Five Writing Mistakes to Stop Making in College

Written by Lauren Smyth

It’s 11:39 p.m. You’ve forgotten what fresh air smells like. You can distinguish every pixel on your computer screen. Your mother has called twice, and you’ve hung up on her both times because this paper just has to be perfect.

You know that the answers to all your grammar questions are probably somewhere in the Turabian style guide, but you’re not about to sit down and read it straight through. (Given that you’re a Hillsdale student, you’d probably rather read War and Peace in one sitting.) Instead, you start Googling. How do I use semicolons correctly? How to use semicolon? Semicolon?? Grammarly free download. Is Grammarly plagiarism? What happens if I fail a class?

Good news: Your worries are (mostly) over. In this article, I’ll share some of the most common grammar and style mistakes students make that professors will spot in a second. If you avoid these, you’ll already be halfway to a shiny A on your transcript.

Style: Actually, just stay away from semicolons. Dr. Richard Gamble, a history professor, once quipped that students’ semicolon rights should be revoked until junior year. These funny-looking punctuation marks are dangerous because they squash together unrelated thoughts that would probably be better separated by a period.

Here’s a sample sentence from a Great Books II paper:

Throughout the beginning of Moby-Dick, Ishmael is an ever-present narrator, whimsically recounting events from within his limited point of view. Chapter 44 stands out as one of the first times Ishmael is absent from the story.

The first sentence is about Ishmael. The second mentions Ishmael, but beware—it’s actually about Chapter 44. Joining these two sentences with a semicolon would result in a confusing sentence with two major subjects that have little to do with each other. Don’t do it.

Semicolons may sometimes be used for dramatic effect with very short sentences. Here’s a sample from later in the same paper:

“Ishmael loves his fellow men; Ahab is monomaniacally narcissistic. Ishmael depends on rationality; Ahab blames the supernatural for every inconvenience.”

Within this parallel structure, semicolons made the contrast between Ishmael and Ahab clear without needlessly repeating “but” or “while.” This makes the phrases more colorful, but when in doubt, it’s better to avoid semicolons altogether.

Grammar: Use a pronoun that matches the verb and points to a clear antecedent. Beware especially of long sentences, where the noun and the “it” you later use to refer to the same thing are spaced far apart.

This sentence appeared in an exam essay:

When [bad journalism] conveys meaning, it is uncomfortable to read, and whether it means anything or not, it is often outright lies cloaked by perverted English.

Here, the pronoun “it” (bolded) refers to the singular “bad journalism.” Notice that they are separated by 14 words and three major punctuation marks, leaving plenty of room for the writer (me) to forget what she’s talking about. A mistake here would be to use “they” instead of “it.”

Notice how, in the sentence above, there’s no doubt about what any of the “its” refer to. Then consider this one:

Edward, Bob’s friend, told Mark that Professor So-and-so caught him cheating on the exam.

Who cheated? We can only guess. “Him” (bolded) is an ambiguous pronoun that could be referring to Edward, Bob, or Mark. When you use a pronoun, make sure there can be no doubt about which noun it replaces.

Style: Avoid clichés like the plague. Worn-out phrases such as “like the plague” signal that you didn’t take the time to think of your own expression.

Here’s a sentence from a journalism essay:

The one redeeming factor about those sentences is that, although they are fluid and neat as a rusty door hinge, they say what they mean and they mean what they say.

I bet you can guess exactly how those sentences sounded, even though you don’t know what they were. Consider how much stronger “fluid and neat as a rusty door hinge” sounds than “a pain in the neck to read.” Not only does that cliché make no sense (do necks read nowadays? Why does reading hurt your neck?) but it also sucks all the color and intrigue out of the expression. You’ve heard about pains in the neck too many times to get upset about them, but a rusty door hinge is probably still annoying.

Grammar: Apostrophes are for possession or contraction, and they don’t make words plural. You can avoid an apostrophe catastrophe by remembering that the plural of cat is cats, not cat’s. For example:

This cat’s toy is on the floor. (Singular + possessive = apostrophe)

It’s almost time for dinner. (Abbreviation of a verb = apostrophe)

The cats are lying on the blanket. (Plural = no apostrophe)

These cats’ favorite thing to do is sleep. (Plural + possessive = apostrophe after the s)

Who knew cats were great at teaching grammar?

Style: Express only one central idea per paragraph. It’s OK if some of your paragraphs are shorter than others. This variety is interesting and generally encouraged. (If you discover that all your paragraphs are short, however, you may want to consider whether you’ve gathered enough information.) The purpose of paragraph breaks is to let the reader know that they can take a breath before moving on to a related but different topic. If you’re writing about the benefits of eating crackers and cheese, for example, you’d want to put a paragraph break between the benefits of crackers and the benefits of cheese, and another break before the benefits of both together.

When in doubt, err on the side of including a break. Choppy paragraphs aren’t hard to read if they’re at least organized by topic, but not even the most interested reader can stick it out through a paragraph that covers seven things and spans two pages.

These five tips will help make your next late-night editing session a little less stressful. But if you still need help, why not check out the writing center? Not only is it open until 10:00 p.m. (the time when some of us are just waking up), but you can also hang out after your appointment to study in a quiet, academic space.

Here’s one vital thing to remember when you’re editing: Writing is not a mystical, subjective discipline that you’ve either mastered from birth or are doomed to never understand. Writing can be learned. If your first college paper grade dismays you, there’s no need to panic. That’s what Academic Services, office hours, and other student writers are for—to help you learn, grow, and develop confidence in your ability to communicate effectively.

Lauren Smyth, ’25, is an economics major and journalism minor. Outside of starting arguments in philosophy class, she enjoys curling up on a bench outdoors (sun, rain, or snow) to write novels or articles for her blog, www.laurensmythbooks.com.

Published in September 2023