing styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard to prepare simple academic papers. The academic writing concepts they have mastered enable them to complete simple academic tasks that students in higher learning tend to receive for minor class assessments. Such academic assignments include different types of essays to assess whether a student has understood or can apply the concepts covered in a lesson.
Expert-Level Writers
Such academic writers have mastered academic writing concepts in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced academic writer levels. They have also mastered advanced requirements and techniques associated with the academic referencing style they use such that they can prepare scholarly material for official publication. This ability enables them to conduct research and prepare academic literature for tasks that use different forms of research papers such as research articles.
Research Writer-Level Writers
This category has the crème-de-la-crème of academic writers. Aside from mastering the academic writing concepts in the lower skill levels, they have developed the skills they need to conduct live research and report their findings. They do so while adhering to the requirements of whichever academic writing style they use. Their abilities qualify them to undertake tasks such as preparing research proposals, theses, and dissertations.
Recommendations for Newbie and Experienced Academic Writers
Based on the characteristics of the five classes of academic writers we have identified, it’s evident that your mastery of more complex academic writing concepts improves your academic writing capabilities and ranking. If you work as (or desire to work as) an academic writer, know that the more complex the academic writing tasks you can handle, the higher the financial compensation you can receive.
For this reason, you may be interested in using the academic writing courses and tutorials we offer to improve your academic writing skills. You would need to take our assessment to determine your academic writing skill level if you haven’t done so already. Once you determine your level of expertise, you can choose the most suitable course or tutorials to use.
Our Academic Writing Courses
The academic writing courses we offer suit academic writers who wish to learn academic writing concepts they are unfamiliar with completely. Based on the differences we identified between our courses and tutorials, the one-on-one interactions with the course instructor will help you access the support you need as you learn new concepts. This method is preferable especially when trying to progress to a higher skill level. Once you’re aware of your academic writing needs based on your skill level, use this resource to choose the course that meets your needs.
Our Academic Writing Tutorials
If you have identified gaps in your knowledge of certain academic writing concepts in your skill level, our academic writing tutorials are your best choice. Given that you’re already familiar with other concepts in your skill level, you would be able to learn and fill the gaps without much assistance. The tutorials would therefore be a suitable option because they would allow you to choose only the academic writing lessons you need.
However, should you opt to relearn all the lessons associated with your academic writing skill level, it would be best to take the course that covers the academic writing concepts you wish to learn. If your choice is to use the tutorials, use this resource to identify the exact tutorials to choose.