Figure captions and labels

Make sure all of your figures have descriptive captions. Label your axes and include units. If you have subfigures or multiple panels, make sure each one is described briefly in the caption. For more about writing figure captions, see this post with tips for writing figure captions.

Refer to tables and figures in the text

One of the most common mistakes I see is that, often, writers forget to reference every table and figure in the text. It is important to guide your reader to the tables and figures where appropriate, especially for manuscripts where a figure or table might be separated from the most relevant text. A simple phrase such as “As seen in Figure 1, …” is all that is needed. Alternatively, you can use parenthetical marks (Table 2).

Contractions

Contractions should be avoided in most formal academic writing. Words like isn’t, don’t, couldn’t, would’ve, it’s, can’t, could’ve, wouldn’t, they’d, I’m, and we’ve should all be written out as is not, do not, could not, would have, and so on.

An easy way to search for contractions is to search your Word document (e.g., by using ctrl+F on a Windows computer) for the following:

• n’t

• ’ve

• ’s (take care because this could also be found for possessive nouns)

• ’d

• I’m (probably not necessary for most research papers, but perhaps relevant for a personal statement or proposal)

Double spaces

This one is fairly minor but quite common. I often see extra spaces, perhaps from deleted words or accidental double-taps of the space bars. Sometimes, people use double spaces purposefully after the ends of sentences; however, this is a relic from typewriters and is unnecessary when typing on a computer.

Generally, I do a quick find-and-replace (ctrl+H on a Windows computer) to replace a double space with a single space.

Misspelled words or other avoidable mistakes

Grammar can be confusing, I get that. But there is rarely an excuse for misspelld words, double words words, or comma splices because these types of mistakes are usually picked up by spell-checking software. Use Microsoft Word’s built-in spell-checker. If you want something more robust, head over to grammarly.com and upload your document or paste in your text for a more comprehensive grammar search. Note that, if you have comments, these make result in some weird punctuation interpretations in the app, so proceed with caution.

These are the minor writing mistakes I see most often when providing feedback or editing writing. If there are other mistakes you think should be listed, let me know in the comments!