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At a minimum, you should have
10 COMPLETE POSTS in your digital research scrapbook.

A COMPLETE POST will:

relate to some aspect of the topic;

include a link (if applicable) to the original source (webpages, images, previous assignments, etc.);

briefly summarize the source (What is the writer’s project?);

identify keywords and/or phrases; and

comment on how you might utilize the source in your project.

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Brief summary of source
Identify keywords (turn them into tags if helpful)
Comment about how it relates to and its uses for your project.

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During the past year I have been conducting a survey with my colleagues from several different departments on the UNE campus. I asked them to report back to me in detail about the problems and errors that they notice most frequently in undergraduate writing--problems that seriously affect the grades that students earn on written assignments. They were very generous with their reflections about how student writing and research needs to improve. Strong, effective writing and research skills are obviously very important to all of us.

I also collected analysis from about 40 other college teachers on an academic discussion board that reaches teachers in higher education across the country. There was a great deal of consistency in the problems we notice in student writing. What appears below is a compilation of our collective observations as teachers at dozens of colleges and universities. I urge you all to read through these items carefully and bookmark this page to review whenever you sit down with a new paper assignment in one of your future classes. I composed this page primarily for my own students on this campus, but you are welcome to share the link with others if you wish.

Remember, this is a list of writing problems that you should make efforts to avoid. To some extent I have "weighted" or ranked the items on each list--i.e., the items at the top of each list are those mentioned more often by teachers. Those of you who are currently taking a composition course with me will receive detailed instruction about how to address the writing problems described below. If you have already completed your composition course and would like some assistance with a paper you're writing, one of the writing tutors at the Learning Assistance Center will certainly be able to help you.

One important overarching thing to keep in mind when writing a research paper is your audience, i.e., your professor or instructor. In most cases, the person reading and evaluating your paper will be grading hundreds of pages of student writing for each assignment (really, hundreds of pages--think about that carefully). This simple fact means that papers that are shot through with dozens of little errors and mistakes are likely to put your professor in a--how shall we put it?--less than charitable frame of mind. Papers that are sloppily argued, packed with errors, and printed in barely readable ink are harder to comprehend and take much longer to grade (in my courses, these papers quickly drop into the "C" range). Grading paper after paper with such problems can make us, well, a tad cranky.

On the flip side, students who thoughtfully attend to all the details, who carefully proofread their papers, who scrupulously follow the assignment guidelines, who come to us for advice more than a week before the paper is due, who demonstrate enthusiasm for what they are writing about. . . ? Students like these make us genuinely happy. On some occasions they magically restore our faith in the entire profession of teaching. Sadly, for most paper assignments, these students are in the minority. However, it's actually not that hard to be one of these students. Avoiding many of the problems posted on this page is a good place to start. You might also check the " Final 15 " link for a short list of minor errors that you can likely proofread and correct in 15 minutes or less before submitting your final draft of a paper.

not getting assistance, either from the instructor or from the Learning Assistance Center writing tutors

not actually responding to the assignment, or going well beyond the bounds of it

submitting a final draft without revising the first draft substantially

failing to proofread or even do a spellcheck before submitting the final draft

using bizarre, tiny or oversized fonts (esp. to disguise the true length of the paper)

extra space between paragraphs

unstapled papers (especially with unnumbered pages!)

clichéd phrases and insights

very broad, generalizing statements

referring to key figures (scholars, historical figures, artists) by first name, rather than surname

failing to provide an author's full name and full title of the source when it is first introduced (thereafter, it is fine to refer only to the author's surname)

use of first person ("I" and "we") - esp "I feel that. . ."

informal, conversational language

choppy sentences

vague phrasing, lack of specificity

"thesaurus abuse" (i.e., substituting words from a computer's thesaurus without looking up the definition of the new word)

overly complex sentences

lack of agreement in person (shifting from singular to plural or vice versa)

comma splices, run-on sentences, fragments

passive voice (exception: some science writing requires passive voice)

second person ("you")

excessive or improper use of semi-colons

improper use of apostrophes

complete lack of one stated clearly in the introductory paragraph

unclear phrasing, tentative argument, lack of clear focus (too broad)

failure to provide coherence for the whole paper

lack of topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph

very short (3-4 sentences), undeveloped paragraphs

very long (full page+), unfocused paragraphs

changing topics halfway through a paragraph; lack of coherence

lack of transitional phrasing from one idea to the next

illogical sequencing of ideas

haphazard paragraph division

dropping in a quotation / statistic without framing it, interpreting it or explaining why it's relevant and just assuming the reader will automatically see the relevance

improper or inconsistent citation style (some professors expect footnotes, some expect parenthetical citation--find out which one is preferred)

failing to express your own ideas and analysis (relying too much on sources)

quoting excessively from sources (also known as "padding")

inability to paraphrase ideas from a source accurately in your own words

relying too much on Google, Wikipedia & information from non-scholarly websites

not making careful use of scholarly sources available in our library (books, electronic databases)

failing to distinguish between effective sources and inappropriate ones

not fully comprehending the sources used (esp. advanced, peer-reviewed articles), including locating an author's thesis, evaluating the article's evidence, understanding the analysis

failing to realize that a true research paper presents some new ideas and analysis (rather than merely reporting about what's already out there)

Additional links:
Creating a Research Plan: to Complete a Research Paper
Final 15: Simple Errors to Correct on the Final Draft of a Paper

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Common Problems in Undergraduate Writing

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During the past year I have been conducting a survey with my colleagues from several different departments on the UNE campus. I asked them to report back to me in detail about the problems and errors that they notice most frequently in undergraduate writing--problems that seriously affect the grades that students earn on written assignments.