Common Student Writing Issues

Produced this feedback for my students and thought other might find it useful. If you have additions, post 'em!

1. Avoid parenthetical expressions. If it's worth saying, say it in the text of your paper. Most people skip over the parentheses as they read. Save parentheses for citations.
2. Avoid lists and pairs that add text without adding meaning. Examples: "culture and society," "discussions and debates," "issues, topics, and themes."
3. Use first and last name on first usage, and last name thereafter.
4. People who; object that. The tendency is to use 'that' for everything, including people, resulting in statements such "people that like this TV show will...." Instead, phrase it as "people who like this TV show will...."
5. Double-space everything, including footnotes, box quotes, and references. You should always double-space anything for which you will receive feedback.
6. Set your word processor defaults to 12pt. Times New Roman with 1-1.5 inch margins.
7. Insert page numbers.
8. Use present tense as much as possible (with the obvious exception of when you are comparing a past period to the present--in that case, the past is the past)
9. Use active voice: "I argue that..." is preferred over "It is argued that...."
10. Write in first person as an objective sociological observer, but avoid autobiographical commentary.
11. Avoid hyperbolic statements like "All people everywhere..." and "Since the beginning of time...." The word "everyone" is a good indicator that you are heading towards hyperbole.
12. Use regular paragraph indents. Papers without paragraph indents are hard to read.
13. No contractions in formal papers. "Doesn't" becomes "does not," "Isn't" becomes "is not," etc.
14. Italicize book titles (film titles, album titles, tv show titles). Use quotation marks for article titles, chapter titles, song titles, and episode titles.
15. Reserve underlining for references to web addresses.
16. Capitalize proper nouns only. Do not capitalize concepts or 'big ideas'.
17. Do not use exclamation marks in scholarly papers.
18. Write in a straight-forward manner. "Formal" does not mean opaque. The meaning of your sentences should be clear, not ambiguous. Avoid adding needless jargon. Never use jargon without at least introducing the terminology to your readers and never use terms that you are not sufficiently familiar with.
19. Punctuation goes inside of double quotation marks and outside of single quotation marks. "This is the end of a quote." Here is a 'concept'.
20. Parenthetical citations follow the quotation marks, if they reference a quote, but come before the punctuation. "This is a cited quote" (source year).
21. One the most important parts of the revision process is to remove excess text. Remove words from sentences that do not add to the meaning. Remove sentences from paragraphs that are vague and do not move the paper forward. Remove paragraphs from sections that offer either too little or too much detail.
22. Give extra attention to the first lines of the paper, the sections, and the paragraphs. These sentences should be interesting, active, and specific. "Television is an important issue that should be addressed" is too vague and not interesting. "I argue that televisual representations of race produce, rather than merely reflect, the most common misconceptions of racial identities" is more specific and more interesting.
23. Use 2 hyphens (-) to make a dash (--). Ideally, dashes have no spaces on either side. If there is a space on one side, there must be a space on the other. In Word, if you type two hyphens and then continue with the sentence, the hyphens will transform into a dash when you next hit the space bar.
24. Parentheses should have spaces on the outside, before and after, but not on the inside. So (this) is correct; but(this) is incorrect; and (this)is incorrect.
25. "Less" and "amount" are for things that cannot be counted (e.g., air, freedom, garbage). "Fewer" and "number" are for things that are countable (molecules, people, rights). Pay attention to this to avoid using phrases like "less people" or "the amount of students." Instead, you should write "fewer people" or "number of students."
26. More and less indicate comparisons so it has to be clear what you’re comparing to: More males than females are committing suicide.
27. Watch out for commonly confused words: affect/effect, perspective/prospective, accept/except, its/it’s, your/you’re, there/their/they’re, to/too/two, then/than, passed/past.
28. Don’t discuss the paper writing process. Just write the paper. That means don’t use phrases like, “for this assignment,” “In my earlier draft” or “At the beginning of the semester.”
29. Quotations should always be introduced before and then explained after. Never open a paragraph with a quote.
30. Block quotes should be used when the quote occupies 5 lines or more. A block quote should be indented on the left hand side only, not on the right. It should be double-spaced.
31. Use semi-colons sparingly. Often, we make lists of ideas using semi-colons when we really need to be unpacking and explaining those ideas in separate sentences.
32. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Using spellcheck should never replace proofing your own paper.
33. Edit, edit, edit. Take out extra unnecessary words. Trim out vague and overly-abstract opening sentences. Remove words from sentences that do not add to the meaning. Remove sentences from paragraphs that are vague and do not move the paper forward. Remove paragraphs from sections that offer either too little or too much detail.
34. Revise, revise, revise. Often, the first phrasing that we use isn’t the best phrasing. It may be too conversational or it may be too jargony. Look for sentences that are abstract, vague, colloquial, verbose, or just plain hard to read and then revise those sentences to make the meaning clear.