Common Research Paper Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Your research paper getting rejected by your supervisor or any other qualified person can be painful, especially if you have spent much time and effort on it. However, it’s pretty common for various students and researchers to find themselves in this situation due to several mistakes.

Whether you’re writing your research paper yourself or using a custom researching writing service, here are some mistakes that you should avoid at all cost.

• Inappropriate writing tone and style

Academic writing is meant to be straightforward and professional, but also easy to understand. That said, your writing tone and style must be on point. Admittedly, all kinds of tone and style can work with informal writing, including using slangs, unnecessary abbreviations, and the like. However, these are not allowed in your research paper, and may cause your work to be rejected.

Therefore, always write in proper English and use abbreviations that are appropriate for formal writing, such as the initials of writers you are citing, and so on. While at it, don’t include excessive cliches, technical terminology, and jargon.

• Poor punctuation, tenses, and voice

Knowing the right voice is important when writing your research paper. Experts often recommend using the active voice for more preciseness and clarity. However, some sections will require the passive voice, so knowing how to strike the balance is needful.

You also don’t want to overlook punctuation; using them wrongly can change the interpretation of your paper, which can affect your scores or cause automatic rejection. You should also pay attention to subject-verb agreement, article use (a, an), parallelism, and sentence fragmentation.

• Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very costly error in the academic field with serious repercussions. You risk getting your paper rejected or getting fined if your paper isn’t authentic. You can even be sued, so avoiding it is non-negotiable. Admittedly, you’ll need to use the work of other researchers, authors, and scholars when working on your paper.

However, always cite them in your work and acknowledge them in your references to avoid being penalised for plagiarism. You also need to cite and reference yourself if you’re using a previous article you have published.

Dig Deeper: Common Research Paper Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

• Not editing your paper

The pressure to meet your deadlines can be overwhelming, and you may be tempted to submit your research immediately after you finish. However, editing and proofreading your work before submission can save you from tedious rewriting and rejection. It is easy to make mistakes when drafting your paper and forgetting to correct them due to how many pages you have to work on. Going over your paper once more can help you detect and fix these errors.

• Ignoring recommended guidelines

Each institution and faculty has its specific guidelines regarding research papers, and going against them can cause an automatic rejection. To prevent this, familiarise yourself with what is required of you, including the formatting style, English type, and so on.

Avoid research paper mistakes!

Writing a research paper can be tedious, and getting rejected due to mistakes can be painful. That’s why we are here to help. Talk to us on +233 548334499 and [email protected].

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