TOP 10 COMMON MISTAKES
STUDENTS MAKE WHEN
WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
1. Not reading the instructor’s directions and/or clarifying the assignment requirements!
2. Waiting until the last minute to start / work on it!
Leave plenty of time to find sources (check directions about how many and what kind you need), read, write, go to the Writing Center, revise, (visit ELC for grammar help?) and proofread. Look at your calendar and plan.
3. Using general websites (.com, .net, .org) or Wikipedia
USE THE LIBRARY WEBSITE DATABASES for articles!!
4. Leaving Works Cited / References and citations until the end of the process.
It is much simpler to create your Works Cited / References FIRST. Using the library website helps tremendously with this. Having this set up makes it much easier to do in-text citations.
5. Neglecting to keep track of where information is coming from – which articles, books, etc.
6. Writing back to back quotes without your own words.
Your paper should be about 1/3 sources and 2/3 your words. You need to introduce your quotes and comment/respond/explain them!
7. Using first person pronouns: I, me, my and other pronouns: you, us, we, one, etc.
Instead use phrases like: It seems… According to… Research points to… Researchers claim…
8. Generalizing and overgeneralizing without statistics and citations!
Write: Some people might think… Based on the research…, It is probably…
Don’t write: Everyone knows…, We think…, Most people say…
9. Assuming that everyone is familiar with your abbreviations.
Always spell it out first, and then put parentheses around abbreviation. Example: American Medical Association (AMA). Then you can use AMA for the rest of the paper.
10. Spending time worrying about how to fill the number of pages and/or getting stuck on the introduction.
Create an outline and just start writing…. The introduction can be written later.
Created by Janice Grant Menes
November 2016
