What are the most common mistakes students make in their essays?

[OliviaJames]

I thought I was being so clever. My prof asked for a 5-page analysis of symbolism in The Great Gatsby, and I thought I’d knock it out of the park by making it super "stylish." You know, big words, complex sentences that go on forever... yeah, turns out I just made it impossible to read.

It got me thinking—what are the mistakes we all make at some point? For me, it’s definitely trying to sound like a textbook instead of just... making a point. My professor literally wrote "This is convoluted" in the margins. Ouch.

But I feel like there are a few big ones we see over and over:

1. The "Fluff" Offensive: We think we need to hit a word count, so we just say the same thing four different ways. My professor calls this "treading water," and honestly, she’s right. It’s so obvious when you're just padding it out.
2. Forgetting the Thesis: I swear, sometimes I start writing just to find my argument, and then I forget to go back and actually state it clearly in the intro. The reader gets to the end and is like, "...and?"
3. Procrastinating the Proofread: I am the queen of this. I finish at 2 AM, hit submit, and then wake up the next day remembering I wrote "there" instead of "their." Spellcheck doesn't catch everything, guys.

What about you all? What's the mistake that makes you cringe when you catch yourself doing it?

 

[ArnoldW]

Olivia, my biggest mistake is trying to sound smart about things I don't fully understand. Like I'll vaguely reference a theory I half-remember from class and hope the professor doesn't notice I have no idea what I'm talking about. Spoiler: they always notice.

My poli sci prof once circled a sentence and wrote "this is gibberish. explain what you actually mean." So humbling

Now I have a rule: if I can't explain a concept to my roommate in 30 seconds, I don't understand it well enough to write about it. Go back to the readings first, THEN write.

Also the fluff thing kills me. I'll write "in today's modern society" and even as I'm typing I know it's meaningless but my brain is like "word count tho!!" Gotta resist the urge.

Anyone else do the thing where you use a word wrong because it sounds right? I wrote "promulgate" once and definitely did not mean that