Essay writing can feel like a stressful part of academic life. You need to spend hours researching, structuring, and drafting. Yet, when the grades return, you often find them lower than expected. But have you wondered why? Well, you might be losing marks due to small common mistakes in essay writing. By understanding these mistakes, you can significantly improve your essays and the resulting grades. So, keep reading and learn about them in detail.
1. Misunderstanding the Essay Question/Prompts
Failing to answer the main prompts in the assignment brief is one of the common essay mistakes, but a severe error in essay writing.
Problem: You might rush and skip analysis and evaluation when writing about a related topic that you may know or not know very well. As a result, you will produce an essay relevant to the topic, but irrelevant to the assignment. Such a mistake will guarantee a low score, even if your research and write-up are great.
Solution: You have to clearly understand the prompts in your essay instructions. Take note of instructional verbs like “analyse,” “evaluate,” and “discuss”. You must also adhere to the limiting terms like “21st Century” or “economic factors”. Also, rephrase the prompts into a single question. Ensure that the question is addressed in every part of your essay.
2. Weak or Missing Thesis Statement
Problem: The thesis, which is the specific, arguable claim you intend to defend, is the heart of your essay. Without a clear thesis, your essay will lack direction and focus. A weak thesis is one that is too vague, barely states a fact, and does not pose an intellectual challenge.
Solution: Remember that your thesis should be one clear sentence at the end of your introduction. It must put forward a claim that others can disagree on. Understand that if your argument does not require proof, then it is not a thesis.
3. Poor Structure and Lack of Flow
Problem: Reading your essay must feel like a smooth journey. Lack of flow and structural coherence is one of the common mistakes in essay writing. Lack of structural flow happens when ideas are presented as isolated thoughts without proper transitions.
Solution: Ensure that you use transitions and essay sentence starters effectively. For example, you can use terms like “furthermore” and “conversely” to create smooth bridges. You can also follow the P.E.E.L (Point, Evidence, Explanation, and Link) model for all the body paragraphs. It will help you maintain internal coherence and logic in your overall essay.
4. Ignoring Grammar Rules
Problem: Poor grammar will undermine the authority of your essay faster than anything. It indicates inadequate language skills as well as a lack of attention to detail. Students often make common grammar mistakes like run-on sentences, comma splices, and inconsistent verb tenses.
Solution: Separate the drafting and editing tasks. The best way to catch errors is to read your essay aloud, slowly. Your ear is likely to catch awkward phrasing that your eyes will miss. You can also use free grammar and sentence correction tools like Grammarly to proofread after completing your essay writing.
5. Common Spelling Mistakes That Cost Marks
Problem: Even if you use spell-checkers, some common spelling mistakes can go undetected. Your proofreading software may fail to catch homophones, which are words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly. Examples of such homophones include “their,” “there,” and “they’re”. Such errors indicate that you are careless about your essay writing.
Solution: Deliberately scan your essay for common spelling mistakes, especially with the homophones. Also, make sure that you are setting the spell-checker or your document editor to the right version of English, such as UK versus US.
Want to avoid all common mistakes and get a well structured essay from experts?
6. Repetitive or Weak Word Choice
Problem: If you repeatedly use vague modifiers like “very” and “really,” or the same verbs like “is” and “said,” your essay writing may become monotonous. It is important to maintain precision and flair in academic writing. If you rely on a limited lexicon, your essay sounds like a piece written by an amateur.
Solution: Boost your vocabulary. Use a thesaurus to replace weak verbs like “said” with stronger and dynamic ones such as “demonstrates” or “asserts”. However, make sure not to use words or jargon that you don’t fully understand.
7. Poor Paragraph Development
Problem: Remember that every paragraph is an opportunity to present a mini-argument to support your thesis. So, a paragraph will look weak if it fails to back up its claim with sufficient evidence and critical analysis.
Solution: Understand that the assignment marker cares most about what you think about the evidence. Ensure that you dedicate the majority of the word count in your body paragraphs to the Explanation “E” in P.E.E.L model. It is where you must synthesize, analyse, and link the evidence back to your overarching thesis.
8. Over-Quoting or Plagiarizing Sources
Problem: An essay must primarily be in your voice. The practice of “quote dump” or over-reliance on long quotations indicates an inability to synthesise evidence and information. In relation to this, the most severe issue with copying and pasting content is plagiarism, which will automatically result in failure of the essay writing.
Solution: Paraphrase evidence and quote very little, only where it will really be impactful. For example, you can also use them sparingly if the original wording is indispensable. It will also be crucial to cite the sources of information properly and consistently as per the required referencing style. Examples include Harvard, MLA, APA, and IEEE.
Don’t forget to run your final work through a plagiarism checker like Turnitin for a definitive safety check. You will also get an AI report when performing plagiarism checks on your university’s approved platform. If the percentage of plagiarism and AI in your essay is higher than what your university allows, then you must consider rephrasing your write-up to get the numbers down.
9. Neglecting the Revision and Editing Process
Problem: Under the pressure of a nearing deadline, most students tend to skip the important process of revision. And proofreading your work is not the same as revising it. So, this is where most errors, both minor and structural, are missed.
Solution: Separate the drafting phase from the editing phase by a few hours. Complete the essay writing and set your work aside. Return with fresh eyes and start revising. You may also consider editing in reverse. Reading the essay sentence by sentence from the bottom up can help you focus only on the mechanics, and not logic.
10. Weak or Rushed Conclusion
Problem: The conclusion is your opportunity to present a logical opinion that you reached after considering all the facts. Many students offer a hollow conclusion that either recaps the introduction or talks about new evidence. But it should be a summary of your essay with final judgement.
Solution: Maintain a strong structure for your essay’s conclusion. First, recap your thesis in new words, and summarize your main points. Next, highlight a final implication. Write a powerful and outward-looking statement that suggests the broader significance of your argument. It should give your readers something substantial to consider.
Need Help with Essay Writing?
You need to put your efforts consciously in order to excel in essay writing. By eliminating the common mistakes in essay writing, you can become a more confident and higher-scoring student. Critical thinking, language competency, and the ability to execute are also necessary for writing high-scoring essays.
However, if you need professional guidance with writing your essays, you can connect with expert writers through assignment help services. So, reach out today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Common instructional verbs found in assignment briefs include “Analyse” (break down and explain parts), “Evaluate” (judge the value or worth), “Compare” (show similarities), and “Contrast” (show differences).
In general, try to keep the introduction and conclusion together within 10% of the total word count of your essay. You should dedicate the bulk of the paper, which is about 80%, to the body paragraphs.
Start by turning your topic into a “why?” or “how?” question. Your thesis statement should be a direct and definitive answer to that question. You also have to use evidence or cite sources throughout your essay to make the thesis statement arguable.
Focus on synthesising or combining multiple sources in one paragraph rather than summarising just one. Also, make use of transition phrases to make your own voice in the writing clearer.
You may also like
What Are the Four Main Types of Essays?
