As a student, you might find yourself struggling on how to write or what to write. It won’t matter whether it’s your college essay or a piece of document, but it becomes difficult for you in finding the right words. It also becomes more difficult when your English is a second language.
English Language
English is, therefore, a language that acquired various scraps and threads of the other languages within time. That is why nuances become very confusing after being that your first language is different from English. For example, in Chinese, they use logographic system meaning they use symbols for representing words.
In English, most of the information is communicated using verb inflections and auxiliary verbs which is different from other languages. English becomes challenging because of spelling words and also constructing phrases and therefore challenging to Chinese speakers.
When in college, you must ensure that your essay is consistent, transparent and error-free. Otherwise, the audience might not take your argument seriously because you will not seem professional. You might find it undermining your work. You shouldn’t have to give up. In the article, you will see some common ESL errors that you need to avoid.
For correct English, some small words like prepositions, conjunctions, and articles aren’t supposed to be capitalized in the headings.
Inconsistent capitalization and headings are of concern. However, you need also to capitalize and format your heading with consistent.
In English, there are two articles “a” or “an” to stand for non-specific nouns and “the” that stands for particular nouns.
You need to be careful on the way you use transitions. Transitions are helpful in ensuring that your writing will flow clearly and logically. When you overuse them in your essay, it looks distracting and also hinders the flow of words.
You will also need to be careful not to use incorrect synonyms. When you choose the wrong synonym, you will have some terms that are not appropriate depending on your context.
When you are writing an essay, you need to have consistency. It is an essential element in your writing including fonts. Ensure your essay’s font size, color and type are consistent all over.
However, your essay must have a consistency voice. In English, there are two voices, either active or passive. The best is when you use the active voice for your work. It is where the subject will act your sentences. However, you have to use comma splices correctly. They occur after an independent clause is joined with commas, and it’s not correct. You can avoid splices when you write two sentences and then enter using a semicolon.
The other error you should avoid is inconsistent spelling and punctuation. You should make sure you have consistency in the use of Oxford comma. It is a comma that is omitted or placed between the last of your items in a listing.
Conclusion
When you have perseverance, patience and practice, you will be able to avoid the most common ESL errors. You will, therefore, be able to focus on what will matter most and what you want to say, unlike the way you want to say it. However, when you find that you are not sure with the tips and not understand, you can allow others to edit your work and then learn on what you missed to make sure you have a perfect essay.
