Common Mistakes Made by ESL Students While Writing Their Thesis

It is quite difficult to write a thesis being an ESL student. You have to learn a new subject as well as comprehend a language that you might not be completely familiar with. In such cases, it might get difficult to write an entire thesis in English and therefore, it can lead to some grammatical errors. We bring you some common mistakes that you will tend to make while writing your thesis and how to avoid them:

1. Wrong use of articles

This is the most common mistake made by ESL students in academic writing. Indefinite articles ‘A or An’ (used for words beginning with a vowel) are used to refer to a noun whose specific identity is not known. The definite article ‘The’ is used when you know the identity of the noun or adjective. You don’t need to worry about vowels while using ‘the’.

2. Wordiness

ESL students often tend to use more words than required to construct their sentences. This can lead to confusion and lower the quality of the content. Remember to avoid wordiness and be extremely precise while forming your sentences.

3. Use of the thesaurus

It can be quite helpful for ESL students to use thesaurus but more often than not, they tend to use words that don’t fit in the sentence. If you are choosing a word from the thesaurus to replace a word, make sure you understand its meaning properly before you place it in your thesis.

4. Use of which and that

Students often get confused with the proper usage of the words which and that. Which is used when the added information is not essential in understanding the meaning of the sentence. That is used when the added information is essential to understand the sentence. If you are using which, you must offset it with a comma.

If you are new to writing in the English language, it might seem overwhelming at first to get your grammar right. With the right practice and support from translation services, you can surely do a great job in your thesis!