Essay writing can be a difficulty for many students who may have good ideas, but a hard time explaining them. Often a student’s English essay has particular common essay writing mistakes that prevent it from being a well written essay.
Consider these tips on three common mistakes in essay writing, involving word choice, quotation usage and grammatical structure.
"This" In Explaining Quotations and Essay Concepts
In essay writing, students often begin a sentence with "This" and follow the word with an explanation to the previous sentence. Explaining statements in an essay is good and expected in a good essay. However, the word "this" is a descriptive word that fares much better when it has a noun to describe, as in, "This notion" or "This illustration" or "This statement." By stating to what exactly "this" is referring, the sentence is clearer and the entire paragraph makes more sense.
In the case of repeating sentences beginning with "This" several times in a paragraph, it may also be best to reword some of them to still convey the intended meaning, but to avoid too much repetition.
Proper Essay Quotations
English essays or literary essays need quotations and are much better essays with appropriate quotations. Not only should quotations be properly quoted, but also properly introduced and explained. Often the proper way to quote quotations is directed by the teacher or professor, however, there is a general rule that can be followed that helps a quotation’s readability.
Quotations cannot simply be placed between sentences. Introduce a quotation by beginning the sentence with a phrase that gives reason for the quotation. For example, if the essay is on one of Hemingway’s novels, a simple introduction could begin as "Hemingway writes," and then the quotation between quotation marks, just after the comma. Then the sentence directly after the quotation explains how that quotation proves the point of the essay
For longer quotations, introduce the quotation the same way, make it a new paragraph and single-spaced rather than double-spaced (essays are normally doubled spaced to improve readability). This construction will help separate the quotation from the rest of the text of the paragraph.
Misused Words in Essay Writing
Misused words in an essay not only include grammatically incorrect words, but include words that are used in the place of more appropriate words. English students should be careful when it comes to particular words and their actual meaning. A dictionary is a valuable tool when it comes to using the correct words for the proper meaning of each sentence.
For example, in explaining a quotation, commonly used words include: depict, illustrate, describe and show. While these words may be synonyms of each other, they do not have exactly the same meaning. When choosing words like these, be sure that the chosen word is the right one for the meaning of the sentence, looking possible words up in the dictionary in case of any uncertainty. Also, choosing the most appropriate words for the meaning of the sentence helps reduce "filler" – words that add word count, but not value to a sentence.
Be sure to take the time to proofread the essay before considering it finished. Consider also having someone else proofread the essay – someone who can help with any grammatical or writing errors.
Students, whether in high school, college or university, may consider these literary essay writing tips as suggestions to help write better essays, to obtain good marks in school, to add to a writer’s portfolio, and to be proud of the work.