Essay Faults and Fixes
1) No first person – express your views without the first-person pronoun “I,” “we” – do not write, “I believe…” or “I think…” No second person – “you,” “us”
2) Spelling and Capitalization – really? Names, Places, etc.
3) No contractions in formal writing.
4) Present tense when referring to literature…Elie and his father are forced to run from one camp to another…not were forced.
5) Upgrade your vocabulary: remove “a lot” from your vocabulary = a great deal, many, several, groups of people, hordes of people, etc.
6) Upgrade your verbs = remove “get, got, getting” from your vocabulary =
You cannot was anything…use verbs that indicate action=
This sentence states two specific actions that the reader can visualize.
7) Do not start answers, essays or any writing with phrases like “this quote applies” or “this quote means” or “the quote says”…the author or characters says and thinks – not the quote – it is the creation of the thought the author invented.
8) Plural or possessive? Do you know the difference?
There is no apostrophe when a word is plural – simply add an s…Nazis, Germans
Add an apostrophe (‘s) to show ownership or possession - the cat's bowl (1 cat/ 1 bowl), the cats' bowls (many cats /many bowls)
No apostrophe in dates – 1950s
9) MLA format in all things - running header, essay heading, quotation set-up, etc.
10) Reference or name the literature correctly – is it a book? Yes…but more specifically it is a novel.