How can you differentiate between academic and business writing styles?

Introducing graphical abstract and pictorial presentations is the best way to explain academic writing to the readers. They can easily follow on to the scientific work.

TL;DR: Academic writing is writing ABOUT someTHING. It’s distant, a remote third party. It’s timeless and often impersonal, because it’s meant to be objective.

Academic writing requires creativity from the author as a research presented is expected to be original by publishers and scholars alike.

Use pictures! I created a visual firewall sheet with lots of more info on an A3. What connects to what, separated dtap communication, share names, server names etc.

TL;DR: Business writing is writing TO someONE. It’s person to person, partner to partner. It’s subjective, because it speaks to specific needs and perspectives. It’s now, in the moment.

Have a purpose and make it clear. If it looks overwhelming, rewrite it. No one wants to read a 5-page long email. Use white space to make your words look less daunting. Break up your paragraphs.

As a neurodivergent writer I started out struggling with the different tones needed in academic and business life - and I wrote my PhD part time so this was a daily struggle! What made a difference to me was listening actively in each setting and then reading out loud a portion of what I'd written to edit and try and imagine if it would "match" the tone in the setting I would be in if I were presenting. If I was presenting to my boss would the tone work? Then it was in business style! If I was presenting at my university seminar series would the tone work? Then it was in an academic style!

The main difference between academic and business writing style is their approach and purpose. Academic style has more formal tone, with lots of citations, use of specific terminologies and adherence to specific formatting styles. It more emphasizes on objectivity and conveying complex ideas. Whereas business writing is more informal and focuses on practicality and persuasion. It often demonstrates a conversational tone and aims to engage the reader. While academic writing emphasizes critical analysis and research, business writing demonstrates concise and clarity to achieve specific goals. The main purpose of academic writing is scholarly discourse whereas business writing helps in decision making and promoting products or services.

Academic writing is less dependent on the audience. The author of such a text is not supposed to know who his/ her reader is in terms of gender, ethnicity or any other parameter that might be relevant for the author of a business text. The only thing that is required from the audience reading an academic text is expert knowledge in the field.

My cheat sheet: Academic writing is third person and passive voice. Business writing is first or second person and active voice. There’s more to it, of course, but for me those set the stage.

Reading texts written by other authors in the field helps to improve one’s writing style immensly. Understanding what makes other writers stand out in the field aids in creating one’s original style of writing.

I have studying in field where I need to learn differences between academic and business writing, and it seems to be interesting since those are two quite different writing style where academic style is kind of meta text which tells things in third person and business writing is closer and more personal, so you need to know differences to be successful writer.

Perspectives from an educator turned content writer... Something I see from new content writers who have just graduated college or are still there: They write a blog post with the intent to get a good "grade" from the editor. If you want to switch from academic to content writing, there's a lot of stuff you'll need to unlearn. The only way to do that is to keep writing and really pay attention to the feedback you get from your editors. What are the most common themes in your feedback? Your editor isn't there to criticize you. They're there to make the writing better. You'll spend your first couple of years in content writing retraining your writing muscles. Just be open :)