The English Composition Paper is marked for grammar and content.
Imagine writing a wonderful argumentative and statistical essay relating to world politics and actions with completely unhinged grammar?
What I am trying to say is that writing with good grammar makes a difference.
It can make the difference between a pass and a fail grade in English Composition.
These are the ways in which your English Composition can reach a fail grade due to bad grammar and other common errors:
Terrible Grammar Mistakes
I) Firstly, what are terrible grammar mistakes?
The first terrible mistake will be tense mistakes.
Students always start with the past tense and switch to the present tense when discussing something in the present and forget to revert to the past when they recount the experience.
In an argumentative essay, it may be in the same tense throughout as most examples are regarding the most recent happenings such as the COVID-19 situation which is always escalating.
In such cases, it is best to review the entire English Composition after finishing it and check to ensure that the tense remains the same from the beginning till the end.
Leaving enough time to check for tense errors can help you to steer clear of all those red marks for errors and you may actually get one grade higher in English Composition.
II) Writing with poor grammar incomprehensibly is a worse mistake than tense.
Look at the example below.
“I wanted to tell him but telling him was so difficult it costed me suffering and avoiding it I went home and finding my father who waited for me behind the door I tell him what he wants to know.”
Ok…
Apart from the fact that you wanted to ‘tell’ and that your father was behind the door, everything else is baffling. It is actually terrible.
This is what I meant by ‘terrible grammar mistakes.’
How do you avoid it?
Divide the sentence into 2 parts. And use only one tense. The past tense.
III) Writing very long sentences without reaching the end.
It may take up the entire paragraph. It is just an entire run-on-line.
This is a really bad way of writing English Composition as you are Bound to make mistakes.
Always write simple sentences. And tell your story that way.
Simple, shorter sentences help you to avoid grammar mistakes as you will be able to ‘see’ your mistakes clearly.
I tell all my students to write shorter sentences and have more meaning in them.
Once you opt for this style, you will find that your mistakes will be reduced in English Composition.
“Wait”, you may say. Are not shorter sentences rather immature?
Not at all.
If you infuse enough meaning or content in them, it need not be short.
A short sentence can comprise around 10 – 12 words. That is not too short and it can still make an impact on your writing.
Spelling Mistakes
One of the worst and most common errors besides grammar is ‘spelling’ mistakes.
It is always dreadful to see the same word with the spelling mistake appear repeatedly throughout the English Composition.
For instance, the word ‘astounded.’ Or the word ‘meaningless.’
If a student was to misspell as ‘astunded’ or ‘meaningles’, and this is repeated throughout, the entire standard of the English Composition will be affected.
You will definitely lose several marks for this as each mistake will cost you.
How to avoid this?
Simple. Just use a synonym for these words where you know the spelling.
Do not use ‘astounded’ if you do not know how to spell it but use ‘surprised’ instead. It has the same meaning.
And the word ‘meaningles’ should be ‘meaningless.’ Most students know this but are lazy to check.
Laziness in checking is another reason why these common errors are made.
You have to make sure that you check back and note the spellings.
If you are not sure of the spelling, do not use that word. Choose another.
This is the best part of writing an English Composition as you have vocabulary options.
Wrong Use Of Paragraphs
This is a common error that can be easily corrected – Use of paragraphs.
Students tend to use one very long paragraph with the same point and very long explanations.
They think that this will help them to score marks but really, you are being graded for the number of points followed by evidence and explanation.
So the long paragraph will mean that you just get marks for ONE point.
Always write at least 3-4 paragraphs of about the same length if possible, excluding the introduction and conclusion.
You will need about 3-4 paragraphs with a Point each, supported by evidence and explanation.
If you do this, your marks will increase immediately.
This is really the speediest way to ensure that you get better grades in just your next homework assignment!
I have discussed some terrible mistakes, common errors and ways to avoid them.
Remember, writing well for English Compositions is not only about the content but it is also about following the grammar Rules.
Follow the rules I have given you and watch your grades grow!