Since essay writing is a common home assignment, numerous myths about it exist these days. Senior students spread such legends to scare freshmen and make them change their attitude toward essay writing. This makes gullible learners turn to various to write or their papers. Let’s take a closer look at prevalent myths and debunk them entirely.
Including lots of academic sources will demonstrate your competence
Academic assignments always require relying on authoritative sources. Students must back up their arguments with supporting details. This makes their stance reliable and helps the audience understand the writer has carried out research before writing a piece. Oftentimes, though, students overdo such sources, including too many of them. And they think that by doing that, they prove to have done the research.
In reality, adding lots of sources negatively impacts essays. They skew the entire work, making it a simple synopsis. To have a clear standpoint, use the number of references provided in the requirements. If they have no information about sources, a good rule of thumb would be one credible source per page.
Using ideas of others isn’t plagiarism
A myth that drives severe consequences is that you can use a source, find some inspiration, and write an essay based on what you’ve read. Doing that leads to plagiarism of ideas. And although it can be hardly captured, you still use the work of others and try to pass it as your own. Plagiarism is a serious issue that might result in your course’s failure or can even get you suspended. Remember: whenever you refer to any source, give credit to its author. Otherwise, you are committing plagiarism and risk being penalized.
Only inborn writers can produce excellent papers
There is a legend circulating that if you weren’t born in a family of writers, you don’t have inborn talents to produce A-level papers. Oddly enough, but many people fall for that myth. Writing, like any other skill, has to be obtained and polished. You can’t start making the finest pottery without brushing up on your abilities. The same goes for writing. If you drill, you will end up generating thought-provoking, peerless documents. If you write once in a while – don’t expect to score the highest marks for your writing assignments.
If you want to stand out, you have to use complicated language along with grammar structures
Another commonly held perception is that simple language can’t get you an A. To stand out, you should use eloquent words and complicated grammar structures. Little do students know that using this strategy leads to dozens of mistakes. Trying to show off, you can make many errors related to content, coherence, logic, and punctuation. In reality, papers that receive the highest grades and get students into the most prestigious educational institutions have simple language and are straight to the point.
Essays are nothing but a waste of time
At some point in your academic path, you might think that essay writing isn’t that useful. And it is understandable; you may have a lot on your plate to think that way. However, of all the tasks, writing essays is an excellent activity that provides numerous benefits. For instance, as we already said, essays require researching topics, which develops your critical thinking and makes you double-check information before resting upon it. Among other things, essay writing improves your decision-making, problem-solving, and reading skills. It also accelerates your typing, allowing you to produce more content within shorter time frames.
Myths are everywhere. College writing is no exception. Some find such legends hilarious and share them with others, just for fun. Others, in turn, believe them. Above is the list of top myths of writing in college. Get aware of it; it will help you identify whether the information about essay writing is true.