When you have completed your essay writing, the editing process is what you have to do next. Still, even though many students undermine its importance, it is really decisive if you care for the overall quality of writing and the grade you receive. When you fail to revise, edit or proofread your essay, it is more prone to have essay writing mistakes that may negatively impact your score. Particularly, grammatical, structural, and punctuation mistakes make the essay complicated to read and comprehend. So, devoting sufficient time to editing and proofreading is worth your efforts as you can improve your writing and boost your chances for success. If you want to make the editing process easier, it is worth paying attention to the most frequent or typical essay writing mistakes, since knowing them can help you know what to look for. So, check them out below.
Poor Thesis Statement
A properly formulated thesis statement forms the foundation of a logically developed essay. When the thesis statement is weak, and not argumentative, the overall paper structure is influenced adversely. So, it is a common mistake for many students to write thesis statements that lack clarity and specific ideas.
To make the thesis statement strong, it is essential to briefly mention ideas you plan to introduce within the body. When reflecting on the topic, try to ask yourself such questions as «when?», «why?», «how?», «what for?», and others. The underlying aim of the thesis is to convey the central claim of the paper, as well as provide some explanations why. When you provide a clear and argumentative thesis and mention all the basic ideas, you can develop the main body paragraphs with ease. Take into account that the structure of the thesis statement depends on the purpose of your writing: whether you need to inform, entertain, convince or provide arguments. Accordingly, the writing style has to correspond to the tone and purpose of writing. Should you find difficulties formulating your thesis statement, contact our professional essay writers for assistance.
Select the Essay Topic
If you need to formulate the topic on your own, consider that you have to strike the balance and ensure the topic is neither too broad nor too narrow. If you make the topic overly generalized, it will be hard for you to maintain specific focus of writing. Thus, make it correspond to the very problem you are going to discuss and analyze in your work. When you are writing a paper on one of the widely known themes, formulate the topic in the original way so that you do not plagiarize common topics available on the Internet.
What is meant by a «common topic»? Let us say you have picked football as the major theme of your essay. So, one of the frequent associations with the topic is how football teaches resilience, discipline, responsibility, perseverance, and other qualities in players. More so, a common focus is leadership and teamwork. So, knowing these common focuses, you can come up with some other idea that is original and less known to the general audience. Some uncommon associations will surely help your paper stand out of the crowd.
Ignoring the Importance of a Structure
Structure is an essential component of any academic writing. With the help of a proper structure, you can communicate the idea in a logical and proper way. Also, you can achieve the purpose of your piece of writing, or you can develop the topic within the boundaries of the given structure. So, before you start working on any writing task, you have to decide on the paper structure required from you. The basic structure of any essay is the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.
Every paper starts with the introductory paragraph. In this section, you have to provide background information on the topic and explain why it is significant or worth the research. After this opening statement, a writer may provide some arguments and personal points regarding the topic. For example, the writer may present the central argument or hypothesis, which he or she will develop in the body paragraphs. The main body of the paper has to focus on the development of all arguments and ideas. Also, it needs to have sufficient supporting evidence, examples, and illustrations. The conclusive paragraph of any essay provides a logical summary of the main findings.
It is essential to consider that each structural component bears its own significance. So, you need to be aware of their requirements and limitations that are usually provided in the instructions.
Starting Writing without a Plan
There are two major camps of student writers: those who carefully plan the writing process before they write and those who just take a piece of paper and start writing their paper. Unfortunately, the students in the latter camp are more prone to making common essay mistakes. Since the failure of planning may lead to the overall failure of writing.
When you do not plan in advance, you are more likely to fail when it comes to the structure and development of ideas. Besides, you may repeat the same ideas throughout different paragraphs or, on the other hand, forget to mention some other issues at all. The failure to plan your work also results in omitting some evidence or in presenting weak arguments.
When you start planning your next piece of writing, you have to mention all the essential facts and information, provide sufficient evidence, and add only relevant material.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism means taking someone else`s piece of work, thoughts, or ideas and presenting them as your own. Plagiarism is the infringement of one`s intellectual rights. All modern institutional affiliations have strict anti-plagiarism policies and scan students` works via special programs and software. In some cases, educational institutions may punish or withdraw their students accused of plagiarism.
There are two types of plagiarism:
- When you take one`s words directly from the source and paste them in your paper without even referring to the original source or the author.
- When you take others` ideas and paraphrase them in your own words and pretend these are your ideas. This type is a lot trickier, but still it can be spotted.
Whenever you use someone else`s ideas in your piece of writing, organize them either as a direct or an indirect quote. Always provide citations as to the original source of the information.
Spelling and Grammatical Essay Writing Mistakes
You do not have to be a brilliant writer to achieve success in your writing assignments. Consider that you have to be attentive to basic rules in grammar, spelling, and punctuation to avoid serious flaws and mistakes. There are numerous grammar and spelling checkers online, so it is always possible to scan your paper via such apps.
Such text processors as MS Word and Google Docs have the installed checkers that enable you to spot mistakes within your work. If you have a serious writing project and you are hesitant in the credibility of free apps, you may use some paid options, such as Grammarly.
Conclusion
The Essay Writing Mistakes provided on the list above are really easy to make, but at the same time, they are easy to avoid. You just need to ensure you set aside some time for the editing and proofreading process after you complete your paper. You need to avoid making mistakes to ensure you convey the ideas in a clear and concise way. More so, you need to make sure the text you submit is legible and comprehensible. So, when proofreading the paper, pay attention to grammar, punctuation, spelling, structure, and logical development of ideas, as well as the way how they relate to the thesis statement.
