Top 4 Mistakes When Writing a College Paper

Writing tasks for college vary, as varies the level of stress, which accompanies each of them. However, stress shouldn’t always accompany college papers, because working on a writing assignment is actually a great opportunity to boost your imagination, explore your own ideas and make a strong statement in regard to the topic that you’re researching. Even if you’re thinking of yourself as a mediocre writer, there are a lot of benefits that you can get from writing more. As long as you’re eager to work on yourself and improve your writing, your results will keep getting better. In order to become a good writer, you should know what areas you should focus on. For your convenience, we have gathered top 4 mistakes that students make when writing a college paper. Weed out these errors and your writing skills are bound to become better.

Mistake #1: I Haven’t Understood the Assignment

Students make a huge mistake when they don’t take enough time to understand the assignment. No matter how well the misunderstood assignment is written, it will never get a good grade, because it’s not what professor asked you to do. If you are assigned with 500 hundred words, it means that you should write 500 words, not 678 words. If your professor asks you to include in-text citations – do so without hesitating. If you’re not sure whether you understand the assignment right, go to your professor and ask him or her all you want to know and only then start working. Believe me, it’s much better than rewriting your work (if you get the chance to do so).

Mistake #2: I Have Used Colloquialisms and Informal Language

Words like “bro”, “damn”, “mumbo jumbo” are not for your paper, because academic papers have strict requirements – only formal, academic English language should be used. Aside from informal language, you should also avoid abbreviations, colloquialisms, “trendy” language and everyday expressions.

Mistake #3: I Have Used Direct Address and First Person

Academic writing is all about being objective. It means that the manifestations of subjectivity like “I contend” or “I feel” are completely inappropriate. Distance from yourself. Use expressions like “the author suggests”, “evidence clearly shows” etc. Just don’t get too carried away with it so that your essay doesn’t look strange. Direct address like “you that, you this” is another common mistake that you should stop making if you want to improve your grade. Don’t make the reader feel targeted.

Mistake #4: I Have Misused Basic Punctuation

And finally, the fourth pitfall of college paper writers is punctuation. This mistake is usually made by those who do their writing in a rush. You ought to realize that punctuation matters and if you miss a coma, it might have a confusing effect on reader’s understanding of the sentence. Forgetting to put an independent clause on one or other side of a semi-colon will most definitely beat the reader out of reason. Make sure to reread and edit your paper at least a couple of times. Eradicate those four errors and enjoy the grades you’ve always dreamt of!