common writing mistakes

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

Tips to improve academic writing

1. Nominalisation

Let's have a look at Nominalisation

(nouns instead of verbs)

We evaluated the results and this explains the loss in revenue.

1. An evaluation of results provides an explanation to the loss in revenue.

2. The rapid increase in student numbers is causing concern at the University. More accommodation may have to be built in order to house everyone.

Student numbers are increasing rapidly from year to year and the University is becoming concerned that they may need to build more accommodation in order to house everyone.

2. Parallelism

Parallelism is the use of similar structure in related words, clauses, or phrases. It creates a sense of rhythm and balance within a sentence.

I came, I saw, I conquered --> Not I came, I was seeing, I will conquer

The finale was illogical, rushed and disappointing --> Not The finale was illogical, rushed, and it disappointed.

Improve these example sentences with faulty parallelism:

1. Kelly had to iron, do the washing, and shopping before her parents arrived.
2. Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and to have good eyesight.
3. Ali prefers jeans to wearing a suit.

All of the example sentences contain faulty parallelism. Although they are factually correct, the construction is clunky and confusing. In the first example, three different verb forms are used. In the second and third examples, the writer begins each sentence by using a noun (coordination, jeans), but ends with a phrase (to have good eyesight, wearing a suit).

1.  Kelly had to do the ironing, washing, and shopping before her parents arrived.

2. Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and good eyesight.

3. Ali prefers wearing jeans to wearing a suit.

When these sentences are written using a parallel structure, they sound more aesthetically pleasing because they are balanced. Repetition of grammatical construction also minimizes the amount of work the reader has to do to decode the sentence. This enables the reader to focus on the main idea in the sentence and not on how the sentence is put together.

She likes cooking, jogging, and to read

The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted away

3. Passives

Don't use You/ I/ We

--> Rephrase your sentences 

We feel that the government should take action.

Someone has called an election.