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15 Typical Student Mistakes in Academic Essay Writing – 2024 Guide

All students face the issue of academic papers. Unfortunately, they aren’t always perfect. There are some typical mistakes almost every student makes. Besides, some students aren’t aware of that fact. As a result, they repeat those mistakes over and over again. They cost multiple grades and students fall behind the program.

To catch up with the program, they use online essay writing services like DoMyEssay.net. They commonly ask – What service can write an essay for me? However, we believe that students can overcome their weak sides if they realize them and fix. Therefore, learn 15 typical mistakes made by students in academic essay writing.

Misunderstanding the instructions

The first mistake is a problem with understanding the instructions. Some folks are inattentive and the others are forgetful. After they miss the vital introduction to what must be done, they depend on themselves. This leads to multiple errors, which bring the whole project to ruin. Don’t just glimpse at the instructions but read them consciously.

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Inappropriate thesis statement

The “heart” of any essay is its thesis statement. Although it’s a single (sometimes two) sentence, it has the greatest importance. Its goal is to explain the readers the main purpose of the author, clarify his/her choices, and engage. Students may compose weak and unclear theses and thus, deprive themselves of many grades.

No flow

Many texts lack flow. Such texts miss logical connections. They use too many unknown words, junk sentences, and something of the kind. Students write sentences that go astray the thesis. Moreover, they also write sentences that don’t relate to one another.

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Problems with spelling

One of the most typical mistakes is a misspelling of words. Students miss some letters or choose the wrong ones. Besides, they confuse many words that sound the same but are written differently. For example:

  • Write – right
  • Bad – bed
  • Two – too
  • Farther – further

There is much more confusion. Therefore, you ought to be attentive and work out your spelling. One of the possible solutions is to use spell-checkers.

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Wrong formatting

Formatting is another typical issue. Students are actually bored with all those rules about headers, title page arrangement, in-text quotations, and similar stuff. They think they aren’t important. In reality, professors rid them of many essential grades.

Overgeneralization

Many students aren’t sure concerning words, phrases and idioms they implement. Therefore, they try not to look stupid and prefer general meaning. Nonetheless, it spoils their text because there is no specification and as a result, the choice of vocabulary is weak.

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Inappropriate language

Another great problem is the choice of language. Every topic demands certain lexicon. Students either mess up various themes or use general words. Additionally, they overuse technical terms, slang, jargon, etc. Consequently, their papers don’t look authentically.

Poor structure

Some papers have a rather messy structure, which is a huge drawback. The structure is supposed to be captivating and easy to read. Writers can enhance the readability when they add subheadings, charts, diagrams, tables, bullet lists and so on. Unfortunately, many papers miss those features and make them hard to read. You can seek for the support from the professionals to avoid this issue. Check Custom Essay Meister for more information.

Wrong essay type

It may sound weird, but some students mess up essay types. There are many types of essays and it’s natural that students confuse some of them. Nonetheless, it’s not a justification for a great error.

Unreliable sources

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Almost every essay must be supported with some dependable facts. Students are supposed to make in-depth research on relevant data to support their theses with proper examples. Unfortunately, many of them take this demand irresponsibly. They use unverified informative sources that commonly aren’t officially approved. Accordingly, students’ projects cannot be trusted. No matter how good the structure and word choice are, such a project is worthless.

The issue of time management

A great number of students run out of time. They cannot manage their time reasonably and as a result, they violate their deadlines. They aren’t organized, forget about their deadlines, waste time on distractions or write at the last minute.

The issue of person-narration

Almost every essay type must be objective. The only exceptions are a personal statement, personal essay, and other similar ones. All other essays are unbiased and written in the third-person perspective. Nevertheless, students may take their essays too personally. They write “I” instead of using the third person point of view. It spoils the value of the assignment because it isn’t professional and objective.

Absence of the conclusion

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Some folks forget to conclude. It may be weird enough but it’s true. Some writers don’t write the last 3-5 sentences, which draw the final line of the entire project. It’s required to restate the thesis, provide outcomes and interpret them.

No topic sentences

Another crucial error is the absence of topic sentences. They are also called mini-theses. Every paragraph is supposed to have a sub-claim or sub-thesis, which illustrates the purpose of the concrete section. Many students don’t write a strong defining sentence and it spoils the whole section.

Incorrect citation

Students make one more mistake, which is wrong citations. Many of them don’t even know that they plagiarize other authors. The main reason for this issue is the inattentiveness of students. They don’t know the rules for APA, MLA, Chicago and other styles. They may simply mess up the demands and so, induce mistakes.

All students should obligatorily remember these typical mistakes. Otherwise, they are doomed to fail. Avoid them and improve your writing skills to write great papers.

About Michael Farmiga