Academic writing is an everyday task for all the students. Students have been involved in academic writing from high school to college to university. Only change has been in the difficulty level of writing. With the increase in difficulty level associated with academic writing, there are some very basic mistakes that most of the students make. However, students can overcome the mistakes by taking part in online courses or learning activities, such as, take my online class to improve their writing.
This post serves to explain some of the very basic and common mistakes in academic writing and how can students overcome those errors.
Most Common Mistakes in Academic Writing
Academic writing is essential part of the academic career of any student. It is an art and must be learnt and mastered like an art! The following are some of the basic mistakes you can avoid to become the Picasso of your academic writing.
Grammatical Errors
The most common mistake made by students in academic writing are grammatical errors. These grammatical errors may include:
- Improper use of punctuation marks.
- Spelling mistakes.
- Inappropriate use of active or passive voice.
- Improper narration.
- Improper use of tenses.
These are some of the most common grammatical errors made by students. It is very important to understand the form of academic writing you are assigned. Then accordingly, you have to make use of present, past or future tenses, active or passive voice and use of narration.
Superfluous Writing
“The dinner was organised by the university to celebrate for both, the farewell for graduating batch as well as for the welcome of the newly admitted students.” When you look at the sentence written, you may notice the use of “both” and “as well as” in the same sentence. This is an example of superfluous writing.
Superfluous writing is one in which the sentences are made extensively long by the use of redundant words or phrases. This makes the writing rather boring and unappealing to the readers. Most of the students who are not very proficient in writing often make this mistake. They end up writing long, redundant sentences. This often leads to the lack of meaning in the sentences.
The above sentence could have been rephrased and written as, “The dinner was orgainsed by the university to celebrate the farewell of the graduating students as well as to welcome the newly admitted students.”
The use of superfluous words is particularly a problem for students who are from the marketing background. Marketing requires you to be very specific with the use of words. You may avail online services, such as, help with marketing dissertation to draft well-written dissertation.
Remember, in academic writing, “Less is More!”
Use of Slang
The traditional academic writing practice was entirely based on using formal language. However, the modern form of academic writing is more flexible and allows the use of a slightly informal tone. Now, stop for a moment and go back. Read the last sentence again and this time focus on the word, “Slightly”. Most of the students end up using an excessively informal speech when composing their academic write-ups.
The excessive use of informal language, especially slang words leads to poor academic writing. You have to be very careful that while explaining your point of view in the academic writing, you don’t end up being extremely informal. The beauty of academic writing lies in putting your critical points in words in a well-presented manner that persuade the reader.
Plagiarism
One of the main issues when drafting a piece of academic writing is copying words and sentences. Remember that academic writing aims at building your critical analysis over a number of topics and improving your skills and knowledge. It is rather difficult to initially compose ideas into your own words and this leads to the students copying the words and sentences of other authors.
Also, when students are asked to state facts and figures, they end up plagiarizing the content of their writing.
Hence, you have to be very careful not to copy and plagiarize the content from other authors. You may take ideas and paraphrase them into your own words. Also, it is mandatory to acknowledge the authors publication from where you have taken certain facts, figures or ideas. This is done by adding citations and reference to your writing (Murray, 2019).
Format
Have you ever went to a party wearing you school uniform? Or did you ever go to the school wearing pajamas? Sounds weird, right? There is always a proper dress code for every occasion. Similarly, there are various forms of academic writing. It may include, essays, reports, theses, dissertations, research proposals, etc. The format of all these forms of academic writing vary. You have to be very vigilant about the format of the type of writing (usessaywriter, 2022).
Students often make mistakes in the format. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of the various writing genres, for example, which format allows the use of passive voice, where you have to use the active voice, when to use the narration using third person, where to use the past tense, what are the main headings of the various write-ups, etc. All this information has to be understood and implemented accordingly.
Avoiding the Mistakes
Every problem has a solution. There are possibilities to make mistakes but at the same there are ways to overcome those mistakes. The following basic points can help you improve your academic writing skills.
- Follow the 5 Cs of writing: Clear, Concise, Complete, Consistent and Compelling.
- Learn to add citations and references when quoting other authors.
- Read from a number of sources to develop your critical analysis on the topic.
- Learn the basic rules and formats of every form of academic writing.
The most important tip: Practice, practice and practice!
Conclusion
Students make some very basic mistakes when composing their academic write-ups. These mistakes can be rectified by following some rules and by doing a lot of practice. The only way you can excel at writing is by “re-writing”.
References
Murray, R., 2019. Writing for Academic Journals 4e. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
USEW. 2022. Types Of Academic Writing – Complete Guide. Online Available at <https://www.usessaywriter.com/types-of-academic-writing/> [Accessed on 21st June 2022].
