How to write an essay: avoiding popular mistakes
As you read articles online, newspaper and magazine articles, essays, and other texts you will notice that they lack errors. Seeing how well written these articles are can be intimidating when you are writing your own essay. But it is important for you to know that these articles have been proofread numerous times and edited for common errors. Here are the most popular mistakes in essays.
- Your/You’re
This mistake is more common than you would think, do not beat yourself up for this mistake if you have fallen for it. Use “your” when it is in the possession sense. For example, “your laptop is on”. Use “you’re” when it is supposed to be the contraction for you are. For example, “you’re reading this article”. When writing your paper replace every your/you’re with the words “you are,” if it makes sense then use “you’re,” if not then use “your”.
- They’re/Their/There
Another common mistake is misusing the correct theyre, there, and their. There is the contraction of “they are,” this should only be used when you can replace those words with the there/they’re/their you used in your sentence. For example, “they’re reading the book together.” Only use there when it is a position. For example, “the laptop is over there by the door”. Use their when you are thinking of possession of a group of people. For example “McKinley is a high school in the U.S.A, their mascot is a bull.”
- Capitalization
People’s names, official building names, cities, states, countries, company names, first word of a sentence, I, and other specific words that should be researched are capitalized.
- Run on Sentences
Run on sentences are sentences that (a) has two thoughts without proper punctuation (b) has 2 or more conjunctions without proper punctuation or (c) has more than one independent sentence without a period or semi colon.
Best way to avoid run on sentences, is to place the proper punctuation if your sentence falls into one of those categories. Another trick is to read your sentence out loud, if it is long enough that you have to take a breather, there should be a punctuation point.
Just how all the other writers are checking for these popular mistakes, it is important your essay is checked so that these popular mistakes are avoided.
Published on 27.12.2016