Essay Review & Resources: Home

Error

• Semicolon error; either insert a semicolon or change current punctuation to semicolon. See http://tinyurl.com/semicolonhelp

• Colon error. Colons are used before a list or an explanation that is preceded by a clause that can stand by itself. See http://tinyurl.com/colonhelp

• Comma error for serial elements or parenthetical elements. See http://bit.ly/JsQd9Y

• Quotation error; place quotations around word or phrase. Quotes are used for demarcating someone's exact words or placed around shorter works, such as episodes, poems, and chapters. See http://bit.ly/thtPAX

• Paragraph; need new paragraph or paragraphing is not logical. Essays should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. See http://tinyurl.com/5paressay

• Parallelism is faulty. She loves eating chocolate éclairs, taking moonlit walks, and singing classic jazz. Note: each verb ends in ing. See http://tinyurl.com/parallelhelp

• Abbreviation is incorrect or faulty. See http://bit.ly/MXDC2c

• Apostrophe error. Apostrophes define possession or are used to indicate a missing letter, such as in contractions like can't . See http://bit.ly/HIALGL

• Awkward; sentence or passage is difficult to read or understand. See http://bit.ly/awkwardsentences 

• "To be" and "to have" make weak verbs; avoid usage of these verbs and instead exploit active/power verbs. See  https://spcollege.libguides.com/concisewriting/be

• Capitalization error; the word is either in need of or wrongly capitalized. See http://tinyurl.com/capshelp

• Comma Splice; sentence incorrectly joins two main clauses with a comma. A period or semicolon should be used instead. See http://tinyurl.com/commasplicehelp

• In-text citation is missing or incorrect. See for MLA: http://tinyurl.com/intextcitationhelp; See for APA: https://tinyurl.com/apatextcitation 

• Citation page contains error See for MLA: http://bit.ly/rXGPlm See for APA: https://tinyurl.com/apareflist

• Colloquialism (i.e., informal language); avoid substituting formal words, such as children for informal words, such as kids. Avoid slang, jargon, cliché, and contractions. See http://tinyurl.com/colloquialwriting

• Combine; use proper coordination and subordination to avoid choppiness or redundancy in sentence structure. Use conjunctions to reduce this problem. See http://tinyurl.com/combinesent ; See http://tinyurl.com/conjunctionhelp

• Conclusion error; the last paragraph of the paper should rephrase thesis and/or unify the paper's message in a meaningful way. See http://tinyurl.com/conclusionhelp

• Counterarguments or alternative views are missing. See http://bit.ly/tZtyNg

• Demonstrative pronoun; for sake of clarity, use a noun after the demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those . See: http://bit.ly/demohelp

• Double space area or entire paper. See https://tinyurl.com/doublespacedoc

• Expletive construction; avoid usage of vague introductory terms, such as there is/there are or it is/it seems/it appears . Those terms hide the subject, rob the verb of its power, and elongate the sentence. See https://spcollege.libguides.com/concisewriting/expletive

• Fragment; sentence does not contain subject and verb. See http://tinyurl.com/fragmenthelp

• Heading information does not meet required formatting. See MLA or APA tutorial videos.

• Hanging indent; 2nd and all subsequent lines in each entry should be indented .5” See https://tinyurl.com/hindent

• Hyphen error; use hyphens to combine compound words when before a noun; write numbers; create compounds; or add as prefix. See http://tinyurl.com/hyphenhelp

• Indentation error; See Word documentation on indenting first line of paragraph. 

• Introductory comma; Introductory phrases or clauses longer than four words require a comma before the subject. See http://tinyurl.com/introcommas

• Italics error; italics are used to identify titles of larger works, such as books, films, and journals. They also are needed when using a word as a word. See http://bit.ly/italicshelp

• Logic of idea or placement of idea is questionable. See https://tinyurl.com/logicalarg

• Paper is not the required length.

• Margin is not formatted correctly. See http://tinyurl.com/1inchmargins

• Mixed construction - a sentence with incompatible elements that begins with one type of structure and shifts to another type of structure. See http://bit.ly/I3vi2n

• Nominalization; be concise and avoid turning verbs into nouns. Example to revise: Sara looked at Jack with condemnation. Revised example: Sara condemned Jack. See http://tinyurl.com/nominalization

• Non-sequitur; the Latin term non-sequitur means "it does not follow." This mark could mean ideas do not connect or that a claim is not supported by significant evidence. See: http://bit.ly/HYwS0v

• Numbers error. According to MLA style, numbers should be spelled out when two words or less. See http://tinyurl.com/mlanumbers

• Opener of paper needs work or is uninteresting; openings should draw in the reader. See: http://tinyurl.com/introparhelp

• Pronoun and antecedent disagree, or pronoun has a vague reference. See http://tinyurl.com/pronounagreement and http://bit.ly/JDbShr

• Page number missing; insert page numbers. See: MLA or APA tutorial videos.

• Point of View; most formal writing is in third person. Avoid I, me, my, we, us, our, you and your . See http://bit.ly/pointofviewhelp

• Passive voice; use active voice instead. See http://tinyurl.com/passivevoicehelp

• Run-on or fused sentence; two main clauses with no punctuation. Usually either inserting a comma and coordinating conjunction (i.e., FANBOYS), semicolon, or period with new sentence will correct. See http://tinyurl.com/commasplicehelp

• Redundancy; avoid using the same or root word in close proximity or repeatedly, unless for rhetorical effect. See http://tinyurl.com/wordchoicehelp

• Relevance is missing or difficult to discern. See: https://tinyurl.com/relevantideas

• Rhetorical mode used contains problems. See http://tinyurl.com/rhetoricalmodes

• Spelling mistake; See http://tinyurl.com/commonconfusables

• Line spacing is incorrect. See https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/word2016/line-and-paragraph-spacing/1/

• Supporting details are lacking; more research and/or examples are needed. See here

• Summarizing Sentence; paragraph ending does not conform with topic sentence or unite section in a meaningful way. See http://tinyurl.com/endingparagraph

• Subject & verb disagree. See http://bit.ly/uzCR5r

• Tense error; be consistent in tense; for example, do not shift from past to present or vice versa. See http://tinyurl.com/tensehelp

• Tone; area appears biased, gender-specific, unreasonable, or overly confrontational. See http://tinyurl.com/writingtone

• Topic Sentence error; establish the main idea of the paragraph. See http://tinyurl.com/topicsent ; http://tinyurl.com/gen-to-particular

• Transition missing; transitions should be used between paragraphs and sentences to help the reader move seamlessly from one paragraph to the next. See http://tinyurl.com/transitionshelp

• Vary sentence types and lengths. Too many consecutive simple sentences appear choppy, and too many consecutive compound/complex sentences complicate reading. See http://tinyurl.com/sentencevariety

• Word Choice; choice of words is questionable or words are missing. See https://tinyurl.com/choiceofwords

• Wordy; choice of words could be more precise. See Concise Writing