Believe it or not, teachers love marking essays. They are often proud of the work that their
students submit. But they're sometimes disappointed by the large number of grammar and other types
of error that let down the quality of the student's writing. Many of these errors are
easy to spot and if the student proofreads their work before submission they can correct
these errors themselves and get a better grade.
Ok, let's have a look at an example shall we? Gigi has submitted her assignment on the
educational value of computer games in schools. She's organised the essay well and made some
effective points but there are a number of small and easily correctable problems. Let's
look at the first sentence. Oh yes, this is common. Can you see the mistake?
I'll give you a clue: find the main verb. Now consider the tense.
Gigi has used the present tense, which we usually use for things that are generally
true, and don't change. But when giving background information in an introduction you're often
referring to a recent trend. The present continuous or present perfect would
be more appropriate here.
Alright, let's look at the next sentence. Good, Gigi's written a clear aim of the essay,
but oh no, there's another common grammar mistake.
This time the tense is correct but the verb does not agree with the subject. The subject,
"essay" is singular so the verb needs to be in the third person form. Aims.
Right, as well as grammar errors, you need to check in-text citations. Can you find the
in-text citations in paragraph 2? Gigi has used three different ways to cite the sources,
which is effective. But are they done correctly?
For the first one, you can see the author's family name, Francis, initial and the publication
year. But, remember, with in-text citations the author's initial should not be used.
Let's look at the next citation. Gigi wants to quote two authors, Wong and Cheung, using
"according to". So far so good. But then she adds the words "also agree" in as well,
which is wrong. She can either write "Wong and Cheung (2009) also agree" or "According
to Wong and Cheung (2009)," but not both.
Let's have a look at the last citation. It's non-integral and the source is cited correctly:
just the author's family name, Watson, and the publication year in brackets. All well
and good. But oh no, Gigi has made another common error, misuse of the expression: "on
the other hand". "On the other hand" doesn't introduce a new topic, but, rather, offers
an alternative viewpoint on the same topic. As this paragraph is only about benefits of
using computer games in schools, not drawbacks, "on the other hand" is misused. Here, Gigi
would be better using "furthermore", or "in addition".
OK, let's move on, shall we? Ahhh, can you see the mistake here? Gigi has confused
there T-H-E-R-E with their T-H-E-I-R. Ok, it's an easy mistake to make and Microsoft Word
spell-check won't help because, out of context, both spellings are correct. "From" F-R-O-M
and "form" and F-O-R-M is another common spelling mistake that computers just can't
catch. This is why you must always check the spellings yourself.
Ok, let's look at a few style errors shall we? Ahh, can you see this one? Look at the
way the sentence ends. Gigi has used etc. which teachers call a run-on expression. These
run on expressions should not be used in academic essay writing.
You should also consider style when you are quoting someone. Gigi has used the word "said"
to report someone's findings. There are much more precise words than that: She could have
used "noted" or "found".
Let's look at the next sentence. Here Gigi is being too certain. Can you see the word
that makes that sentence too certain? She's written "always". It is difficult to prove that
students always ignore other important activities. If you cannot prove this, you need to hedge
this claim and a commonly used structure for doing this is "might" or "tend to".
Gigi is too certain again at the end at the end of the essay. She's used the word "easily".
In this case it's better to use expressions like "has the potential to", or words like "possibly".
Let's move on. Look at the final point in the essay and how Gigi introduces us to it.
Oh no, it's this error again. The phrase "at last" is not suitable here. It's not
the same as "lastly". When we use "At last" we mean that we've been waiting a considerable
length of time for something to happen ... for example "What a boring lecture. At
last it's over!" So, in this paragraph "at last" is wrong. Instead, you can use "Finally"
or "Lastly" to link your ideas.
Let's carry on, shall we? Ah, there's another, common mistake. Can you see it? Gigi has used
a noun (violence) where she should have used an adjective (violent). Always check carefully
that you are using the right word forms.
Ok, so we are finished now, and the essay looks much better. All of those were simple
errors which Gigi could have found easily. By spending some time to proofread her work,
she would have got a better grade. A useful tool I can let you know about is the Common
Error Detector on the CILL website. Simply paste your essay into the box, click Submit,
and it will highlight many of these common errors. How simple is that?!
Here's the address for it.
OK, so remember, take pride in what you do, spend a little time to proofread your work
and see if you can spot these types of error. You'll get a better grade and you'll make
your teacher happy.