Poor Organization. The poorly constructed paper is the top complaint from university professors, often resulting less from poor writing skills than from procrastination and the failure to adequately plan your paper. The major points of your paper should flow logically from each other and build upon each other. In other words, your paper should make sense. The most significant way to avoid a poorly organized paper is to start early. Faculty organization often results from waiting until the last minute -- and then rushing to put all the pieces together. If you start as soon as the paper is assigned, you'll have plenty of time to construct a paper that makes sense and builds to a logical conclusion. The other way to avoid a poorly organized paper is to visualize it as a building -- with your thesis sentence or paragraph as a foundation. Each additional paragraph must be a building block that not only logically bolsters but also follows coherently on the proceeding paragraph. Your conclusion tops off the building in a way that aligns symmetrically with its foundation. How do you really know if your paper is well-organized and makes sense? Simple. Read it -- and ask yourself after each paragraph if that paragraph seems to be in place and contributes to your argument. Allow yourself enough time to do this final step so that you have time to make whatever changes are necessary to improve the flow. Go to the next common college student writing flaw: Failure to Support Your Thesis. Back to the main page of The Top 15 Writing Flaws That Can Lead to Lower Grades Looking for more writing assistance? Go to our sister site, EnhanceMyWriting.com: Indispensable Writing Resources.
Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key academic terms by going to our College Success Glossary. [Coming soon!]
|
|
Dr. Randall S. Hansen, CEO of 
Dr. Katharine Hansen, Creative Director of 
