The #1 Most Common Mistake In Writing

Spending over 1,000 hours reviewing student essays and guiding 100+ awesome students in their writing journeys, I've encountered a wide array of common mistakes.

However, one stands out due to its frequency and impact: astonishingly, this mistake is recurrent in over 70% of the essays I've looked into.

The #1 most common mistake in writing is failing to directly address the essay question.

Now, you might be thinking “Hey Eric, that’s so obvious. Answering the essay question is the whole point of writing the essay. How can it be the #1 common mistake we make?”

Well, here's where it gets tricky.

One of our students was writing a 2000-word essay about “What would happen if we banned billionaires?”

She brainstormed ideas, created outlines for each paragraph, and started writing the essay.

Her main idea was that if we ban billionaires, it would be detrimental to our society because of X, Y, and Z. She produced great arguments and supporting evidence. Smooth sailing.

So she started writing about why banning billionaires is not a good idea and expanded her thoughts.

If you have not noticed that she’s diverging from the essay question, you’re probably going to make this common mistake #1, since the question is about what would happen if we ban billionaires, not about why banning billionaires is not a good idea.

When researching the topic, she got so wrapped up in explaining why it's a bad idea to ban billionaires that she missed answering the actual question: what would happen if we did ban them?

This happens particularly often when her arguments are great. Indeed, she came up with insightful observations about what would happen when banning billionaires, but she included them under her body paragraphs that talk about why banning billionaires is not a good idea.

Her points were brilliant, but they were answering a different question!

To avoid this pitfall, it's essential to maintain a laser focus on the essay question. One effective strategy is to regularly refer back to the question during the writing process, ensuring each paragraph serves the purpose of answering it.

It's super easy to drift away from the main point when you're deep in writing mode. But the golden rule is: stick to the question. Keep checking back, and your essay will remain relevant on point.