Common academic writing mistakes

Writing a good academic essay, term paper, research report etc is not an easy thing for students. It is a crucial part of college or university life as it contributes a lot towards getting a good degree. Many students struggle to write a good essay for one reason or the other. Here, a summary of mistakes, that students make when writing essay, is presented. By avoiding these mistakes, you will able to write academic papers which will surely get you good marks.


• Language Errors

A good academic essay is always free from language errors. It means, it’s free from spelling, grammatical and typographical mistakes. Make a habit to revise your essay when you are done in order to get it free from all these errors. Avoid using spell check software as it is unable to correct typographical errors at many places. Only a human should read the essay.

• Being Superficial

Avoid writing essays which focus on the surface of things. No matter how easy you find this practice, it’s a sure shot way to getting bad grades. When you are done writing, try to gauge how trivial your essay is and you will know why you are getting poor grades.

• Tediousness

If you choose a topic or theme that is too uninteresting or shallow, it will show through your writing. It is impossible to cover it up. So show some interest when you choose a topic.

• Lack of Focus

In many essays, the writers, instead of focusing on the topic, have gone in tangents. Though this approach is helpful in a sense that branching out from your main theme may work to supplement your core points, it is quite likely that lack of focus will destroy your entire term paper.

• Poor Presentation

When you are writing an academic essay, it is obligatory for you to use systematic referencing. While you may see newspapers and bloggers get away with it, you can’t. Be professional and make sure to give credit where it is due or your paper would be considered as plagiarized material.

• Lack of Coherence

While you might have done a great research for your academic essay, poor organization will kill it. Make sure your ideas make perfect sense and are rolled out in a very coherent manner.

Regardless of what type of essay you are writing, it is important that you don’t make mistakes that are easily avoidable. Now that you know what could go wrong, you are on your way to write an essay which will look much better than your previous one.