Most of us have been in a situation where we got back our essays with red marks which results in a fail grade. Although essays cannot be perfect as the definition of perfection varies from person to person yet we can put efforts to avoid the most common mistakes done in the student essays which make it nearly perfect.

Here, Academic Assignments has compiled an effective guideline for you to write an excellent essay and impress your teachers or lecturers in the first attempt by avoiding these mistakes listed below. You may or may not relate to all the mistakes but it would provide you an insight on what to do and not to do when framing your next essay.

LACK OF HYPOTHESIS

Account: Hypothesis is the backbone of any essay which people often ignore while writing an essay. It is considered to be the basic argument in the essay which enables summing up of the debate in a single sentence.

Solution: Hypothesis is not always necessary in every type of essay but hypothesis statement inserted in the introductory paragraph can fetch you good grades. Your hypothesis statement should comprise of the arguments and the supportive evidences used in your essay.

LACK OF CONCLUSION

Account: Many students have been observed to stop writing before it should actually end. Every essay must end in a summary of the total content.

Solution: Whenever you write an essay you must insert a concluding paragraph at the end of the document. This does not require you to write any new facts and arguments but just summarize what you have written in the whole essay.

LACK OF EVIDENCE

Account: Often students write essays without mentioning about the evidences to back the facts and their arguments. Hence, it becomes just their personal opinion which is not acceptable in any form. Essays should be based on documentation, research and quotations.

Solution: When writing an essay you should look for ideas and quotations in books and materials on the internet. Sources of the facts and ideas have to be mentioned as in book, articles, journals or any documented source.

PLAGIARISM

Account: Many students intentionally copy or use other’s facts, texts as their own in the essay. This is acceptable to a certain extent but not all.

Solution: The facts in your essay must be cited. You can avoid plagiarism to a great extent if you write in your own words and provide footnotes or reference for every idea you have paraphrased.

DILEMMA WITH PUNCTUATIONS

Account: Punctuation dilemma is a common problem observed in the student’s essays which comprises of comma, semi-colon, colon, period, misplaced participles, etc.

Solution: You must read through your essay after completion to determine punctuation problems and find whether every sentence ends with a period, question mark or exclamation mark as suitable.

SPELLING ERRORS/TYPING ERRORS

Account: Students often obtains poor scores due to spelling mistakes which may be intentional or may be due to typing errors.

Solution: Computer’s spell-check option is not always adequate to overlook spelling errors or types. Reading through the essay is the best way to avoid such mistake.

REPLICATION

Account: Often less research and less idea on the subject leads students to use repetitive ideas and phrases in the entire essay resulting in boredom.

Solution: Ensure that every paragraph of your essay focus on different ideas and facts. Thorough research would enable you to avoid replication of same idea in every paragraph.

FLOW OF CONTENT

Account: While writing an essay students have been seen to haphazardly present their knowledge, ideas and learning. In other words they prepare the essay without proper sequencing.

Solution: You must outline the sequence of the ideas after gathering it. Proper flow of content makes the essay effective and attractive.

DEFICIENT STRUCTURE

Account: Every essay must have a proper structure and format to obtain excellent grades.

Solution: Any essay should be classified into introduction, body and conclusion. You can build a proper structure by outlining your essay and following it.

LACK OF TRANSITIONAL PHRASES

Account: Paragraphs of an essay should be in transition to bring out the flow of ideas efficiently.

Solution : Academic Assignments advices you to read each paragraph of your essay as mini-essays. If it brings out the meaning sensibly the essay is in transition but if it is vague you have to add simple sentences to introduce the idea.