I shared these with my classes last night after seeing the same mistakes repeated over and over in their essays. I think I terrified them a little bit.

1. Answer the question. You may think this is obvious. That’s because it should be.

2. Stucture! Structure! Structure! Build one and stick within it. It’s like a map: it should detail exactly how you get to your destination.

3. Similarly, a good introduction is like a summary of the journey- it tells your reader where you’re planning to go.

4. Once you’ve got the map, stick to it. Don’t take detours.

5. Beware of the attack of the floating quotation: just because someone says something, that doesn’t make it true.

6.  Paragraphs are not randomly occurring phenomena. 

7. Bigger isn’t always better: avoid the trap of the over-long sentence.

8. Don’t be obtuse when you can be explicit!

(This includes unnecessarily using passive voice when you can say the same thing, using active voice, in half as many words)

9. Never, ever, ever start a sentence with however. “However” is a special word. When used correctly, it can be powerful; however, it is rarely used correctly. (Related: nonetheless, evidently, therefore)

10. A semi-colon and a colon are not the same thing.

11. Commas. There is a time and place for them.

Learn the four comma rules. Start there. Tread lightly and carefully.

12. One idea. One sentence. (Maybe two sentences. Maybe a whole paragraph. But more than one idea? More than one sentence!)

13. Don’t qualify absolute terms
AKA the “something cannot be very unique” rule.

14. Your subject and your predicate are not enemies. They should always agree.

(While we’re on subjects and predicates: every sentence needs both. There are no exceptions to this rule.)

15. Choose your words wisely:

• Make sure you’ve picked the right one
• Make sure you don’t fall into the Vizzini Trap
• Define your terms
• Try not to repeat them in the same sentence