There are common errors in English that students tend to make in their papers. In some case, these mistakes can be explained by the fact that people rely too much on text editors; they forget that these programs cannot fully substitute human reasoning. Sometimes, people merely lack attention and fail to notice typos or grammar mistakes. Here is an overview of common errors in the English language that people should be aware of.

Common Errors in English: The Danger of Typos

Misspellings are probably the most common mistakes in English that ESL students and even native speakers sometimes make. Special attention should be paid to words which look or sound similarly, for example:

1. Week vs. weak. Don’t confuse a period of seven days with someone who is lacking in physical or mental strength.
2. Two vs. too. Again, there is no need to use a numeral and an adverb interchangeably.
3. Advise (verb) vs. Advice (noun).
4. Desert vs. Dessert. Again, a waterless land has nothing to do with sweat meals.
5. Then (adverb) vs. than (conjunction).
6. Right vs. write.
7. See vs. sea.
8. Vocation (an occupation) vs. vacation (a break that is taken from studies or work).

These are quite common errors in English, and they cannot be eliminated by text editors because they don’t understand what exactly a person had in mind when writing a sentence. In addition, students shouldn’t forget lexical mistakes. Proper word choice is a vital component of a good paper. Here are some common mistakes you should keep in mind:

1. Ascribe (to give credit to) vs. describe (depict);
3. Affect as opposed to effect;
4. To regret of something. In this case, the preposition of is not necessary.
5. Anyways instead of anyway. Remember that the first word anyways is too colloquial and it cannot be used in a paper.
6. To borrow vs. to loan. The first verb means to receive money from somebody, whereas loan means to give money to somebody.
7. Another vs. other. Again, this is a common error in English. Another generally means extra or one more, while other implies difference between two or more things.

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Response papers are meant to teach you how to become an active reader. When preparing for response essays, you will need to investigate the text, picking on details and evaluating peculiarities. In this way, you will create personal associations and commit the information from the text to your long-term memory. This quick guide will help you write excellent response papers and receive only excellent grades for them.

Response paper: main goals

When writing a response essay, your main goals are:

• to show that you perfectly understand the author’s messages (by providing a brief summary);
• analyze the authors’ style and techniques;
• express your personal opinion about the text under analysis
• explain why the work affected you the way it did.

Response paper: good starters

How to write a response paper? Imagine that you have a unique chance to write a letter to the author and share your opinion of his/her work and ideas concerning the discussed problem. Respect the author and show that you have done your homework and you have something to say about the text. However, you should note that the author already knows what his/her text contains and therefore, if you provide a summary, it should be a very brief one and followed by your concrete response to the ideas and text itself.
 
What you always need to add toresponse papers is a discussion of the ideas and impressions that you had after reading. To do this, you could try for instance to answer the following questions:

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Are you dancing with joy because you have just completed the last page of your dissertation? Congratulations! Now you can relax for a while and prepare for effective dissertation editing. You are welcome to look through this editing checklist and discover little-known secrets of effective editing, shared by professional dissertation editors.

Dissertation editing: organization

The first question arising in the process of dissertation editing is: “Have I missed anything?” Here is a list of optional and mandatory elements to include in your thesis:

• blank pages at the beginning and at the end of your project (for binding);
• title page (page number does not appear on it);
• abstract (about 350 words);
• approval page (ask your supervisors to sign it in black ink after you print the final version);
• dedication page (it is optional, but if you decide to include it, make it brief);
• table of contents (requires page numbers for each chapter and should not be confused with an outline);
• list of tables;
• list of figures;
• list of abbreviations and symbols;
• body of thesis divided into chapters (page numbers start on the first page of the text);
• appendices with titles;
• references.

Dissertation editing: format

Another important issue you should tackle in the process of dissertation editing is related to format requirements:

1. Body text should be left-aligned;
2. ALL web links should be tested to ensure they are correct and still valid;
3. each heading should have either no subheading at all, or at least two of them;
4. each headibg should have at least two lines of text below it;
5. ALL direct quotes should have a page number (if you cite the text exactly as it is, make certain to include a page number);
6. ALL entries in references should appear in correct alphabetical order.

Dissertation editing: a checklist for logic

After you have properly organized and formatted your text, you may proceed to an even more serious part of dissertation editing, namely the revision of ideas and style. Here is a checklist for your argumentation:

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A dissertation abstract has to summarize the goals of a study, its methodology, hypothesis, and findings.
 
This article will explain how students should write this part of a thesis. Overall, the abstract must be very informative and concise.
 
It is supposed to give the reader a good idea of what the research was about. You won’t have any difficulties with this task, if you take a look at the tips provided in this article.

Dissertation Abstracts: Their Constituent Parts

Prior to writing a dissertation abstract, one should first understand what people expect to find in this part of the paper. As a rule, people read dissertation abstracts to get the gist of the whole dissertation. They want to see the following things:

1. A brief overview of the key questions that a student discussed in the dissertation;
2. The main hypothesis or hypotheses that the author advanced and tested;
3. The research methodology of the study;
4. Sample size. It is particularly important for studies based on quantitative research methods.
5. The tools and techniques that were used for the analysis of data, such as ANNOVA or T-test;
6. The main findings and their implications.

Dissertation Abstracts: Important Guidelines and Rules

On the whole, there are several useful rules that will help you write this section of your dissertation. You will do well to consider the following recommendations:

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You’re quite an avid gamer, aren’t you? You’ve been through all the arcade games and MMORPGs that were ever made.
 
However, there’s one more game left. And that’s writing a PhD thesis on a current problem.
 
No more “how write a thesis” questions! Take your joystick, check your mouse and WASD keys and start the game!

PhD Thesis Definition: Read All Game Instructions Carefully!

First of all, you need to know what you’re dealing with. What is PhD thesis writing?
 
A thesis is nothing but a long research on a certain topic in order to obtain a Doctoral degree.
 
That’s it! This is a thesis PhD students write.
 
Let’s go to the next level!

PhD Thesis Structure: Another Logical Mastermind Game to Handle.

This time, you’re in for a game of logics. Here are the tips to arrange your paper and get ready to write it the right way:

1. Start with the parts that you know best;
2. Deal with the backbone of the thesis first;
3. Add specific and concrete details to dry facts or theories;
4. Add bright tables to illustrate the main relationships and statistical data;
5. Use consistently specific terms and phrases to show your understanding of the issue;
6. Support every idea in your paper with concrete evidence from data or existing papers and books;
7. Do not restate your findings in the conclusion – interpret them!

Are you done? Good, you’ve reached the PhD student checkpoint! And now get ready for an old game to play…

PhD Thesis Writing: Avoid Typical Mistakes. Minesweeper Tactics.

Welcome to the 5D-Minesweeper game! It’s time to learn where the mines are, so that you don’t tread on them when writing the paper:
 

 
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