Professionalism Writing Assignments

If you’re having trouble understanding what the marks on your paper are telling you to do, familiarize yourself with the proofreader’s marks listed here: http://www.colorado.edu/Publications/styleguide/symbols.html

Here are references for the most common grammatical mistakes:

• verb tense consistency: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_tensec.html
• parallel structure: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_parallel.html
• capitalization: http://www.colorado.edu/Publications/styleguide/capitalization.html
• passive vs. active constructions: http://feteens.com/CollegeBound/Applying/lesson4_tense.html
• while vs. although; Bugs in Writing p. 75
• commas; Bugs in Writing p. 94
• use of “all” (it is best to avoid all); Bugs in Writing p. 436
• the phrases “the reason that is because” and “the reason why is because”; Bugs in Writing p. 239
• “the fact that”; Bugs in Writing p. 277
• use of semicolons; Bugs in Writing p. 374
• missing that; Bugs in Writing p. 433

Others:

• Avoid contractions; ex. instead of can’t write out cannot
• Avoid vague words such as very, really, many, several; specify
• Avoid “this”; once again specify
• Check your spelling, employers won’t give you a second chance if even a single word is misspelled on your resume
• Avoid statements such as “I believe” and “I feel”; you are writing the paper – the reader knows that what is being said is your opinion
• Avoid words such as might, may, perhaps, could in a persuasive paper; you want to convince the reader – be definite
• Avoid statements (fluff) such as “I would like to take this opportunity to”; say what you have to say and avoid the filler
• Don’t end sentences with prepositions
• Avoid words such as always, never, everybody, nobody; the majority of the time, you will not be able to support statements containing these words
• Avoid “in order to”; just write “to”
• Avoid sentence constructions containing parentheses