All students have to compose different scientific papers. No matter where they study, they are obliged to fulfill these projects. They show their level of skills, knowledge, and experience. The success of any project depends on the way a student reveals the main issue. There is a concrete problem, which is supposed to have a plain solution with powerful examples and explanations.
Unfortunately, even the strongest arguments may be worthless if a student makes mistakes. These may be different mistakes, but if they are present in the paper, they deprive a lot of grades. Therefore, you should know 10 common mistakes that are made while writing scientific papers.
Table of Contents
Unchecked Information
One of the most frequent mistakes of many students is the use of irrelevant data. They are lazy to verify the informative sources they use and oftentimes, they don’t provide convincing evidence. The demand for every scientific paper is to prove a certain viewpoint with the help of convincing facts. Research should depend on official data of primary researches and your novel propositions.
Solution: You must always verify the data you use in your scientific projects.
Unreadable Text
Unclear structure and paragraphing are great errors. Remember this statement for good and always check the structure. To provide a clear confirmation of your arguments, you should mention at least 3 sub-arguments or even more. Your papers must be readable. Thus, every argument should have a separate paragraph. Many students try to cram all the facts in a single one or mix up logical connections. As a result, their texts are messy and unreadable.
Solution: Your text should be easy to read. It can be done with the help of tables, bullet lists, subheadings, graphs, and other means.
Misuse of Passive Voice
Don’t use too many passive constructions. Many people tend to use the passive voice in most sentences, which is a mistake. Of course, there is nothing wrong about grammar. Nevertheless, your text will be livelier if you avoid frequent implementation of passive sentences. They require more words and thus, aren’t practical.
Solution: Use active voice in most sentences.
Lack of Consistency
Your writing must be consistent and logical. Unfortunately, many students don’t follow their outline (if they have any). They jump from one point to another and thus, confuse their readers.
Solution: Make a clear ending of a claim and only then logically start the next one.
Constant Repetition
Some students lack ideas and repeat the same concepts or words all time long. It’s a huge mistake, and you should get rid of it. Avoid constant repetition because your sentences will lack originality. Your professors would like to see a rich vocabulary, but the use of the same words and phrases shows how poor it is.
Solution: Substitute repetitive phrases with their synonyms.
The Use of Unknown Words
Many students try to sound academically and so, implement words and terms that are too complex or completely unknown. They use professional jargon, slang, acronyms, and so on. It annoys readers because they may not understand what your scientific paper is about.
Solution: Use well-known terms, avoid abbreviations and jargon.
Incorrect Quotations
Give special heed to quoting and referencing. Every assignment has a definite writing format, and sometimes, differences between even two formats are slight. Students make quotations heedlessly to academic demands. As a result, they lose many grades because they plagiarize their texts.
Solution: Use special citing generators to make correct citations.
Watery Sentences
Some people just cannot do without worthless sentences. These are parts, which have no value for research. Students simply pour water and don’t provide any examples, explanations or conclusions. However, these are the main properties of any scientific research. Of course, such scientific papers will not receive high grades or may not receive them at all. Such sentences must be cut out.
Solution: Write only concrete statements with proper examples.
Poor Grammar
The grammatical aspect is utterly essential because this sort of errors is typical for any piece of writing. You should even review it separately and identify common grammar mistakes. There are various troublesome aspects. Amongst the most popular ones are:
- Subject and verb agreement;
- Comma misuse;
- Run-on sentences;
- Typos;
- Confusing of some words;
- Misplaced modifier;
- Apostrophe issue;
- Sentence fragments, etc.
There are multiple potential errors you should know about.
Solution: Brush up your grammar every day and repeat the most troublesome aspects.
Unclear Concepts
Many students express their thoughts with unclear suggestions. They seem to dance around a certain problem but never come to an end. They use some blurred explanations that never hit the target.
Solution: You are expected to be straight to the point and plainly express your thoughts.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are some common mistakes that are present in scientific papers. Of course, not all of them appear in the same project. Nevertheless, students tend to make several ones in their writing. You should remember and avoid them. Moreover, you ought to learn some other ones because there are more than only 10 mistakes.
Do your best and improve your writing skills and enlarge knowledge. Read textbooks, practice every day, and so on. Some students use professional help of a college research paper writing service online. Such services help to manage any academic assignment. Thus, you may easily learn some useful prompts on how to compose perfect scientific papers without any mistakes.
