Academic English is not just harder English: a guide for international students at Australian universities

Every year, thousands of international students arrive at Australian universities with IELTS 7 or higher, a strong high school record, and genuine enthusiasm for their chosen course. Within weeks, many of them are sitting in their first lecture struggling to follow the argument, or receiving their first essay back covered in corrections that feel deeply confusing: "too informal," "unsupported claim," "weak paraphrase," "register inappropriate." They studied English for years. They passed a demanding test. What has gone wrong?

What has gone wrong is simple and widely misunderstood: academic English is not just harder everyday English. It is a different register with its own conventions, and fluency in conversational English is almost no preparation for it. At Shoreline Languages, Academic English is one of our most in-demand courses, and the students who come to us typically move from Pass-level grades to Distinction within a single term once they learn the conventions. This post explains what academic English actually requires, shows concrete examples of the conversational-to-academic transformation, and lays out the specific skills that close the grade gap in your first semester.

The four ways academic English differs from everyday English

Academic English differs from everyday English across at least four dimensions, and most international students are under-prepared for all of them.

Register. Academic English is formal, impersonal, and objective. It avoids contractions, colloquialisms, and emotional language. It uses nominalisation (turning verbs into nouns: "the growth of the economy" rather than "how the economy grew") and the passive voice more than everyday English. It uses precise, often Latinate vocabulary. A paragraph of competent academic writing can look almost unrecognisable to a student whose English skills were built around conversation and casual reading.

Here is the same idea, expressed conversationally and then academically:

Conversational version:

The government spent a lot of money on the health system but it didn't really work. People are still getting sick because we're not fixing the real problem.

Academic version:

Despite substantial public investment in the healthcare system, outcomes have shown limited improvement, suggesting that expenditure alone does not address the underlying determinants of population health.

Both sentences communicate the same core idea. The second uses nominalisation (investment rather than spent, expenditure rather than spending), a more cautious register (limited improvement rather than didn't work), and precise academic vocabulary (underlying determinants of population health rather than the real problem). A university marker would give the second sentence markedly higher marks even though both contain the same information.

Caution and hedging. Academic English rarely makes absolute claims. It uses hedging language on a graduated scale of certainty. International students whose prior education rewarded confident, assertive writing often find their Australian university essays marked down for being "overstated" or "lacking nuance."

Here is the same claim expressed across a certainty scale:

• The policy caused a decline in youth employment. (strong claim, rarely appropriate)
• The policy contributed to a decline in youth employment. (still strong, attribution only)
• The policy appears to have contributed to a decline in youth employment. (hedged)
• The evidence suggests that the policy may have contributed to a decline in youth employment. (appropriately cautious for most undergraduate arguments)
• There is some evidence to suggest that the policy may have contributed to a decline in youth employment, though alternative explanations cannot be ruled out. (fully hedged, suitable for a literature review)

Most first-year international students write at the top of this scale. Most university markers expect writing at the bottom. Moving your default register down two levels is one of the fastest ways to improve your grades without improving your English at all.

Source integration. A central skill in academic English is integrating other people's ideas into your own argument: summarising, paraphrasing, and quoting sources accurately while making clear what your own contribution is. This requires not just paraphrasing skill, but referencing conventions (APA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.), an understanding of what counts as common knowledge versus what requires a citation, and the ability to synthesise multiple sources into a coherent argument. Most international students arrive without explicit training in any of this.

Disciplinary conventions. Different disciplines write differently. An essay in History is structured and written very differently from a lab report in Chemistry, a case analysis in Business, a systematic review in Health Sciences, or a problem question answer in Law. Each discipline has its own expectations around argument structure, evidence types, referencing style, and tone. A student who masters one discipline's conventions can still struggle when they encounter another.

Put these together and it becomes clear why IELTS 7 is not enough. IELTS 7 certifies that you can handle complex English in a range of general contexts. It does not certify that you can handle the specific register, caution, source practices, and disciplinary conventions of your chosen course at an Australian university. These are separate skills, and they have to be learned.

Paraphrasing properly: the single most dangerous skill to get wrong

Many international students have been taught that paraphrasing means changing some words. In Australian academic context, this is not paraphrasing, it is plagiarism, and it can result in academic misconduct findings that have lifelong consequences. True paraphrasing means restating the source's idea in genuinely different language and structure, with citation, and with clear attribution.

