Top 4 Common Academic Writing Mistakes

Top 4 Common Academic Writing Mistakes

Academic writing is a style of expression that most researchers use to explicate the logical limits of their disciplines and their particular expertise’s area. The general objective of academic writing is presenting information to show a clear understanding of the specific subject. There are four main types of academic writing- descriptive, analytical, persuasive, and critical. Each of them serves a different purpose. Take a glimpse at four common mistakes most people commit while academic writing.

Spelling mistakes

Spelling mistakes are one of the common mistakes for everyone. While writing a lengthy project, blog, content, essay, article, or story, it’s natural that anyone can make a spelling mistake until he/she goes through a proper proofreading. After completion of your writing piece, check your words using a reliable online grammar check tool, such as Grammarly.

Spelling mistakes examples: Some words sound same so don’t get confused, for ex. ‘bite’ and ‘byte’. Choosing the wrong word may change the meaning of your sentence. We often make mistake when we write in haste, for ex. ‘our work’ (correct), ‘outwork’ (incorrect).

Coordinating conjunction

Coordinating conjunction makes the connection between two clauses. Keeping acronym FANBOYS in mind will be useful. FANBOYS stands for For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. If clauses are very short and closely related, then you can skip commas, but in long clauses, it’s compulsory to use commas. Without the comma, the sentence becomes a run-on sentence.

Example:

  • I want to do that work but I don’t have time (incorrect)
  • I want to do that work, but I don’t have time (correct)

Also, take care of transitional expression. Transit words describe two acts in one sentence. For example:

  • “He wanted to take revenge that’s why he did that” (‘That’why’ is transit word here)
  • “First I will buy her favorite book, then I’ll come to her birthday party’ (‘Then’ is transit word here)

Wordiness

Wordiness can make your writing unclear. If you can end up your sentence in fewer words but are still using more words, then it may become an obstacle in conveying the meaning of your written piece. In case your single sentence grips multiple synonyms, eliminate them. Remove weak words like ‘basically’ and ‘sort of’. Only provide relevant information. Since you are writing, description, web content or academic content – you have to be straight. In poetry, drama and novel writing you can set indirect conversation.

Example:

  • “I turned the direction of my feet towards my home when I saw that I’ve missed the last train.” (incorrect)
  • “I came back home because I missed the last train.” (correct)

Misuse of commas

A single comma or period can make a big difference or can complete the whole sentence. While academic writing, you have to understand “where and how” to use commas and coordinating conjunction. A below-given example will help you understand the same:

  • My friend, and his sister, went to see a movie. (incorrect)
  • My friend and his sister went to see a movie. (correct)

 

 

 

No Comments

Post A Comment