The fFirst sStep to iImproving my aAcademic wWriting

Titles are usually capitalised

It is suggested to respond questions as how the languag’m asking this to learn more about how words/clauses/phrases are joined together.

I’m not sure if I correctly understood what you meant to say.

With your original sentence, you can have a noun immediately after “answer”, but with “respond” you would need another word afterwards (so it would be better to say “to respond TO questions”.

“Language joined together” isn’t entirely wrong, but it would have a lot more of an emphasis on the past, so it would be focused more so on the history of the language than how you’re going to use it yourself. It also doesn’t really sound right in the original.

“Language is joined together” isn’t necessarily wrong, I just offered alternative ways that you could say it.

For why I changed the phrases (which could all be considered as correct depending on the meaning) :
My interpretation was that you’re saying you wanted to know more about the previous question to understand how the language is joined together or how to connect different ideas in sentences.

“It is suggested to” isn’t necessarily wrong. It would be used if you were talking about guidelines for how to answer questions, but that doesn’t match up with how I interpreted the sentence so I changed it to “I’m asking this”.

“Respond to” has an emphasis on you being the one who’s answering the questions (like you were given questions which you now have to answer).
“Answer questions” would fit in better given my interpretation, as it can have a meaning more related to clarification, but could still be confusing, which is why I changed it to “learn more about”.

“(A) as how (B)” would be saying that you (should) do A in the same way that B is done. So “as how” would be the “in the same way that” in my above explanation. Basically it would be saying that you should answer questions in the same way that the language is joined to together.
“About how” is for if the questions (A) are related to, on the topic of, or about, (B).

Spoken language uses simple linking devices like 'and', and 'but', howeverwhile academic writing prefers to use complex forms such as which, even, etc.

“Spoken language” and “academic writing” could both be replaced with “it” (don’t do that though - that would be really confusing - this is just to explain the conjugation), meaning that you would say “useS” and “preferS” (of course that’s for emphases - don’t actually capitalise the ‘S’ at the end).

You need “and” to go between “‘and’” and “‘but’” to connect them and kind of indicate that they are both examples of linking devices used in spoken language, while the next thing “while/however…” is the start of a new idea.

I changed “however” to “while” because “however” sounds like you’re favouring one or the other, while “while” is more neutral and is used in the sense of “on the other hand”.

“Complex formS” because you’re talking about multiple forms (I.e. there isn’t just one complex form, there are many).

“Such as” introduces a list.
There are multiple meanings of “as”, but none of them really suit this purpose. However in short their meanings can include describing to what extent something is true when it’s used as an adverb, or to indicate how or when something happens compared to something else, which is the case when it’s used as a conjunction.

Grammar in spoken language is flexible, whereas academic writing uses amore formal grammar.

I removed “a” because “grammar” can’t be counted - it’s more like a concept.
If you wanted to use “a”, you would add in another noun that can be counted.
For example, you could say “academic writing uses a more formal form of grammar”, where “form” is the countable noun, or “academic writing uses a set of more formal grammatical rules”, where “set” is the noun in “set of rules” which is the phrase that was added.

Adding “more” is optional, but I think it sounds better because it also compares the two a bit more.

Instead of body language includinglike hand movements will be applied, specific and clear text is used (in academic writing).

I think “like” sounds a little better here. It’s shorter so then it gets onto the main topic faster, which reduces confusion. “Including” also feels more like a word that’s used when the main point is to list examples, or at the very least for when you list more than one example.

“Will be applied” would be saying that it will be applied in body language, however that specific phrasing sounds a little off.
For starters, it indicates that you’re talking about the future (not accurate here since it applies to the present).
It also would not be used in that exact wording with “instead of”.

“Apply” also doesn’t really feel like the most natural word choice here which is why I changed it to “use”.

You also need the verb part (“will be used”, “is used”, etc.) in the second section. While I’m not the most confident with identifying clauses, I believe that the second part starting with “specific and clear text” would be the main clause. What I mean by that is that the second part should make sense on its own, while the first part (starting with “instead of” adds more detail to it.

Adding “in academic writing” is optional.

It is also important to remember how emphasis is created: in the text:s, punctuation is used instead of changes in tone and volume whatich are possible iwhen speaking.