Here is a short passage and three attempts to paraphrase it, showing what actually separates weak, acceptable, and strong paraphrasing.

Original source:

Recent studies have shown that adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media are significantly more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression than peers who spend less than one hour per day (Smith, 2021).

Weak paraphrase (plagiarism risk):

Recent research has shown that teenagers who use social media for over three hours a day are much more likely to report anxiety and depression symptoms than their peers who use it for less than one hour daily (Smith, 2021).

This is dangerous. Too many words and too much structure remain from the original. Turnitin-style plagiarism detection will flag it, and in a strict interpretation this is academic misconduct even with the citation.

Acceptable paraphrase:

Adolescent mental health has been linked to social media exposure, with heavy users (more than three hours daily) showing elevated rates of anxiety and depression compared to light users (Smith, 2021).

The language and structure are different, the meaning is preserved, and the citation is present. This is the minimum acceptable standard.

Strong paraphrase (integrated into an argument):

One line of evidence suggesting a link between social media use and adolescent mental health comes from Smith (2021), whose research found that rates of self-reported anxiety and depression were elevated among adolescents with more than three hours of daily social media exposure relative to those with less than one hour.

This is stronger because it not only paraphrases but frames the source within the writer's own argument ("one line of evidence") and attributes the claim to the researcher ("Smith, whose research found..."). This is the standard that moves writing from Credit to Distinction.

Constructing an argument over paragraphs: what a strong body paragraph looks like

An undergraduate essay makes a thesis-level claim and supports it across multiple connected paragraphs. Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence, developed evidence, and a link to the overall argument. Students whose prior training emphasised "five-paragraph essay" templates often struggle to build the sustained, nuanced arguments that Australian university essays require.

Here are two versions of a paragraph addressing the same prompt: Discuss the impact of social media on adolescent mental health.

Pass-level paragraph:

Social media is bad for young people. Many studies have shown that it causes depression and anxiety. For example, Instagram makes teenagers feel unhappy about themselves. Therefore, social media has a negative effect on adolescent mental health.

This is grammatically correct but fails as academic writing on multiple dimensions: overstated claims (is bad, causes), vague referencing (many studies), generic evidence (Instagram makes teenagers feel unhappy), and weak topic-conclusion structure (Therefore...).

Distinction-level paragraph:

One established concern regarding adolescent social media use is its potential contribution to elevated rates of self-reported anxiety and depression. A study by Smith (2021), drawing on a cross-sectional sample of over 4,000 Australian adolescents, found that those reporting more than three hours of daily social media exposure were approximately 1.7 times more likely to report clinically significant depressive symptoms than those reporting under one hour. While cross-sectional data cannot establish causation, and while confounding variables such as pre-existing mental health conditions must be considered, the finding is consistent with longitudinal research elsewhere (Jones & Patel, 2020), suggesting that the association is robust across methodologies. The implication is that social media use, at least at high levels of intensity, warrants consideration as a contributing factor in adolescent mental health rather than a neutral background condition.

Notice the differences:

• One established concern (appropriately hedged topic sentence)
• Specific evidence with numbers (over 4,000 Australian adolescents, 1.7 times more likely)
• Explicit acknowledgement of methodological limits (cross-sectional data cannot establish causation)
• Synthesis with other sources (consistent with longitudinal research)
• A cautious implication, not an overstated conclusion

A marker reading this paragraph sees argumentation at the level university writing actually requires. The first paragraph is a summary of a common view; the second is an argument. That distinction is what separates Pass-level work from Distinction-level work, and it is far more about structure and register than about vocabulary or grammar.

Tutorial participation: the language you need

Tutorials are where marks are made and lost for many international students. Students who listen silently throughout the semester often find themselves with unexplained low participation marks and no relationships with tutors who could support them. The language of polite academic engagement is specific, and it rarely receives explicit teaching.

Here is a phrase bank for the most common tutorial situations:

Entering the discussion:

• I'd like to pick up on what [name] just said about...
• Building on that point, I think...
• Can I just add something here?
• I'd like to bring in a slightly different angle, which is...

Politely disagreeing:

• I see the appeal of that argument, but I'm not sure it quite holds up, because...
• I take your point about X, but I'd push back a little on the claim that Y...
• That's an interesting reading, though I think there's also a case for saying...
• I'd want to hedge that slightly. What if we also consider...

