Academic Writing Abroad: Essay Structure and APA, Harvard Referencing

Short answer: An academic essay needs a clear thesis, logical paragraphs and sources that support every claim. You must cite sources in the style your university requires (often APA or Harvard).

Academic essay structure

• Introduction: Introduces the topic and states the thesis (main argument) clearly.
• Body: Each paragraph is devoted to one idea: point, evidence (source), explanation.
• Conclusion: Summarises the argument without adding new information.

In academic writing, avoid emotional language, sweeping claims ("everyone knows that...") and figures without sources.

Why referencing matters

A reference shows that you are using someone else's idea or data. Text taken without a source, even if paraphrased, may be treated as plagiarism.

APA and Harvard: the main differences

Both are "author–date" systems: the author's surname and the year appear in the text, and a full list of sources is given at the end.

• APA (psychology, social sciences, education): in the text as (Smith, 2023), with a "References" list at the end.
• Harvard (business, humanities and many UK universities): a similar format, but punctuation and ordering rules vary slightly between universities.
• Other styles: Engineering may use IEEE (numbered), and law may use OSCOLA.

The safest approach is to follow your university's own referencing guide.

Useful tools

• Reference managers such as Zotero and Mendeley.
• Your university library's online databases.
• The university's academic writing centre.

Most common mistakes

1. An unclear thesis.
2. Citing Wikipedia or unreliable websites.
3. In-text citations that do not match the reference list.
4. Ignoring the word limit.
5. Leaving the writing until the last day.

Preparation

Academic writing skills also develop during IELTS Writing preparation, and EDDE Academy's IELTS courses pay attention to them. You can read how classes work abroad in this article.