You hoped for a better review than this. The grades are also lower than you thought. Taking your time to write an essay only to be disappointed by marks and the remarks of your instructor is humiliating.
Many students view essay writing as a norm leading them not to work hard on it. Such a mentality leads to serious mistakes during essay writing. Fortunately, there is always room for change. By watching out and identifying mistakes that many students make, you will come up with an original and high mark essay.
Besides, students can get help on their essay page by connecting with online tutors and tutorials. The following are major mistakes that every student should avoid when writing an essay:
1. Using Informal Words and Phrases
As a student, you should know that some vocabularies are not required in an essay. Words like “wanna” are informal and should not appear in an academic essay.
Use formal verbs by consulting a dictionary for reference.
2. Unbalanced Sentences
If your sentences are too long, it will be hard to understand the essay. Too short sentences destroy the flow of your ideas. Balance your sentences to allow a good reading of the essay.
3. Beginning Your Sentences by Coordinating Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions are used to connect words in a sentence. Although you can use coordinating conjunctions at the start of a sentence, it’s better not to use them as they will be tedious for the reader.
4. Fluffy Introduction
An introduction of any writing should catch the attention of the reader. It should not be complicated, instead, it should be understandable to the reader.
In your introduction, inform the reader of the content of your essay. If your essay will be about 2000 words, a sentence is enough to state your argument. You should also write a statement for each paragraph explaining what they are all about and how they contribute to your main argument. Lastly, inform the reader of the content of your conclusion.
5. Plagiarism
Plagiarism involves passing another person’s work as your own. Although it’s an offense, some students find themselves committing it.
Universities and colleges are strict when it comes to this and use various tools to check plagiarism. If you are likely to plagiarize your work, the checking tools will show how and where you have plagiarized and you can even be suspended. In fact, your professor can identify if the work belongs to you or it is from an unknown source.
There are 2 different kinds of plagiarism:
The first one is copying words from a certain source and using them directly without quoting.
The second one is more tricky. You should be careful to avoid committing this offense. It comprises rewording of the whole or parts of the article. Here, instead of you writing an original article, you just reword everything including the order of presentation.
6. Too Many Quotes
Your essay should reveal your understanding of the topic and the research you have to strengthen your argument. Avoid using too many quotes from your research for it will undermine your understanding of the topic. Only use a quote when emphasizing a point.
7. Having a Weak/Vague Thesis
A strong thesis should state and explain the claim of your topic on how or why. On the other hand, a weak thesis explains a point of view only. An example of a vague thesis may be: Students shouldn’t leave the school compound. In such a statement, you haven’t explained why the students must remain within the school premises. Instead, you can write: The students must stay within the school premises to avoid the spread of the virus.
8. Less Evidence to Support Your Thesis
This may happen for lack of evidence. You may have picked a topic and a thesis that doesn’t have many facts to back it. You may as well have focused on your opinion leaving out the evidence.
Before deciding on the thesis, research for evidence to support it. If you don’t find evidence to support your thesis, you may think of dropping the topic.
9. Not Revising or Editing Your Essay
If you are too lazy to revise or edit your work, you might be leaving many avoidable mistakes on your work. Simple mistakes like grammar and spelling should be corrected during the revision period.
Revising your essay will improve the organization and the content of your work.
The above mistakes can be avoided if you follow the best writing procedure. Go through all the phases of writing from drafting, proofreading, revising, among others. Edit your essay for a better and original essay you will be proud of.
