Common Essay Writing Mistakes and How to Prevent Them

Being a student, you surely spend many a day writing essays. It is an inherent part of education in schools and colleges.

Some of them are very simple, but others require hours of work. Not everyone can compose pro essays about bullying or violence in a clap. Concentrating on a hard topic, we often miss essential language norm and lose our points because of obvious things.

To avoid such troubles, prepare in advance with a list of common essay mistakes and the ways of prevention.

Take Care of Structure

Writing is always a creative process, but try not to overdo.

With the help of essays, examiners check your ability to express thoughts logically, so leave metaphors for poetry and build a heavy structure.

Work should consist of 3 parts:

• Introduction – outline the issue and give a thesis you are going to defend;
• Body – provide an argument to your point of view and put an example or two from history, public or private life;
• Conclusion – rewrite the thesis and put a moral.

Disarrange the structure, you break a narrative thread and risk of missing the guiding idea.

Stylistic Mistakes

After you pin down with the content, it is time to express the idea appropriately.

Stylistic is all about how you write. Some students ignore this matter, but the irrelevant style may spoil even the best concept.

• Wordiness

Well-written sentence must be easy to pronounce aloud. Let this principle lead you.

For example, instead of “Despite the fact that I’ve made some few mistakes, in general, I did well” use: “Although I have made some mistakes, I did well”

• Mixing styles

Do not use the slang and short forms in your essay - it sounds less valuable and serious. Remember, the goal of the essay is to persuade a reader.

In the same time, abusing academic structures won’t improve your image. Be formal and show up copious vocabulary, but do not turn word-splitting.

In the sentence “Scientists gotta find out other characteristics of newfound substance” formal and informal construction are mixed, which creates a negative impression.

Try this one: “Scientists look forward to discovering other characteristics of newfound substance”

• Sentence length

Trying to look more educated, we tend to use long construction.

Have you ever tried to read the whole paragraph without any dot? Examiner will hardly spend time on it.

Editing the text, you’ll be surprised by how many phrases may be simplified by splitting out.

• Word stuffing

Repeats of the same words always jump out and make the text nonsensical and childish.

The only solution is to improve your vocabulary: read more literature, trace your speech in everyday life, train before the exam.

Talking on a specific matter, you may struggle with finding synonyms to terms in a particular context. In this case, change the whole sentence to avoid repeats.

Grammar Norms

It is the most obvious tip – and yet, the hardest to improve. Even the years of studying cannot save us from haste and inattentiveness.

Train as much as possible and always leave some time to check and edit the grammar in your essay.

• Spelling

Using the word in oral speech, be sure that you know how to write it.

Sometimes words mix up and change the meaning of the sentence. For example, instead of visiting “night school” student may become a member of “knight school”

This fun occasion will cost you a point.

• Punctuation

It seems that punctuation norms require a separate article!

In truth, the rules are simple and go without exceptions. Give yourself time to sort it out and make your job in future easier.

• Word order

Another obvious thing that may level your grade down. Displace only one word and “professor teaches a student” turns to “A student teaches professor”.

Reread the sentences to be sure, that the meaning is straight.

Being aware of all language norms, do not forget about the human factor. Even the best writers commit some mistakes because of fatigue, lack of attention or stress. Writing an essay is a tense experience itself, it is okay to miss some aspects.

To minimize troubles, be familiar with mistakes you may drop and practice them ahead of time.

Compose texts and let your friends or teachers correct them. Do spelling exercises or take courses online. Read more literature and your vocabulary will extend by itself.

Do not be afraid of making the mistake. Overthinking will make you nervous and even less attentive. Feel free to write what you think and edit it afterwards thoughtfully.

Good like in your job!