Avoid dumb mistakes in your academic writing

Dumb mistakes in academic writing in many cases can be avoided. There are times a student may overlook revising or reading over their content. Others may not use proper sources necessary and end up getting information that is not true. There are multiple aspects to review that you can avoid so your paper doesn’t look like it was written by a lost soul. The following points are a few things to consider when avoiding dumb writing mistakes with academic assignments:

• Being unprepared to write about your topic. Students that wait until the last minute to get started are often not prepared to write. They learn too late it will require more than they are able to put in. Instead, take time to plan your writing ahead of time so you won’t be panicking or getting stressed out when you don’t have to. You can even break up the assignment overtime instead of trying to do it all in one day.


• Choosing the wrong topic. If you feel you have a strength or unique interest in a certain topic, just go with your gut feeling and write about it. Take time to review your idea with your instructor if you have doubts. Some students select the wrong topic and it creates more frustration than they need to go through. Others may try to write about their topic from another perspective but execute it poorly.


• Failing to format paper and/or cite sources correctly. It is one thing to ask for help when you do not understand how to do something properly, but trying to do it on your own knowing what you did is not right is another. If you do not format your paper properly you may lose points. If you do not properly cite sources you could lose credibility. Why struggle when you can get help?


• Failing to proofread or revise. This may be dumb for some that have the time and neglect to do it. Others may not know what they should look for and decide to skip over this step. This may result in low marks if errors and mistakes go undetected.


• Copying written content word-for- word. Engaging in plagiarism is likely one of the dumbest things you can do. You should not copy someone else’s content and call it your own. Instructors have gotten more creative on finding duplicate content. Learn to summarize and paraphrase content into your own words.