Introduction
In graduate-level academic writing, many students encounter challenges with avoiding common mistakes in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and Turabian formatting. It is essential to emphasize that academic writing is a cornerstone of higher education institutions. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss some of the most common mistakes to avoid and write correctly, which is fundamental to expressing ideas adequately, synthesizing information, and exploring research interests.
Common Spelling and Punctuation Mistakes to Avoid
Spelling Errors
Spelling errors are usually related to the complexity of the English language, including the fact that some words include letters that are not pronounced. According to the recent study, the interference between words, a lack of sufficient familiarity with spelling rules, and mixing the rules of other languages are factors. The latter, in particular, means that Arabic or Chinese students can have more difficulties with proper spelling in their writing compared to American students. Confused spelling is a mistake that should be avoided to prevent misunderstanding in writing. More to the point, accuracy with spelling is one of the key attributes of being published in scholarly journals and conference proceedings.
Punctuation Rules to Remember
The paramount importance of punctuation lies in arranging phrases and sentences to enable readers to understand a writer’s ideas. In particular, punctuation indicates how exactly a reader should read sentences, which includes pace, pauses, speeding up, and slowing down. The incorrect use of apostrophes is one of the widespread mistakes since it signals contractions or possession. In graduate-level academic writing, contractions are not allowed, but one can use them to represent and document respondents’ words. In this case, it is beneficial to identify the purpose of using contractions.
A lack of use of an apostrophe is another common mistake, as it clearly demonstrates the belongingness of an object or a person. For example, writing becomes flawed if a writer does not add “s” to Ann’s book. Moreover, the possessive form of “it” is often confusing to students, and they should remember that “its” is not a word, while “it’s” implies “it is”.
Common Grammar Mistakes to Avoid
Modifier Errors
Modifiers take the role of explaining and detailing some elements in sentences. When a modifier is misplaced, it refers to a dangling modifier mistake (Exhausted and thirsty, they looked like they were waiting for rescuers to come and help). In this case, it would be better to improve the above sentence and write: Exhausted and thirsty, they were waiting for rescuers to come and help.
Dangling modifier mistakes occur when an object or a person to be modified seems to be missing in a sentence. According to Heady, “Every clause or phrase acting as an adverb or adjective must modify another word or phrase in the sentence in a grammatical fashion”.
For instance, this sentence contains the mentioned error: Tired and full of anger, it would be a long time before the next meeting. Instead, it would be better to write, “Tired and full of anger, it would be (or they knew it would be) a long time before the next meeting”. By avoiding modifier mistakes, graduate-level academic writers can compose their sentences more appealingly and accurately, thus enhancing the rigorousness of their writing.
Sentence Structure Mistakes
Run-on sentences and comma splices are frequent sentence structure errors. Supplemental words or punctuation marks are required when one, two, or more independent clauses are connected with one comma. The following sentence can be classified as a run-on sentence, which should be corrected: Mary prefers writing email letters; she would do it daily. For example, it is possible to use such conjunctions as therefore, however, nevertheless, yet, et cetera, which coordinate the sentence’s meaning.
Another option is adding a semicolon to indicate the sentence connection. It should also be emphasized that in some cases, a complex sentence can be divided into two or more short sentences. However, fragmented sentences can be challenging to understand, and applying them only to make a particular effect is recommended.
Common Turabian Formatting Mistakes to Avoid
The Turabian referencing style is named after the book’s author, Kate Turabian, who wrote it for the University of Chicago. Except for minor differences, the Turabian style is similar to the Chicago citation style. However, the latter is a guide for publications in general. At the same time, Turabian’s “Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations” is an instruction for preparing and presenting dissertation papers.
Note-Bibliography and Author-Date Formats
The first mistake is related to choosing a proper citation system. More precisely, two central citation systems are allowed in this style: the note-bibliography and author-date formats. The bibliographic style is mainly used in literature, history, and art. This style represents bibliographic information in page footnotes or endnotes, which are usually integrated in a bibliographic list. A more precise author-date style is used in the exact and social sciences. Adopting this system, students should remember that sources should be briefly cited in brackets in the text by the author’s name and date of publication.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is considered to be unacceptable in graduate-level academic writing. To prevent plagiarism cases, it is critical to recognize and use the ideas of other authors, making sure that they are properly cited either as direct quotations or paraphrases. It is possible to summarize a broad theoretical concept or generalized information when referring to several authors or sources of information.
As stated by Heady, “you need sufficient evidence to support every claim you make”. In addition, graduate students are expected to professionally find the sources of materials cited by authors, familiarize themselves with them, and ensure the data from these sources is reliable. Most importantly, the sources used should demonstrate the scope and depth of research on a topic of interest.
Another common mistake many students make is fitting a quotation into sentences. Sometimes the quotation you find may not fit grammatically into the sentence you have written. In this case, you may change a word or two of the quotation (usually a verb conjugation or pronoun form) without changing the meaning or the content. You indicate that you have made a change by putting the new words in brackets ([xxx]).
As an example, one may consider the following sentence: White claims that “he was not recognized during his life”. This sentence narrates about Shakespeare, but it is unclear to the readers. Therefore, it would be better to clarify the name of the person mentioned in the sentence.
If a quotation contains an error of any type, it should be indicated that the writer uses the original words that are correctly cited. Speaking about quotation errors, one should also point out that excessively long quotations should be organized as block quotations. Namely, if a student uses one or more sentences over five lines, it should be formatted without quotation marks, begin on a new line, and have an introductory phrase.
Lastly, the footnote format is another element of the Turabian referencing system that causes many errors. Among the most widespread issues is a single-spaced format of footnotes and indention. The font size also should be different from the main text (as a rule, it is 10 Times New Roman, while 12 Times New Roman for the entire writing).
Many graduate students omit the space between the note’s text and the cited page number—the use of Ibid. Often disregarded in writing, which should be used when citing the same source more than twice. Ultimately, both a publication place and a publisher should be taken in brackets in footnotes.
Conclusion
To conclude, this paper discusses common spelling, punctuation, grammar, and Turabian style formatting errors to circumvent in graduate-level academic writing. It has been discovered that spelling errors are primarily associated with interference between words, mixing the rules of different languages, or low awareness of spelling rules. Apostrophes and contractions are the key punctuation challenges, while modifier and sentence structure mistakes should be avoided regarding grammar accuracy. Common Turabian formatting mistakes refer to choosing between and correctly applying author-date and note-bibliography formats, plagiarism, quotation, and footnotes.
Bibliography
Al-Tamimi, Nasser Omer Mubarak. “An Investigation of Academic Writing Errors among Tertiary Level Students at Hadhramout University: A Perception Study.” Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 5, no. 2 (2018): 214-227.
Heady, Emily. Introduction to Graduate Writing. 2nd ed. Lynchburg, VA: Liberty University Graduate Writing Center, 2013.
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 9th ed. London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.