8 Mistakes Youve Probably Made When Writing Your Essay

8 Mistakes You’ve Probably Made When Writing Your Essay As we write an essay, we make common mistakes. It’s human. These eight seem to be the most common of them all. As you’re editing, keep an eye out for these problems. 1. Homophones You know, â€Å"their†, â€Å"they’re†, and â€Å"there†. You shouldn’t be using these interchangeably. Other popular words that get mistaken for their counterparts are â€Å"weather† and â€Å"whether†, â€Å"read† and â€Å"reed†, â€Å"accept† and â€Å"except† – there are several dozen more. Don’t make this mistake in your formal essays. Your professor won’t be impressed. 2. Basic Spelling The first time you read through your paper, you should catch the vast majority of these mistakes. Pay close attention to your spelling. Once homophone mistakes are eliminated, there should only be obvious spelling errors to catch. Since Microsoft Word and other processors usually catch these mistakes, you shouldn’t have an impossible job ahead of you. 3. Sentence Fragments You’ll be able to edit this portion of your paper by reading it out loud. There are a variety sentences that, without another sentence prefacing them, couldn’t stand alone? Eliminate these phrases, or group them in with other sentences. Just make sure all of your sentences are complete. Your professor is going to be looking for that. It’s a significant part of a formal essay. 4. Using First Person Narrative In other words, avoid these words – I, me, may, you, your, we, our. These are just a few examples. A formal essay shouldn’t point to the writer or the reader. Rather, it should point to a hypothetical situation – a world separate altogether from ours. Keep in mind that, when you’re writing informally, these words can be used as often as you’d like. It’s just a formality. It’s keeping your paper clean.