grammatical errors, such as:
Poor grammar is unacceptable
in college work. Examples: (i) wandering tenses
(i) “Medieval towns were unhealthy. Disease is ever- present.” (ii) noun/pronoun disagreement
(ii) “When a town was
unhealthy, their mortality
rate rose.” (iii) subject/verb disagreement
(iii) “Violence and illness was
common in medieval towns.”
errors in spelling and punctuation
Poor spelling and punctuation are also unacceptable. Use a
dictionary,
and always proof-read your
work!
Using a spell-checker alone is
insufficient, since it will
not catch such errors as homonym
confusion
(e.g., their/there,
wear/where, led/lead) and incorrect punctuation
(e.g.,
its/it’s,
Smiths’/Smith’s). Do not
add an apostrophe
to the following
possessive pronouns: his,
hers, its, theirs, yours, ours. Do not
use an
apostrophe to form a
plural (e.g., the plural of “book” is “books;” the
Smith family = “the
Smiths”).
repetitive phrasing
This deadens your
writing. Eliminate it.
extensive use of direct quotations
This weakens your writing, and makes you look afraid to think and
speak
for yourself. Use a direct quotation only if
the original wording
is somehow essential
to making your point, or is so distinctive
and
irresistible that it
will enliven your paper. Otherwise, put
all material
in your own words.
use of slang
Never use slang (including
contractions, such as “wasn’t”) in scholarly
writing, except in an
essential direct
quotation or (on extremely rare
occasions) for deliberate
stylistic
effect.
use of "weasel words"
Do not use such verbal crutches as "basically,"
"sort of," "kind of," or
"may have been" to
avoid a concrete statement,
or to avoid doing the
necessary research to
get your facts straight.
flabby writing and awkward
Your writing should
be clear, crisp, and precise. Do not settle for phrasing
writing that is
vague, unclear, or badly-phrased.
unsupported assertions
Your assertions should always be supported by
evidence, presented
either in your
text, or in your notes, or both.
personal comments
In scholarly writing,
describing your personal feelings is inappropriate.
Eliminate such comments as
"I feel that .
. .," "I believe . . .," or "I
didn't like . .
." Instead,
present the reader with your evidence,
logical
arguments, and conclusions.
implausible scenarios
Make sure that what you have said is
genuinely plausible for the period
and topic that you are
discussing.
anachronisms
Avoid anachronisms. For example,
it would be anachronistic to say,
“According to medieval
chroniclers,
Richard I lived his life in the fast lane.”