Academic writing differs from more casual styles of writing along several dimensions:
Discussing previous research in a reader-oriented style
In general, when discussing previous research, do not proceed from study to study in your discussion. Instead, first summarise and synthesise results from several studies and then refer to particular, specific points from individual publications if and when necessary. Of course, while reading previous studies, you proceeded from one study to the next, and it is tempting to report what you learnt form these studies in this way (author-oriented style). Instead, try to adopt a reader-oriented style that presents the information in such a way as to make it as easy as possible for readers to follow the narrative. This means proceeding from topic to topic, not study to study. Below is an example:
Instead of writing
Stephens (2020) showed that the Present Perfect is acquired later than other time reference forms by German-speaking learners of English. This study relied on a corpus of written learner English. Woking (2017) also investigated this topic and reported similar results for French-speaking learners of English.
write
Evidence from learner corpus research indicates that the Present Perfect is acquired later than other time reference forms by German-speaking learners of English (Stephens 2020) and French-speaking learners of English (Woking 2017).
The Writing Centre at the University of Hamburg offers courses and one-on-one counselling for students