Blog 9: Patterns of Error.

Everyone makes mistakes, yea, everyone has those days.

Mistakes, errors, slip-ups, call it what you please, as long as you correct yourself. Yes writing is difficult and through all the papers I’ve written I’ve always struggled with some things. When I was younger I thought, the longer the essay, the higher the grade! Haha thank goodness that is not true, because I find it difficult enough writing 4 pages!

·         One of the things that I tend to mess up on is repetition. When writing a long paper, I find it very difficult to add lots of depth to it. It’s like every time I sit down to write, I cannot come up with enough good points for my argument or thesis, which is very frustrating because when I see my classmates writing the same kind of paper, and they come up with very good points, it’s like darn why couldn’t I come up with that? So there I sit, trying to convey the same message from a different point of view, or restating it in different words. Yawn. Boring! When an essay discusses the same idea in every single paragraph, it borders on boredom and repetition. However, we recently did something in class that helped me fix this… It’s to make sure each paragraph has a different focus. So now I just number my paragraphs when I’m done with my first draft to make sure each paragraph has a main point or idea to it, and not the same thing as the last paragraph! It really works!

·         Another thing that I have noticed that I struggle with is transitions. I sometimes find it difficult to tie in one paragraph to the next. Especially when they have two different ideas. However I have learned that since all paragraphs should revolve somewhat around the main topic, or thesis, they can and most definitely should have transitions. When new paragraphs begin, they always need a transition, or a sentence ending the previous idea and leading into the next. So now, I go through my essays and look at the beginning of each paragraph. I read the paragraphs as independent mini-essays. If they make sense alone, they have a transition. If not, I just add a simple sentence introducing the idea.

·         Lastly, I struggle with conclusions. And how ironic that this is my last point! HA! But anyways, conclusions…  All throughout grammar school and high school, I was used to the 5 paragraph structure and concluding my essays by saying: “IN CONCLUSION….etc.” Then I learned that we’re actually not supposed to do this, and was stumped. You would think that the conclusion would be the easiest part of an essay, but for me it’s quite difficult to wrap things up. I feel like I either leave stuff out and the conclusion is not good enough, or on the flipside I restate TOO MUCH… Now I see that the conclusion should be a summary and definitely wrap up your paper. Re-stating the thesis and the framework for it. It’s essentially the main paragraph, but more complex! Now let’s see if I can take my own advice!