1. Proofread!

 Amazingly, students often don't leave enough time to review their work in test situations. Make a checklist of errors you commonly make. Review old work, or keep a running list of errors from every marked paper you get back. Apply this list to everything you write. If you have a problem with agreement, take the time to check that your subject and verb match. Have a problem with auxiliaries? Make sure your axillary matches your subject and your tense.  Perhaps you're the student who always puts "to" after a modal auxiliary. Every time you get your paper back, you smack your forehead and say "Oh, I don't know why I did that"! Well, I do. It's because you didn't proofread!

2. Plan Your Writing

Many students start writing as soon an the paper hits their desk. Some think the more they write, the better their mark will be. However, I would rather see one page of organized, well constructed sentences with good spelling  over pages of confused ideas, run-on sentences and poor mechanics. Take five minutes to plan your writing. What are you going to talk about? List and organize your main ideas. Support each main idea with one or two supporting details. Remember - failing to plan is planning to fail!

3.  Use good sentence structure

No one writes using only one sentence type. Use varied sentence structure and don't use more than two basic conjunctions and an one subordinate conjunction in one sentence.  Complex sentences are useful in describing complex ideas and situations, but too may of them can tire or even confuse your reader. Simple sentences should be used frequently throughout your writing. Do not feel you must join your ideas together with conjunctions. If your paragraph is well organized, each sentence should logically flow into the next. If in doubt, add a period. A correct simple or compound sentence is better than a sentence that goes on   f o r e v e r.

4.  Watch out for repetition and redundancy.

Avoid introducing your topic with such statements as "today I'm going to talk about . . ." or " In my opinion". In some cultures this is part of their writing convention, but this is not the case in English. We are more to-the-point. I know what your going to talk about because I've read your title and topic sentence. I know it's your opinion because it's your name on the paper.  Inserting redundant or repeated information clouds your message and makes you sound uncertain. It is as though you are convincing yourself when you should be convincing me!

5. Think in English

If you are translating in your head everything you write on the paper, you are going to make mistakes. Your first language will trip you up. Maybe you will forget to put the adjective BEFORE the noun. Perhaps you will leave out articles entirely or add too many depending on your language base. I'm not saying you won't make any of these errors by thinking in English, but you will make fewer of them. I can usually tell which students are thinking in English, as they often demonstrate better control of sentence structure (Subject - > Verb - > Object) and adjective use.