Common Writing Mistakes Made by College Students

Flickr user Jefferson Clark

Time flies but the common writing mistakes students tend to make in their essays are still the same. Have you ever imagined that your thoughtful essay may turn to be graded as a poor one, because of some mistakes you failed to notice?

Just fancy, you are writing about some serious issues like environmental pollution or political debates and all of a sudden you make a number of grammatical mistakes or give some famous citations without proper attribution. It looks really embarrassing, don’t you think so? Take a look at some common mistakes you need to avoid to have a well-written essay and prove you can work smart.

Weak Essay Title and Structure

The title is the first and the most compelling thing to make your readers understand what it all will be about, that’s why it should be strong and eye-catching. It should contain an argument that you are going to prove. For example, “Eating less sugar is healthy but what is the real effect?”.

In order to avoid confusion, follow a clear essay structure. One of the most suitable ones is point-reason-example-point. Start with the key idea you are going to prove, provide the main reasons why it is so crucial, provide examples, and go back to your statement saying whether it is true or false. Simple as that. Take advantage of essay writing tips!

Plagiarizing Ideas of Other Authors

Stealing someone else’s idea is not only impolite and offensive, but it also diminishes your value as the author and ruins your reputation as a diligent student. Moreover, you can be expelled from school! Make sure you understand the rules of properly citing a source and run your paper through a plagiarism checker before handing it into your professor.

Failing to Correct Grammar and Punctuation

You should eliminate any grammar mistakes in your paper. You need to double-check the rules of commas, periods, dashes, and semi-colons. After you finish to write each sentence, read it and introduce necessary edits. You may use a semicolon when you need to provide additional information specifying the previous statement. Otherwise, there is no need for it. If you have a new idea to express, don’t forget about starting it with a new paragraph.

You also need to follow formatting guidelines for your essay–font, spacing, overall essay length. It may not seem that important at first, but you need to follow the rules to establish a reputation of a hardworking student.

Superficial Writing Style

Your essay should be readable that is why it is important to carry out a thorough analysis, provide deep insight, and new ideas. That gives the impression that you carefully studied a topic, analyzed it and came to some conclusions. Your analysis should be logical and contain facts. Beating around the bush is not interesting for anyone, so don’t just up your word count with meaningless fluff.

Underestimating the Value of Proofreading

Whenever you are about to submit a paper to your instructor, take your time to read it once again. Check it for similarities with an online plagiarism checker to make sure it contains no uncited sentences. Print it out and read the written text aloud too. This way, you may also notice what else needs some changes or corrections. Pay special attention to checking grammar and formatting. The paper content should be attention-grabbing and cover the topic.

So, before writing an essay, think of the above-mentioned pieces of advice, since you will never have another chance to make a positive first impression.