How to make a proper paper: typical students' mistakes
Making a proper paper includes understanding common mistakes made by students. When you want to avoid such actions you can review mistakes students have problems with while writing. For the most part, such actions occur when students do not realize it was made or they didn’t take time to review their work before submission. Here are a few examples of mistakes made by students when writing papers you can easily avoid with proper planning.
- Typos. There are students with good typing skills. Being fast on the keyboard can have its advantages. Sure, you may be able to get your work done sooner, but don’t forget to check your work. Many students depend on the word processing program to catch its errors. Yet, if you misspell or use the wrong word that is not spelled wrong, the program may not catch it. You may also make an error by mistake and forget to change it before printing your final copy.
- Incorrect word usage. Words such as “there” and “their” are commonly misused. Words that sound the same and spelled differently easily catch writers off guard. As long as you take time to review your content after you write it you may catch your own error. If you are in doubt about the correct usage grab a dictionary or thesaurus to help you.
- Run on sentences and lengthy paragraphs. You should be able to make your point using a standard sentence. If your sentences are too long this could make your paragraphs long as well. Sometimes students may not notice this element unless it is pointed out to them. You can look for ways to make sentences shorter and ensure main points are detailed in the paragraph. One paragraph will have roughly 3 to 5 sentences on average.
- Misunderstanding of assignment guidelines. When you want to hurry up and get the assignment done and out of the way, you may overlook a detail that can through off your final grade. Make sure you take time to review guidelines and get clarification from your instructor before progressing further.
- Failing to revise work. This is a little different from proofreading and editing, but it falls in the same category. If you do not take time to read over content your message may not come across clearly to your reading audience. Clean up sentences and paragraphs as needed.