English Mistakes Commonly Made in a Dissertation | Examples
English Mistakes Commonly Made in a Dissertation | Examples
Published on
19 September 2022
by
Sarah Vinz.
Revised on
11 November 2022.
Students tend to make the same language mistakes over and over again in academic writing. Taking a careful look at these lists of mistakes that we often encounter may help you to break these habits. Avoiding them will set your writing apart and give it a more polished feel.
If you want to make sure your dissertation doesn’t contain any language errors, you could consider using a dissertation editing service.
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Although spellcheck features catch many spelling mistakes, they cannot be relied on entirely. These words are still frequently misspelled in many theses.
The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing
The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.
Use number with countable nouns (e.g., changes), amount with uncountable nouns (e.g., air).
A MRI, a HR directive
An MRI, an HR directive
An abbreviation that starts with a vowel sound takes ‘an’.
The teenagers that
The teenagers who
Use who with people, that with things
Adjectives
Incorrect
Correct
Example
Are both similar
Are similar
Although the two cases aresimilar, they are not identical.
Politic
Political
Both economic and political factors were considered.
So called…, factor based…
So-called…, factor-based…
The so-called experts only conducted factor-based analyses.
Specially
Especially
The authors were especially interested in inflation pressures.
Capitalisation
Incorrect
Correct
Example
Results Of The Interviews
Results of the interviews or Results of the Interviews
Additional information is presented in Table 9 (Results of the interviews).
The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing
The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.
The principal author outlined the theories and principles that arose from the study.
Principal = adjective
Principle = noun
Were/where
Where were you?
Were = verb
Where = adjective
Following these tips will help you to improve your written academic English in general. The next step is to fine-tune your writing depending on whether you are using American, British, or Australian English! A grammar checker can also help you automatically fix mistakes you may have missed after proofreading.
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Sarah's academic background includes a Master of Arts in English, a Master of International Affairs degree, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She loves the challenge of finding the perfect formulation or wording and derives much satisfaction from helping students take their academic writing up a notch.
