Common Mistakes Related to Academic Essay Writing

When it comes to academic writing, students tend to make many common mistakes. Outlined below are a few of them, so that you can be a little more cautious, avoid these errors, and hence get better marks.

One of the common mistakes related to academic writing is not being able to define or defend your assumptions. For instance, if you write "I assume." you must explain WHY you are assuming that, whatever it is. Your basic assumptions should be correct, and the points behind them should be valid as well. If there is a limitation, talk about why the limitation is there and why it is valid.

Another common mistake is not being able to provide a proper level of explanation and detail - the point is, you are doing the research yourself, so you should know about the subject. Therefore, don't skim over the sub-topics, explain yourself clearly, think about what you need to elucidate on, familiarize your reader with what you are talking about. Make your explanations very clear - your reader will not be an expert, so it is your duty, since you are writing the paper, to educate him. If you are writing a scientific paper, write on the experiments; put the essential data, etc. It isn't all that simple!

Also, don't make the mistake of failing to identify your unique contribution. Make your introduction clear, the body clear, and the conclusion clear. Identify your contribution in the field, give credit to those you have quoted, but present the whole thing as your work.

Another thing that you need to mention is how your coursework can be located within the larger context - make the work as broad as possible. Explain what effect your work will have to other audiences, how it could be interpreted in other societies and in other times. Don't give your work a limited perspective.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should avoid common academic writing mistakes like spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammatical errors, gaps in the logic, missing citations and missing words. It might be a good idea to ask someone else to help you with the proofreading - often many small mistakes tend to escape our notice, so spend as much time as possible going through the work, and then ask someone to help with the rest of it. Don't proofread everything simultaneously; first go through sub-heading, then paragraphs, then lines. That's a much more effective line.