In general, before and after writing your paper, you should review:
- the Paper Guidelines
- the Writing Style Rules
- and the Sample Writing Style Mistakes
| What I say about your paper | What I mean when I write that | What you can do to fix the mistake(s) |
| Writing style mistakes | You have made multiple errors according to the required writing style rules for the course, such as incorrect use of first-person pronouns. | Review the Writing Style Rules. |
| Grammatical, or English usage, errors | You have made multiple, serious mistakes according to the rules of English grammar, such as the use of sentence fragments | Check an online Guide to Grammar and Writing or Dr. Diane Thompson's Grammar and Editing Help. |
| Incorrect verb tense | You did not use the past tense in all of your writing as required by the Writing Style Rules. | Change your verb tenses accordingly. |
| Cap | Incorrect capitalization | Check an online Guide to Grammar and Writing or Dr. Diane Thompson's Grammar and Editing Help. |
| Unclear (Sometimes written as just [?]) | Statement, phrase or wording is just not clear to me. (I don't know what you mean.) | Read the sentence out loud to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word to make sure it reads exactly as you think it should. |
| Awkward (Sometimes just abbreviated as [K]) | Statement, phrase or wording is awkward (Could be wordy or poor word choices.) | Read the sentence out loud to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word to make sure it conveys the precise meaning that you wish. |
| Relevance | Statement or phrase is of uncertain relevance to the assigned question. | Re-examine your sentence to make sure that it is absolutely necessary to answer the assigned question. |
| Paper lacks proper paragraph structure. | Your paper does not have distinct parts (introduction, paragraphs, conclusion) as required by the Paper Guidelines. | Make corrections per the Paper Guidelines. |
| No thesis | Your paper lacks a clear statement of thesis, i.e., your answer to the assigned question and how your paper will be organized. | Add a proper thesis statement. |
| Spelling | You have made one or more spelling mistakes in your paper. | Check your dictionary or dictionary.com. Do not rely on your spell-check program to catch all spelling errors. (It is good practice NOT to misspell your instructor's name.) |
| Vague | I do not understand what you are saying because your statement is too general or broad. | Read the sentence out loud to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word for specific meaning. |