5 Common English Mistakes Students Make When Writing Essays and How to Fix Them

This is my final year at the university, but writing essays still makes me nervous! What kinds of mistakes should I watch out for?

— Linah

Do you feel stressed when you need to write an essay? Does your anxiety increase when the essay is worth a large portion of your grade for a tough class, or when it’s part of the application process for school or a job? Even if you’re an experienced student like Linah, you might still be afraid of making mistakes.

The good news is that it’s easy to spot and fix a lot of writing errors once you know what to look for. In this article, we will examine five of the most common English mistakes students make when they are writing essays, along with some tips to ensure you’ll catch them before your professor sees them!

Mistake #1: Mixed-Up Homophones

Homophones are English words that look or sound alike, but have different meanings. Using the wrong form of a word can confuse your reader or make your writing seem careless.

The TextRanch blog has several articles explaining the differences between similar-sounding word pairs. Here’s a list of them, with links to the articles in case you need a refresher:

• Accept / Except
• Lose / Loose
• Advice / Advise
• There / Their / They’re

How to fix it:
If you’re dealing with one of the many homophones that isn’t on the above list, look it up in a reliable dictionary like Merriam-Webster or the Oxford English Dictionary. You can also type the sentence with the confusing homophone into our TextRanch Instant Sentence Checker. (It’s free!) As a long-term strategy, it’s a good idea to keep a personal list of words that confuse you and check them before submitting your essay.

Mistake #2: Lengthy, Confusing Sentences

Academic writing is famous for its lengthy, complicated sentences. You might find yourself trying to pack a lot of ideas into one sentence in the hopes that your essay will read like the scholarly journals you use for your research. While mastering this style of writing can enhance your academic career (provided that you learn the proper techniques), sometimes a series of shorter, simpler sentences really is the better choice.

Let’s look at an example:

Due to the fact that the data collected during the preliminary stages of the research project, which focused on pediatric asthma cases in the heavily industrialized southwestern section of Major City, indicated an unexpected correlation between elevated air pollution levels, socioeconomic status, and hospital admission rates—relationships that were not initially hypothesized—it was therefore determined by the research team that additional analysis and further investigation would be necessary before any definitive conclusions could be drawn.

To make matters worse, sentences in academic essays are often weighed down with a ton of jargon. Even when your audience expects you to use field-specific language, your ideas still need to be clear.

How to fix it:
Break long sentences into two or three shorter ones. Focus on one idea at a time. Use transitions such as “However” and “As a result” to show a connections between different ideas.

Here’s what our example sentence looks like after we break it down:

The preliminary research focused on pediatric asthma cases in the heavily industrialized southwestern section of Major City. The data revealed an unexpected correlation between air pollution levels, socioeconomic status, and hospital admission rates. Because this relationship was not part of the original hypothesis, the research team decided that further analysis would be necessary before drawing conclusions.

 

Mistake #3: A Weak Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement is the backbone of your essay. It reveals your main argument or purpose. A weak thesis like this one can make your whole essay seem flimsy or unfocused:

Many people think it’s important to eat less sugar.

This sentence is too general and doesn’t give the essay a clear direction.

How to fix it:
Make sure your thesis is specific. It should give your audience a roadmap to let them know what information to look for as they read your essay.

Here’s a more detailed version of our example thesis:

Eating less sugar leads to healthy outcomes, including better dental health, improved weight management, and a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Now the reader can easily follow the arguments in your essay.

Mistake #4: Unstructured Paragraphs

Even if you have a strong thesis and solid supporting ideas, an essay can be hard to follow if your paragraphs are poorly organized. Students frequently cram unrelated points into one paragraph or fail to start a paragraph with a topic sentence.

How to fix it:

• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that states the main idea of that paragraph.
• Provide supporting evidence such as facts, examples, or quotations.
• End the paragraph with a concluding sentence that links back to your thesis or transitions to the next paragraph.
• Check your paragraph to make sure you haven’t included a bunch of irrelevant details. (Maybe you can find a place for them somewhere else in your essay?)
• Your paragraphs should be organized in a way that will make sense to your audience.

If you want more tips on how to organize an academic paper, click here.

Mistake #5: Not Proofreading Carefully

Some students think their essay is “done” the moment they type the last word in the closing paragraph. They don’t bother to check for typos, missing words, incomplete sentences, and other errors. But not taking the time to look for mistakes is a mistake.

How to fix it:

• During the planning stages of your essay, give yourself enough time for proofreading. If someone else (like one of our TextRanch editors) will be checking your essay, set aside an adequate amount of time for that, too.
• Take a 24-hour break before you proofread your essay so you can go over your writing with fresh eyes. If you don’t have 24 hours, then at least get away from your desk long enough to have a meal, go for a walk, or spend some time with friends.
• Read your essay aloud to catch awkward phrasing and missing words.
• Check for common grammar issues such as subject–verb agreement and verb tense consistency.
• If you aren’t sure if something is correct, ask someone else for help.

At TextRanch, our editors mainly proofread and edit academic work for students who are not native English speakers, but native speakers are always welcome. Sometimes a student just needs help with a tricky sentence or paragraph, but other times they will submit the entire essay to our document editing service. If your essay isn’t for a class, but rather for school admissions or a job application, we can help you with that as well. Regardless of what kind of essay you’re writing, you can rest easy knowing that it will be clear, professional, and free of mistakes.

Click the blue button below to find out more about TextRanch. Also, feel free to leave a comment and share your own essay-writing experiences. We’re also open to suggestions for future blog articles.