In stressing good writing I have noticed that several errors appear repeatedly, year after year.  I believe it is preferable to prevent a mistake before it is made than to correct it after it is made.  Over the years I have kept a record of the kinds of mistakes my students commonly made in their term papers and other written work.  They are categorized and listed below.  If you will follow these tips you will be a better writer.

• Taking all your sources from the internet.  Yes, it is more convenient to do so but libraries and books still exist and they should be used.  Much good material is not on the internet, especially older material.  Also, internet material is not necessarily reliable.
• One-sentence paragraphs.  One-sentence paragraphs as used in newspapers and in U.S. News and World Report should not be used.
• Lengthy paragraphs.  Paragraphs should begin with a topic sentence which should then be followed by a few sentences that appropriately develop the topic.  When that is done you are ready for a new topic and a new paragraph.
• Incomplete sentences.  Sentences must, at the very least have a subject and a verb.  If they do not, they are fragments, not real sentences.
• Use of a comma as a conjunction, otherwise known as a comma splice.  “The bank was closed, I couldn’t cash my check.”  is incorrect.  “Since the bank was closed, I couldn’t cash my check.” and “I couldn’t cash my check because the bank was closed.” are correct.  Be careful not to use commas unnecessarily; they are used for a purpose, not for decoration.
• Many direct quotes.  Direct quotes are appropriate at times but your objective is to analyze, not recite the literature.  Your paper should be more than a “cut and paste” job of one quote after another.
• Long quotes.  When you decide to use the words of another author, make the passage brief and be 100% certain that you give that author the appropriate credit the correct way.
• Contractions.  Contractions are acceptable in every-day conversation but they are not acceptable in a scholarly paper.
• Colloquialisms (“ease the pinch”, “get the ball rolling”).  The same (as in #7 above) is true of colloquialisms but it is even more important that they be avoided because their meanings may not be  as clear as those of contractions.  An occasional humorous phrase, inside quotation marks, used to add flavor, however, can be welcome.
• Crudities.  Crudities, profane language, and other vulgarities simply have no place in a scholarly paper.  Leave them out. (Why not leave them out of your life as well?)
• Split infinitives.  “Not to go,” not “to not go.”
• Dangling participles.  Example:  “Hanging on a nail in the closet, I found my tie.”  Were you hanging on the nail?
• Oxymorons.  Saying something is “somewhat unique” does not make sense.  What you really mean is “somewhat unusual.”  If something is unique, it is unique; it cannot be partially or somewhat unique.
• Abbreviations.  Abbreviations in the text of a scholarly paper, such as etc., i.e., e.g., and so forth, are the mark of an abbreviated education.  You also should avoid the U.S. Postal Service abbreviations for states (KY, TN, VA).  If you do not know how to spell Tennessee, it is time you learned.  Even worse are the now-obsolete abbreviations Ky., Tenn., Calif., and so forth.  (Footnotes are another matter.  Abbreviations in footnotes are not only acceptable, they are encouraged.  Writing “Ibid., p. 128.” makes much more sense than repeating the entire previous footnote while changing only the page number.)
• Using “it’s” for “its.”  If you need to use the possessive pronoun, use “its.”  “It’s” is the contraction for “it is” which you should avoid anyway.
• The wrong tense.  Students sometimes say something like “Barnard states that organizations are cooperative social systems.”  Barnard made that argument in 1937, and he now is dead.  That puts him in the past tense.
• Beginning a sentence with a conjunction.  Ending a sentence with a preposition is opposed by purists but, due to the awkwardness created by avoiding it, it is something up with which I will put.  Beginning a sentence with a conjunction, however, (However, beginning a sentence with a conjunction,. . .) is something I will not put up with.  Students:  are you paying attention ?????
• Dividing topic headings or sections of your paper into one part, as follows:

                    A. ____________

            If II does not have more than one part you probably should use A for II.  On the
                other hand, if you have an A you should also have a B.  You also should avoid

• Though.  Don’t ever use this word in a scholarly paper.  “However” is a good substitute but see above.
• Using the word "feel" for think, believe, have concluded, and so forth.
• Hopefully.
• Refer back.
• Thing and things.
• Misspelled words.
• A propensity for polysyllabic pseudoprofundities.
• All other errors.
• Excuses.

• Be careful with the findings and assertions of advocacy groups.  Many interest groups have their own websites (in addition to books, pamphlets, and flyers) with all sorts of graphics and links.  These are designed to win support for their positions.  The information may be perfectly accurate and correct but, on the other hand, it is likely to be one-sided.  Do not accept their findings uncritically but obtain independent confirmation in other places from other sources.
• Remember good organization is one of the most essential ingredients of a good paper.  Group similar topics and sub-topics together; this will form your outline.  Then write from your outline.
• Purchase and use a good style manual.  They are available in any good bookstore.  You may also consult Bibliography Styles Handbook and/or Citation Guide for Internet Sources.
• Read and digest Strictly Speaking by Edwin Newman.
• Learn how to prepare footnotes and bibliographies.  Journal articles and scholarly books are full of them.  Remember that Ibid. and op. cit. are from a foreign language (Latin) and should, therefore, be underlined or italicized.  They also are abbreviations which end with periods.  Footnotes in the form of ibid, p. 6. are incorrect and irritating!
• Use original sources if possible.  If one author quotes another source and you want to use it, go to the original source.  Going to the original source will enable you to make certain the passage is copied correctly and it will also enable you to have a better “feel” for the context of the passage.  The same is true for a collection of articles in a reader:  go to the original publication if you possibly can.
• Learn the difference between principle and principal, past and passed, complimentary and complementary, to, too, and two, fewer and less, unusual and unique, their and there, and so forth.
• Hyphenate at the end of a line only between syllables, not just when you hit the margin, and if you will have fewer than four letters at the beginning of the next line do not hyphenate.  In other words, hy/phen/ate, not hyph/en/ate.
• Indent on both sides and single space quotations that exceed five lines.
• Learn how to form possessives, and remember, “it’s” is not the possessive of “it.”
• Be careful about the subject/verb and pronoun/antecedent agreements.  “Most conflicts that takes place ...”, “The city manager ... they ...”, “Each university has a broad mission statement of their own ...” are incorrect.  Plural subjects require plural verbs, plural nouns require plural pronouns, singular subjects require singular verbs, and singular nouns require singular pronouns.  “Most conflicts that take place are . . .” and “Each university has a mission statement of its own . . .” are, however, [not “though”] correct.  And, please remember that “who” refers to people while “which” refers to everything else.
• Get a good typist if you are not one yourself.
• Proofread your paper after permitting at least 24 hours to elapse since you last read it.  Ask yourself as you do so if you have ever seen writing like yours in good books, magazines, and newspapers.  If you haven’t, you probably need to work on it some more.
• Follow all directions.
• Turn in your paper on time.  Remember to allow time for your printer to break down at least once and for other calamities of modern technology.
• Print your paper on a laser or ink jet printer with the basic text in #12 font, using standard margins.
• Do your own work and do original work.  I’m not interested in a warmed-over version of a paper you wrote in the eighth grade.  But, if you are going to join J. R. Ewing and try to pass off a previously-used paper as yours or original, at least have the sense to print a fresh copy; don’t turn it in to me with the previous teacher’s corrections still on it like one student did last year.  Reminds me of the story about the student who handed in his final, in-class English theme typewritten . . . .
• Remember:  Sloppy writing means sloppy thinking.  Why be a loser?