Asking for clarification without seeming lost:

• Just to make sure I've understood the argument correctly, are you saying that...?
• Could you say a bit more about what you mean by...?
• Is the claim that X causes Y, or that X correlates with Y?

Contributing when you have less to say:

• I don't have a fully formed view on this yet, but my initial reaction is...
• I'm still working through the reading, but one thing that stood out to me was...

These patterns sound natural in tutorial context precisely because they hedge, invite dialogue, and signal engagement without overcommitting. Learning them is a short project with substantial payoff for participation marks across a whole degree.

Why many universities' English support services are not enough

Most Australian universities offer some form of Academic English or Learning Skills support, usually in the form of workshops, drop-in advisers, or short foundation programmes. These services are often excellent as far as they go, but they are usually not enough for students who need sustained, individualised support.

The reasons are structural. Workshops are brief and generic, covering topics like referencing or paragraph structure in two-hour sessions that cannot address individual students' specific patterns of error. Drop-in advisers are hugely oversubscribed, often with waiting lists of several weeks, and can only give short consultations that do not build sustained skill. Short foundation programmes, where they exist, typically end before the semester begins and do not provide continuing support as the assignments arrive.

Students who arrive at university with a genuine Academic English gap often find that by the time they realise they need help, the in-semester support available is too little and too late. Their first essay has already been submitted. Their first grade is already on the record. And the assumption that they can catch up through general English study is usually wrong, because the skills they need are discipline-specific and assessment-specific.

The grading reality: what markers are actually looking for

It is worth understanding how Australian university essays are usually marked. Most first-year markers are sessional academics or postgraduate tutors who work through large numbers of essays quickly. They read with a rubric in mind: argument, evidence, structure, referencing, language. A Pass shows that the student has engaged with the material. A Credit shows competent engagement. A Distinction shows strong argument and evidence. A High Distinction shows something original, precise, or particularly well-reasoned.

What drops a student from Distinction to Credit is often not poor English per se, but specific features that academic English training addresses: claims that are not properly supported, paraphrases that are too close to the original, citations that do not follow the referencing style, register that feels too informal, arguments that are not sustained over paragraphs. A student who gets these features right, even if their language is not native-like, can often score higher than a student with better English but weaker academic English skills.

How Shoreline Languages supports international students at university

At Shoreline Languages, Academic English is one of our most in-demand courses, and for good reason. Students who come to us in their first semester often arrive with Pass or Credit grades and move up to Distinction within a single term, not because their English has dramatically improved, but because their academic English skills finally match their language ability.

Our approach is unusual among English language tutoring services. We do not use a generic EAP textbook. We work directly with your actual course materials: the readings you have been assigned, the essays you have been set, the marking rubrics you have been given, the feedback you have already received. We read the essays you have submitted, identify the patterns in the feedback, and design lessons that target those specific patterns. You bring a real essay to every lesson, and by the end of the lesson you have rewritten a paragraph or section to Distinction standard, which you can see directly on the page.

Our teachers have experience across faculties: STEM, Business, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law. We understand that the conventions of a lab report are different from those of a Law case note, and that both are different from a Business case analysis. We adjust accordingly.

We also support tutorial participation and presentation skills, which are often overlooked by generic English services. We drill the specific phrases of polite academic disagreement, the hedging patterns that make your contributions sound appropriately tentative, and the question-asking strategies that let you engage without feeling exposed. Students who work with us often report that their confidence in tutorials changes dramatically within a few weeks, and their participation marks reflect that.

What to do if you are already struggling

If you are in your first semester and already concerned about your English-language performance, the most important thing is to act early. Pass-level marks in your first assignments are a signal worth heeding, not dismissing. The gap between Pass and Credit is usually bridgeable; the gap between multiple Passes in your first year and the academic record you wanted can be harder to close later.

We offer free trial lessons specifically for this situation. We will ask you to bring a recent assignment with its feedback, and we will spend the lesson walking through the specific patterns the feedback points to, and showing you what a revised version would look like. You will leave the lesson with a clear understanding of what is dropping your grades, and what targeted work would address it.

Most international students at Australian universities are capable of more than their first-semester grades suggest. The gap is almost always Academic English, not intelligence or effort, and it is closable with the right kind of support. If you would like that support, we would love to help.