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Common Mistakes
Advice General
Comments
Common Mistakes that Students Make
Dr. Adam Winsler, Associate Professor of Psychology,
George Mason University
- "One common grammatical error that I encounter in students'
papers is Effect versus Affect."
- "Another common grammatical error in student's papers
is the dangling modifier. This is when they start a sentence
like, "thinking about how researchers have pursued this…"
Then they do not have "I," or any other active subject as
the next word in the next clause, completing the dependent
clause with which they started the sentence. You have to
have an active subject there. People have the bad idea that
their writing has to be in non-active voice. "I" is okay
to use and first person is okay. It is better to be in active
voice than in passive voice."
- "Another problem that I find students have is NOT using
parallelism in lists. If you are making a list in a sentence,
you must have the form of speech and the tense the same
in all items in that list. For example, "these researchers
studied three things; how kids think about this at this
age, how people do this, and child molestation." is wrong.
That third term in the list of three is not in the same
form as the first two. Has to be "how" something… The noun
or verb form that you are using has to be in the same form
in lists of things."
- "I find that many times students think they have to write
fancily. What that means is that they are using poor words
and they are trying to make it more fancy than it needs
to be. What is much better is clear writing that your grandmother
can understand. People tend to make sentences more complex
than they need to be."
- "Students sometimes try to get away with using only Internet
searches for their sources. You cannot do this. You need
to use other resources than the Internet such as lit searches
and other resources in the library to access the papers
published in scholarly journals on your topic."
Dr. Lynn McFarland, Assistant Professor of Psychology,
George Mason University
- "The most frequent mistake that I encounter in students'
papers is that they don't answer the question and they don't
deal with the content. They spit out everything they know
and they don't cover what the question asked. The answer
to the question is not in the textbook."
Advice for Student Writers
Dr. Adam Winsler, Associate Professor of Psychology,
George Mason University
- "Read your paper out loud to yourself before you turn
it in. This provides an extra level of self-monitoring."
- "A tip that I frequently give to students is to try free
writing. I tell them to shut off the monitor on their computer
(leave the computer on) and just type, don't worry about
spelling and editing."
- "Using a word processor on a computer changes the entire
cognitive process of writing. I encourage students to do
word processing on the computer."
Dr. Lynn McFarland, Assistant Professor of Psychology
George Mason University
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“My advice to students is to proofread their papers.
They should read their paper several times, especially
for the big assignments. They need to make sure it is
clear and that they have expressed everything well. The
true test of clarity in a paper is if someone outside
of psychology can understand the study. So, I recommend
that students give their papers to someone (e.g., a friend
or relative) who is not a psychology major. If this individual
understands what the student is trying to convey, it is
likely the paper is well written.”
General Comments on Students' Writing
Dr. Adam Winsler, Associate Professor of Psychology,
George Mason University
- "If you are not writing well, you are not thinking well."
- "I grade papers on the same dimensions that are used in
the real world to evaluate competence in any discipline."
Dr. Lynn McFarland, Assistant Professor of Psychology
George Mason University
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