CRITERION TOP TEN TIPS

1 – You don’t need to indent in Criterion.

2 – You don’t need a title in Criterion.

3 – Hit enter twice to break up your paragraphs.

4 –  When you go back to revise, if you are accidently typing over text press the “INSERT” key on your keyboard.  This will push over the text and make room for what you are writing.

5 – Don’t assume that Criterion is always right.  Criterion flags only what it doesn’t understand.  This doesn’t mean that what you wrote is necessarily a problem.  Only use the red flags and comments as tools to double check your work. 

Sometimes Criterion will flag a problem in one category, when the simple fix is in another category.   Or, sometimes Criterion will flag what it thinks is a problem, when the proposed solution actually makes the writing worse!  Rely on your own common sense.  Read it out loud to see if it works.  Try rephrasing your words a couple different ways and resubmitting it to see if it both sounds good to you and works for Criterion as well. 

Never, EVER make your writing worse because of a machine.  Writing is a very complex human endevour and you are much smarter than the machine.  Think of it as a checking tool, not the final authority.

6 – Don’t always worry if Criterion believes that you misspelled something.  Proper nouns are commonly not recognized by spell checkers.  (See rule #5.)

7 – Some students have had luck typing their essays in Microsoft Word first, and then cutting and pasting it into Criterion before using the Checking Tools.  This also helps you to avoid losing your work due to internet problems.

8 – Vary your sentence structures for a higher score.  Long sentences.  Short sentences.  Compound sentences.  Complex sentences.  Simple sentences.  Add appositive phrases.  Add gerunds.  Make your writing interesting structurally.

9 – Vary your word choices.  Unless you have to, avoid repeating the same name, places, or things over and over.  At the very least change the position of these repeated words in your sentences.

10 – Upgrade your word choices.  “Cardiac Arrest” is better than “heart attack.”  “Excavating” is better than digging.