Common Errors in Student Research Papers
Common Errors in Student Research Papers
(Created by Kim Baldwin in 2005, revised by Janice Cumberbatch in 2006 of CERMES)
This is not an exhaustive list. Every year, students come up with the amazing ways to mess up perfectly good papers. However, if you heed the comments here your documents stand a good chance of becoming increasingly professional.
Verb tense
Use of the wrong verb tense, at best, is irritating to read and reflects poorly on the student's writing skills. At worst, the reader can be confused about what facts are already known and what was newly discovered in the actual study that is the subject of the paper. As a rule, use past tense to describe events that have happened. Such events include procedures that you have conducted and results that you observed. Use present tense to describe generally accepted facts.
We sought to determine if mating behavior in Xiphophorus helleri is related to male tail length by placing combinations of two male fish with different length tails in the same tank with a female fish.
We found that protein synthesis in sea urchin embryos treated with actinomycin D was considerably less than in untreated embryos. This finding agrees with the model stating that protein synthesis in 24 hour sea urchin embryos is dependent on synthesis of new messenger RNA.
Reference to results of a specific study should also be in past tense.
Abercrombie and Fitch reported that 30% of the public is allergic to wool.
Mixing tenses is even worse. Unfortunately, many people appear to be aware of verb tense at all. Two guys rob a liquor store downtown. The robbery occured at midnight last night.
Proofread!
Incomplete sentences, redundant phrases, obvious misspellings, and other symptoms of a hurriedly-written paper can cost you. Please start your work early enough so that you can proofread it. Check spelling of scientific names, names of people, names of compounds, etc. Spelling
(Created by Kim Baldwin in 2005, revised by Janice Cumberbatch in 2006 of CERMES)
This is not an exhaustive list. Every year, students come up with the amazing ways to mess up perfectly good papers. However, if you heed the comments here your documents stand a good chance of becoming increasingly professional.
Verb tense
Use of the wrong verb tense, at best, is irritating to read and reflects poorly on the student's writing skills. At worst, the reader can be confused about what facts are already known and what was newly discovered in the actual study that is the subject of the paper. As a rule, use past tense to describe events that have happened. Such events include procedures that you have conducted and results that you observed. Use present tense to describe generally accepted facts.
We sought to determine if mating behavior in Xiphophorus helleri is related to male tail length by placing combinations of two male fish with different length tails in the same tank with a female fish.
We found that protein synthesis in sea urchin embryos treated with actinomycin D was considerably less than in untreated embryos. This finding agrees with the model stating that protein synthesis in 24 hour sea urchin embryos is dependent on synthesis of new messenger RNA.
Reference to results of a specific study should also be in past tense.
Abercrombie and Fitch reported that 30% of the public is allergic to wool.
Mixing tenses is even worse. Unfortunately, many people appear to be aware of verb tense at all. Two guys rob a liquor store downtown. The robbery occured at midnight last night.
Proofread!
Incomplete sentences, redundant phrases, obvious misspellings, and other symptoms of a hurriedly-written paper can cost you. Please start your work early enough so that you can proofread it. Check spelling of scientific names, names of people, names of compounds, etc. Spelling