There are a lot of mistakes students can make in the English language and thus, many research paper mistakes they usually make are in punctuation and grammar while working on academic papers. This article includes the most common research paper mistakes and basic tips for you to keep away from them in the future.
As a rule, students make the most common research paper mistakes when they haven’t 100% mastered the subject of the paper. The point is that students usually do not manage to conduct a thorough research in order to have a good idea of what they’re about to write on.
The first step of preventing research paper mistakes is to check the encyclopedias and dictionaries for the correct meaning and definition of the topic.
One of the most common research paper mistakes is the works cited page or bibliography. You have to keep in mind the fact that every source must have an article or book name, author’s name, date of publication, page or journal numbers.
Usually simple mistakes are the most common. These are the things like using the right form of the words “their, there, they’re”, putting a period at the sentence end. Remember even the simplest mistake may cost you successful graduation.
One of the most widespread mistakes is that students usually use only spell check instead of paper proofreading. You have to proofread your research paper more than 7 times (!) before you hand it.
Let’s proceed to the next common mistake, which lies in the fact that students fail to make the paper thesis concise and clear. The best way to cope with it is to generate an outline that will help you use the thesis as the paper road map.
Another common mistake students tend to make in colleges and universities is that they try to write in a philosophical manner to deeply impress their tutors. Meanwhile, they show that they understand nothing in the topic they’re working on and are not able to find the right sources to explain the main idea of the paper.
The next mistake in our TOP chart is the mistake when students are redundant. There’s no need to use the same word or phrase too many times in the very same sentence. This way you take away your reader’s attention from the paper flow. For instance: The house is such a huge house that it is bigger than all the other houses.
There is one more mistake, which is not that common but still occurs from time to time. It is incorrect ellipsis periods use. It should be used as an indication for something that you have omitted in a quote. There should be only three ellipsis periods. If there’s a period in the quote, 4 periods will be used in fact. Never use 2 or 5 periods.
The last and maybe the most significant mistake is the failure to make a thorough and detailed proofreading of the paper before handing it. Proofreading is the right way to make your paper of the utmost quality. Check it to make sure you have properly used punctuation and grammar.