1. Common Research paper errors
Mistakes to avoid in the future

2. Submission Errors
Many students lost point due to not following submission instructions.
The Follow errors cost 10 pts a piece
Not underlining the title of a major work
Not having a proper title
Contractions (except in direct quotations)
Use of first and second personal pronouns
I, you, we, us, me

3. Not Following paper requirements.
Many students lost point for not following the paper requirements.
If you had the following errors, you could receive no higher than a 70.
No quotes
You needed to have at least 1 quote in each body paragraph.
No work cited page
All your work is plagiarized .
No citations for quotations.
No citations for paraphrases

4. Organizational Errors
No clear identification of the work or the author
Lack of a clear thesis statement
Lack of topic sentences to open body paragraphs
Lack of analysis of quotes
A quote should never be the first or last sentence in a body paragraph.
You need a topic sent. which sets up the quote as the first sentence in your paragraph
You need at least one sentence after the quote to analyze how the quote proves you thesis.
No transitions between paragraphs

5. Incorrect MLA format Incorrect parenthetical citation format
Incorrect block citation format
Incorrect work cited page format
Incorrect heading
Incorrect header
These errors only happened because you were careless. All you had to do was copy the format from the samples.

6. Grammar and Usage Errors
Many people had good ideas that were killed by poor writing.
No matter how careful you are with documentation and research, you need to make sure your paper makes sense when read.

7. Review of the fatal five writing errors.