Academic essays can be hard. The stakes are high, and it feels like you’re always on the clock—but if you’re not careful, that clock can turn into a ticking time bomb for your grade!
Academic essays are hard. The more time and effort you put into your college essay, the more likely it is to score a better grade. They’re a lot of work, and many students often get confused and end up making horrible mistakes in their academic essays.
To help you avoid such mistakes, experts at the best cheap essay writing service USA have crafted this blog. They’ve compiled a list of the 11 most common mistakes that students make when writing an academic essay—so you can avoid them when writing your essay. So let’s start exploring what these mistakes are!
11 Mistakes You Should Avoid In Your Academic Essays
It’s time to talk about wrongdoings in academic essays. Here are 11 common mistakes that can ruin your essay:
1. Starting By Writing The Body Of The Essay.
When you start writing an academic essay, it’s important to know how long it should be and how much space you have for each section. These are two questions that can help guide your outline as well.
You should always start with an introduction. This section will introduce the main points and arguments of your paper, making sure readers know what they are getting into before they begin reading the body of your essay. It should also explain any context or background information needed to understand your argument in more depth.
After this is done, write down your body paragraphs by using all of the supporting evidence you use throughout your paper. Along with any quotes or references that you may take from other sources (e.g., books). The next step is to write a conclusion. Make this section short and sweet. Summarize what was said in your introduction and how it relates to the larger issue at hand.
2. Writing Too Much.
The first and most obvious mistake is to write more than you need to. You should always try to stick within the word limit of your assignment and the page limit imposed by your professor or tutor.
Don’t feel like you have to write out every single detail in your essay. If you’re writing a 500-word essay, don’t write out 500 words’ worth of details! Instead, focus on the main points and make sure they’re clear and easy to understand. Make sure all your main points are connected by logical reasoning.
3. Getting Bogged Down In Too Much Research.
While it’s important to know what you want to include in your essay, it’s just as important that you don’t get bogged down in too much research. You should keep your focus on the main points. Instead of being overwhelmed by the amount of information available and trying to cram everything into one essay, focus on what is most important for a particular topic.
This is especially important if you’ve got a lot of reading material to read up on! Make sure you do enough research so that your essay is well-researched and thorough. But not so much that it becomes overwhelming or hard to write about.
4. Not Answering All Parts Of The Question.
One of the most common mistakes students make is to not answer all parts of a question. This is an easy way to lose marks, and it’s also something that you don’t want to do!
The main reason for this is that if you don’t answer all parts of the question, it’ll count as an incomplete essay. When your professor grades your essay, they will keep this in mind and you might end up with a bad grade.
5. Not Proofreading Your Essay.
Proofreading is an important part of the writing process. And it’s one of the first things you should do to edit your work. It is a process that involves checking your work to make sure it makes sense and that it is free of grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.
Proofreading your essay at least thrice before submitting it to your professor for grading. You can proofread by yourself or ask an expert or senior to do it for you!
6. Using Over-Complicated, Long Sentences To Make A Point.
Another common mistake students make when writing an academic essay is using long sentences to make their point. This might happen due to poor organization, or simply because they want to use fancy words to look smart. It will make it hard for you to follow your train of thought.
It’s important that you keep your sentences short and simple so they’re easy for your reader to follow. Your goal should not only just make sure everyone understands what you’re saying but also to make sure they enjoy reading what you have written!
Also, don’t try making every word count here. You’ll just end up with an essay full of unnecessary details that don’t add anything meaningful or useful toward accomplishing your goal.
7. Failing To Plan And Prepare.
Planning: You must have a well-thought-out plan before you start writing your essay. It’s important that you identify the specific topic and ideas for your essay. As well as other details like what kind of tone you want to use.
Preparing: Once you have drafted a rough outline for your paper, go through it once more. Make sure everything is correct before moving on to actually writing the essay itself. This will help ensure that when it comes time for proofreading (and possibly editing), there aren’t any mistakes in grammar or spelling. These mistakes might hinder its effectiveness or distract readers from reading further!
8. Stating An Opinion Without Justifying It.
When you state an opinion, it’s important to justify the point you’re making. This is especially true if the opinion is controversial or debatable. If there are multiple sides to the issue, then it’s best to provide some evidence as well. For example:
- “In my opinion, I think that this movie was great because they had some really good characters and lots of action.”
- “I also believe that this movie would be better if they added more plot points.”
There are two main ways in which you can do this: either through facts or examples (and both can be used interchangeably) or by using logic and reasoning skills like analogies and metaphors.
9. Presenting Made-Up ‘facts’ As If They Are Real Ones.
Another common mistake is to present obviously made-up ‘facts’ as if they are real ones. You can do this by using phrases such as: “This paper supports my argument with evidence.” or “My research has shown that…”
When you use this type of statement, it’s important that you make sure some kind of evidence backs up your claim. If it isn’t, then no one believes what you say. It’ll also affect the credibility of your essay.
10. Copying Someone Else’s Work Without Reference.
When you’re paraphrasing someone else’s work, it’s important to cite the source. Citing sources is also useful when conducting research because it provides information about who said what and when they said it. This can help you and your professor better understand any arguments.
Citing sources is also useful when conducting research because it provides information about who said what and when they said it—which can help you better understand any arguments or evidence presented by others.
When citing sources, format all your quotations properly. This means:
- Putting quotation marks around each sentence within quotes.
- Starting each quote on a new line.
- Indenting paragraphs in one space.
- Spacing between sentences so there aren’t any gaps between them.
- Making sure to capitalize all headings appropriately throughout their respective sections in your essay (i.,e., title page vs introduction).
11. Trying To Impress Your Reader With Big Words.
It’s tempting, but it’s not always a good idea to use big words just because you think they make your writing sound more intelligent or professional. If you’re not familiar with the meaning of a word, don’t use it in your essay. Unless you’re absolutely sure that’s what it means. If someone reads through your essay and doesn’t understand what any of the words mean, then they won’t get much out of reading the rest of the essay.
That said…
- Don’t use too many adverbs or adjectives in your sentence structure.
- Don’t use long sentences and many parenthetical elements that don’t add anything to the reader’s understanding of your main point.
- If a sentence is longer than necessary, consider splitting it into multiple sentences—but don’t go overboard!
End Note
In summary, the key to writing an academic essays is avoiding these 11 common mistakes. It’s common for students to make these mistakes when they are stressed out and under time pressure. By planning, structuring your paper well, and keeping it simple with clear ideas, you can produce a high-quality piece that will impress your professors!