Since not both parts following the colon are related to texts, which are written, I moved it to after the colon.
You would also use the plural of “text” because you’re talking about them as a whole, opposed to focusing on just one text. Although then again “text” might be used in its singular form in more casual situations (which is also a good example of the difference between written and spoken communication).

Here, the structure is kind of flipped around. What was the first part in the last sentences is now the second part, which can be identified through the “instead of”.
Because of this, you now need the first part to make sense on its own, so you need “is used”.
Something you can think about in relation to this is how after “instead of” you can have just a single noun (e.g. I chose a blue pen instead of a red pen”, where the noun is “a red pen”) or an action (e.g. I decided to run instead of walk”, where “walk” is the action), but regardless the point is that it can be a very short thing that is used after “instead of”, instead of a whole sentence.

“What” doesn’t make sense here since you’re adding some more information to the “changes in tone and volume”. When you add context, you would typically choose a word like “which”, “that” or “who”, depending on what exactly the context/extra information is being added to.
In most cases:
After “which” and “who”, you would use a verb.
After “that”, it’s a bit more complicated. For example, in “He’s someone that I work with”, “that” is followed by a subject. However, from one of my suggestions on the next sentence, in “vagueness and ambiguity are the most important things that must be avoided in texts”, “that” is followed by a verb. While it would be ok to use “which” instead of that here, I prefer how “that” sounds (although that could also be very casual).

“In speaking” isn’t necessarily wrong, but I prefer how “when speaking” sounds.

The most inmportant isthing is that vagueness and ambiguity must be avoided in the texts.

It’s better to add in “thing” for a few reasons.
Firstly, It’s a whole phrase that you’re saying is important.
You also start the sentence with “the most important”, which must be followed by a category that the following things are related to. The category in my explanation can often be replaced with “thing” if you can’t think of another word. ‘The following things’ in my explanation are basically what you’re saying are the most important within that category (so “vagueness and ambiguity”).

Since you have a whole phrase, the easiest fix is to add in “that”, which basically says that the entire phrase (“vagueness and ambiguity must be avoided in texts” is the most important. Because it’s a singular whole phrase, you would also use “is” (which you did). However, if you were to put an emphasis on “vagueness and ambiguity” rather than the whole text, you would say “are”.

“The” makes things very specific. Since you’re not talking about specific texts, you don’t need “the” here. If you were talking about specific texts though, it would sound better to say “these texts”, which makes it even more specific.


Some other possible options could include:
“The most important things are vagueness and ambiguity, which must be avoided in texts.”
“Vagueness and ambiguity are the most important things that must be avoided in texts.”
“The most important thing to remember is that vagueness and ambiguity must be avoided in texts.”

However I think I like how your original sentence with a few changes sounds the most.

It is suggested to respond to questions as how thea language is joined together.

Spoken language uses simple linking deviceconjunctions like 'and', or 'but', ; however, academic writing prefers to use complex formones: as which, even, etc.

In English, "linking devices" or words that connect clauses are called "conjunctions".

Grammar in spoken language is flexible, whereas academic writing uses a formal grammar.

Instead of body language including hand movements will be applied specific and clear textand hand gestures, specific and clear text is important to convey ideas.

I'm not sure what you were initially trying to say here, but I'm assumming you're contrasting the two ideas of spoken and written language because the sentence starts with 'instead'. The new sentence better conveys that by saying that body language and hand gestures are associated w/ spoken language b/c we can see the other person. On the other hand, in text since you can't see the other person, being clear and precise is key to prevent misunderstandings.

It is also important to remember how emphasis is created in the text: punctuation insted of changes in tone and volume what possiblechanges the tone in writing while volume does in speaking.

TheIt is most inportant isthat vagueness and ambiguity mustare to be avoided in the texts.

It is suggested to respondhat the answer to this questions a is how the language is joined together.

Spoken language uses simple linking devices like 'and', and 'but', however academic writing prefers to use complex form such as which, even, etc.

Grammar in spoken language is flexible, whereas academic writing uses a formal grammar.

Insted of body language including hand movements will be appliedEmotions and meanings that are usually conveyed through body language will have to be specifically and clearly conveyed through text.

It is also important to remember how emphasis is created in the text: punctuation insted ofto mimic the changes in tone and volume wthat is possible iwhen speaking, we use punctuation instead.

The most inmportant isthing is that vagueness and ambiguity must be avoided in the texts.