Academic Writing — VWA / ABA

Academic writing differs fundamentally from everyday language. This page summarises the most important rules so that your VWA/ABA meets the linguistic and formal requirements.

Core Principles

Traceability — Methods and procedures must be described so that others can follow or replicate them
Evidence — Every claim that is not common knowledge must be backed by a source
Objectivity — Write in a neutral, factual manner with no personal judgements or exaggerations
Honesty — Clearly identify and correctly cite ideas and results taken from other works

Academic Style: Dos & Don'ts

Poor	Better	Why
"Climate change is really terrible"	"The global average temperature has risen by 1.1 °C since 1880 (NASA, 2024)"	Concrete data instead of value judgement
"Everyone knows that..."	"According to Mueller (2023, p. 42)..."	Source reference instead of platitude
"I then did the survey"	"The survey was conducted in November 2025"	Passive voice, no "I"
"The result is great"	"89% of respondents agreed (see Table 3.1)"	Measurable data
"As it says on Wikipedia..."	Cite the original source	Wikipedia is not a citable source

Perspective: Passive & Impersonal

Academic papers generally avoid first-person language. Instead, use passive or impersonal constructions.

Incorrect	Correct
"I created the survey"	"The survey was created"
"I investigate in this paper..."	"This paper investigates..."
"We found that..."	"The analysis shows that..."
"In my opinion..."	"Based on the results, it can be concluded that..."

Exception: Preface and declaration

First-person language is permitted and even customary in the preface and the declaration of independent authorship. The personal reflection at the end of the presentation may also be written in the first person.

Tenses

Context	Tense	Example
General facts	Present	"Climate change affects biodiversity"
Own methodology	Past	"The survey was conducted in December 2025"
Citing sources	Present	"Mueller describes the effects as..."
Results	Past	"The analysis revealed a correlation of 0.78"
Summary	Past	"This paper investigated..."
Outlook	Conditional/Future	"The study could be extended..."

Words to Avoid

Avoid	Use instead	Reason
"obviously", "of course"	Omit or provide evidence	The reader may not find it obvious
"very", "extremely", "incredibly"	Specific figures	Imprecise intensifiers
"actually", "sort of", "somehow"	Omit	Signals uncertainty
"cool", "awesome", "great"	Factual description	Colloquial language
"etc.", "and so on"	Complete list or "among others"	Leaves questions open
"always", "never", "all"	"frequently", "rarely", "most"	Absolute statements are seldom accurate
Exclamation marks	Full stop	Unacademic

Paragraph Structure

Every paragraph in an academic paper follows a clear pattern:

Topic sentence (1st sentence) — States the main point of the paragraph
Explanation & evidence — Arguments, data and source references
Transition (optional) — Leads into the next section

Example: Good paragraph

Climate change has measurable effects on agriculture in Lower Austria. According to Kromp-Kolb (2023, p. 87), winter wheat yields fell by an average of 12% between 2015 and 2022. The study cites increasing dry spells in early summer as the primary cause. This trend raises the question of which adaptation strategies could slow the decline in yields.

Chapter Transitions

Every chapter begins with 2–3 introductory sentences explaining what the section covers and how it relates to the previous one. Never start directly with a sub-heading.

Situation	Phrasing
Introducing a new chapter	"The following chapter presents the theoretical foundations necessary for understanding the analysis."
From theory to analysis	"Building on the foundations outlined in Chapter 2, the following section describes the author's own survey."
Transition to conclusion	"Having presented the results, this chapter summarises the findings and discusses them in relation to the research question."
Back-reference	"As explained in Section 2.3, ..."

Numbers & Units

One to twelve spelled out, 13 and above as digits
Technical values always as digits (e.g. 5 km, 3.2%)
Space between number and unit (12 cm, 20 °C)
Decimal point in English (3.14 — not 3,14)
At the start of a sentence: spell out numbers ("Twenty respondents were surveyed")

Technical Terms & Foreign Words

Explain on first occurrence: "The Pre-Scientific Paper (VWA) is..."
Foreign-language technical terms should be italicised on first occurrence
Stay consistent: Do not switch between synonyms — if you write "survey", do not suddenly use "questionnaire" for the same thing
Abbreviations — spell out in full the first time: "Artificial Intelligence (AI)", then just "AI"

Typical Phrases

Introduction

"This paper examines..."
"The aim is to answer the question of to what extent..."
"Chapter 2 presents the theoretical foundations..."
"The relevance of this topic stems from..."
"Within the scope of this paper, it is investigated whether..."

Theoretical section

"X is defined as... (Author, Year)"
"According to Mueller (2023)..."
"In contrast to X, Y offers the advantage that..."
"In summary, it can be stated that..."
"As already outlined in Section 2.1, ..."

Analysis section

"The data was collected by means of..."
"As Figure X shows, ..."
"Table X summarises the results"
"There is a significant correlation between..."
"The data was analysed using..."

Conclusion

"This paper investigated..."
"The research question can be answered as follows: ..."
"It should be noted, however, that..."
"For further research, it would be interesting to..."
"In conclusion, it can be stated that..."

Pre-Submission Checklist

Check your language quality

No colloquial language, value judgements or first person (except preface)?
Consistent tense within each section?
Every claim backed by a source?
Technical terms explained on first occurrence?
Introductory paragraphs in every chapter?
Figures and tables referenced in the text?
Numbers and units formatted correctly?
Spelling checked?
Clear thread — can an outsider follow the argument?

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of someone else's ideas without proper attribution. The following actions constitute plagiarism:

Verbatim copying without quotation marks and source reference
Paraphrasing without a source — even in your own words the origin must be cited
Translating without a source — translating foreign-language texts and presenting them as your own work
Images without a source — figures, graphics and tables from other works
Ideas without a reference — arguments and theories of others must also be cited

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Save immediately: Add every source to Zotero or your reference manager as soon as you find it
Paraphrasing technique: Read the source, close it, write from memory in your own words, then add the source reference
Use direct quotes sparingly: Only when the exact wording is important for the content (max. 5% of the text)
When in doubt: cite! Too many references never hurt — missing references constitute plagiarism

Consequences of plagiarism

The school checks all papers with plagiarism software (Turnitin). If plagiarism is proven, the paper is graded "Not assessed". The VWA/ABA must then be repeated with a new topic and a new supervisor.