No research study is perfect and complete. Errors are possible within every research paper. But these errors should not be very generic. Generic in a sense that they shouldn’t be related to poor grammar usage or improper referencing. The student must draft the research papers in a careful manner. This is because professionals will be marking them. If errors are present in the research paper, there will be poor chances of obtaining good grades. Bad grades will affect the student’s academic record as a result. Hence, the student must carefully check these errors. This is so that they can be avoided within future studies as well. Arrangements need to be made to make the writing effective. Following are some of the most common errors students make in their research papers;
Improper References:
Sometimes students improperly cite the research papers. References in the research paper depict evidence of the source. Improper citation might not reference the original author in a proper way. The student might forget to mention the year of the study. Poor referencing depicts that the researcher has not studied the prior studies. Besides this, it also means that fake references have been used within the research. Fake references are not the sources from which a researcher collects information. The use of fake references will affect the grading of a student in general. Professional writers judge the use of fake references in studies without much difficulty. They provide bad marks on the use of fake references in a research.
Excessive grammatical mistakes in the paper:
The researcher unknowingly makes grammar mistakes. These grammar mistakes usually exist within the study. The poor use of grammar reflects poor vocabulary and weak language skills of the writer. With poor grammar use, the writer is less likely to get good grades. Bad grades will affect the student’s academic record. Some common grammatical mistakes in research papers are highlighted as follows;
- Too many Spelling Mistakes.
- Subject-verb mismatch.
- Imperfect verb tenses.
- Misuse of Prepositions.
- No use of prepositions.
Grammatical mistakes may also relate to inaccurate use of certain words or phrases. For instance, they are using “fee” as “faces”. Besides this, using “Test” for “Testes” depicts inaccurate word usage. Sometimes, students are not aware of the plural terms. For example, “data” is a plural term. But students use it as “data”, which is wrong. You can hire a dissertation proofreading service to overcome these issues.
Less frequent use of the topic’s keywords:
Sometimes, the researchers use keywords of the topic under study less frequently. These keywords form the base of a study. Less frequency in the use of keywords means that the study is not topic specific. Inadequate use of keywords will result in poor reliability of the study. Hence, less frequency of keywords is a common error in the student’s research paper.
Inadequate material to answer the research questions:
The research study aims to answer the research questions. Sometimes, students inadequately answer them. Then the effectiveness of their study will be affected as a result. The students do not add value to the study. They do so by not answering the research questions. Sometimes, the researcher provides irrelevant information to answer the research questions of the study. This irrelevant data means writing everything about the variables of a study. Hence, inadequate and irrelevant material to answer research questions is a common error in the student’s research paper.
Improper analysis, and interpretation of the results:
Sometimes students do not properly analyze, and interpret the findings of the study. This poor interpretation may be due to the application of wrong tests on data sets. The application of wrong tests confuses the study’s findings. Besides this, students make inferences in the curve form. But the requirement is to figure it out in the tabular form. The drawing of conclusions in the findings and discussion section is also a major mistake. If any of the research questions are not fully analyzed, it also entails a student’s research paper mistake.
Anthropomorphism:
Sometimes the researcher fails to use suitable words within the study. The suitable word means one that depicts the “cause and effect” relation. This is a relationship between the variables of a study. This may be due to the complex nature of the variable. Besides this, it may be due to a lack of understanding of the term by the researcher. Hence, “anthropomorphism” is a common error in a student’s research paper. writing with anthropomorphism means that the writer attributes an action to objects that cannot take that action
Significance:
The study may be made insignificant by some mistakes on part of the students as follows;
- No significant differences in the prior research studies are identified.
- Interpretations drawn by the study don’t follow the student’s expectations.
- The findings are not consistent over a period of time.
The study aims to establish truths from the data. The studies do not aim to fulfill the expectations of the researcher. Therefore, the student must comprehend the study’s exact, instead of fictional results. Hence, “significance” is a common error in the student’s research paper.
Not Proofreading the paper:
Proofreading of the paper provides identification of mistakes within the study. It ensures that the information is both sensible and in order. Sometimes students are in a hurry. They forget to proofread their papers. This leaves their papers with spelling, accuracy, and consistency errors. Hence, lack of proofreading is a common error on the student’s part.
Conclusion
This article provides various errors that students make while writing their research papers. The most common errors include improper referencing, and lack of proofreading. Other errors include excessive grammatical mistakes in the paper, anthropomorphism, and significance. The students often fail to properly analyze and interpret results drawn from the study. At times they also use inadequate material to answer each research question. Besides this, less frequent use of keywords related to the topic is also evident. These errors should not be neglected by the student. They need to be overcome in future studies. This is because research papers lose their effectiveness if they contain any errors.
