As an adult learner, I have had to unlearn and re-learn so much.

I write unlearn because I picked up some bad habits when it came to writing essays as a high schooler. I would spend a lot of time thinking about the essay that was due. And then I would research what I had to do. I would finish the book if it was a book report. I spent a lot of time thinking about opening hooks and sentences and essay structure.

I still do a lot of my writing in my head. Even during my fourth degree. I am unsure why this is the way that I have worked, am working, and will continue to work.

Writing is my favorite, after all.

Much better than math. Or statistics. So many statistics classes. I am not sure if I’ve shared this before but I decidedly do not have a math brain. At least not a higher-level math brain. I mean, simple math, algebra, and even geometry are doable. But beyond that? Anxiety city.

This was supposed to be a post about spelling and citation errors.

Apparently, I am not in the mood.

Spelling errors and citation errors will tank your grade because at the collegiate level, they include that in your grade and absolutely will take points off for errors.

There are many different kinds of citations. Find out the citation style that your program uses and embrace it. Embrace it hard-core. This will only help you.

Also embraceable is the spell check. I cannot stress this enough. Nothing impacts a grade more than using the incorrect tense/spelling/contraction/conjunction in a sentence. It makes your essays hard to read.

As a former editor and a current reader, I can tell you that nothing knocks me out of a written article or paper than a spelling error. Or badly used punctuation.

But nothing gives me more glee than noticing an error in a school document, such as the syllabus.

Typos happen, acknowledge that this will happen to you and go on and write the danged essay.

Just be aware of spelling mishaps, and the stray badly written sentence. Your writing will be better for it.