I have identified certain problem
areas in your writing. Not all of these will apply to any one of you (hopefully),
but I feel most will find at least some of this useful. I have not let these
hurt your scores much (if at all) since we have all been through enough these
past few months and I did not want to be too strict. However, in the interest
of your further academic development, I did not want you to think that
everything is okay and that you can continue doing what you have been doing. Even
though it is not much, I hope this will help you produce better writing tasks in
the future.
1. Paragraphing
Problem: In quite a few cases, the whole
body of the essay was only one paragraph. This habit probably stems from your
high school compositions, but it is detrimental to the development of your
writing skills. Every paragraph should represent one idea. Therefore, in this
case you either had only one thing to say about the topic, which is
insufficient, or you jumbled multiple ideas into one paragraph, which is bad
form and a disservice to the reader.
Solution: Plan your essay in
advance. Decide which ideas you want to cover and develop each of them into a
paragraph. Use topic sentences. If what you want to say does not directly support
the current topic sentence, start a new paragraph.
2. Register
Problem: In many cases, the vocabulary used throughout was more suited to
an article than an essay. There are no consistent structural differences
between the two forms, so register is often used as a distinguishing feature.
Solution: Avoid using contractions, phrasal verbs and informal vocabulary
in general. Additionally, try to avoid starting sentences with a coordinating conjunction.
3. Topic
coverage
Problem: This mainly refers to the
topic Stereotypes – a necessary evil. In some cases, you ignored the second
half of the topic and just wrote about stereotypes in general. That was not the
topic. The topic was specifically about the purpose and use of stereotypes (basically
why they exist and what they are used for), which is similar, but not the same.
Solution: Read the topic fully. Try
to cover each and every aspect of it. If at all unsure, ask you teacher (or
anyone else giving you topics to write about) for clarification. I am sure they
will be happy to help.
4. Vague vocabulary
Problem: This mainly (but not exclusively) refers to using the terms et
cetera/and so on. These should only be used if you are partially referencing a
list that is given in full elsewhere. The reader needs to know what exactly et
cetera means and stands for. Since no full list of items is ever provided, these
terms become vague and mean close to nothing.
Solution: Do not use these terms, or provide a full list and then use them
to reference it.
5. Word
count
Problem: In most cases, the word
count was higher than what was requested. I did not lower your score for this at
all because this was just more rope to hang yourselves with (for clarity: more
words -> more possibilities for errors -> lower score). However, in a real-world
setting, this can get your written production thrown out immediately.
Solution: Respect the word count. If
you go over, edit your work and remove unnecessary details. Try to be succinct
wherever possible. Additionally, in the interest of word economy, try to avoid
using adjectives and adverbs as crutches. English has a myriad of words to
choose from and there is a very real possibility that you can convey the same
meaning using only one word instead of two or three.
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