College Application Essays Five Most Common Mistakes1. Inserting punctuation marks outdoors of citation marks. Incorrect: “I did it”, she stated. Right: “I did it,” she stated The exception to this rule: once you’re utilizing a colon or a semi-colon.
2. Misusing the phrase, “nevertheless.” Incorrect: “I hate soup. Nevertheless, I like cake.” Right: “I hate soup; nevertheless, I like cake.” A scholar will seem as a literary genius if this appropriate use is all the time in play.
3. Overusing commas. Incorrect: “Normally, by one o’clock, he is gone” Right: “Normally by one o’clock he is gone.” The wrong method is writing for the ear since you have a tendency to position a comma the place your voice pauses, however you are writing for the attention. Too many commas act as street bumps to a clean studying essay. After all there are exceptions to this rule, however you are secure (and seem as a literary genius) when you use much less commas. Use them once you’re itemizing one thing in the identical sentence, otherwise you’re connecting two separate ideas.
4. Capitalizing the primary phrase after a colon. Incorrect: “This was proof: He discovered it.” Right: “This was proof: he discovered it.” A colon is just a break in the identical sentence. Meaning you can’t capitalize a phrase in the course of the identical sentence. {Many professional} writers make this identical mistake.
5. My most irritating favourite is utilizing this two-word mixture: “For me…” By no means use these two phrases collectively for the remainder of your pure life.
Not making these writing errors will make you appear like a genius for the remainder of your life. I exaggerate, in fact. However avoiding these errors will acquire you a lot respect in a rapd-fire communications world.