Common Mistakes in Essay Writing
Very often students who have completed and handed in their essays are dissatisfied with their marks. Sometimes they do not understand why their essay was graded poorly and what the teacher expected to see. Students make a lot of different mistakes which can spoil the general view of the essay greatly but we will focus on the most popular, the strictest ones. If you avoid these common mistakes in essay writing, the quality of your work will rise cardinally. Try to pay attention to every type of the mistake in order to avoid it in your future essays.
1. Many students miss such an important point of the essay, as a thesis. This short statement often presents the key point of the essay, its problem, plot, purpose of writing. If you miss this statement, your essay will seem senseless, because the reader will not understand what position you are going to support and what you are going to prove.
2. Another common mistake is the omission of the conclusion. It is quite a strict mistake, because if you do not conclude your thoughts, the essay will seem unfinished, the reader will think that there is a free ending and you key idea will be lost. That is why, concentrate on a good conclusion to summarize the whole essay and to keep the presented evidence in a logical order according to their importance.
3. The absence of evidence is another mistake which spoils the whole essay and it needs rewriting. If you do not present reliable evidence, like the results of the research, quotations of the famous scholars, writers, your essay will lose its sense and the whole aim of writing. It will be a simple narration without purpose to convince the reader in your point of view, that is why devote some time to find trustworthy data on the topic, which supports your thought.
4. The worst problem of essay writing is the lack of proper structure. Always remember that an essay is not a free stream of thoughts, but a logical paper with strict composition. If you present your thoughts chaotically, you will surely fail, because the reader will lose your thought at once. So, try to be logical and develop your essay step by step, gradually presenting new and new ideas and evidence.
5. A typical mistake of every student is plagiarism. Students often use quotations, thoughts, the results of the research of other scholars and forget to cite them. It is a very strict mistake and students have to realize it from the early years of studying. Even if you paraphrase the idea of the famous scholar, always cite it to avoid problems with your teacher.
6. Finally, there spelling and punctuation mistakes which can be corrected with the help of the dictionary and grammar books.
