TOP 12 MOST COMMON MISTAKES ON CERS THAT YOU SHOULD AVOID

1. INFORMAL VOICE.  You’re not having a casual conversation with the reader.  Don’t address them directly or talk about yourself.  “My evidence is…” or “You might think…” or “We as Americans…”  Instead try using “one” or “people” as in “One must understand…” or “People may commonly believe….”  Think of it as wearing a tuxedo or formal dress versus blue jeans.

2. EVIDENCE DUMPING.  Heaping on extra Evidence in your Reasoning is weak writing.  You can provide additional information in your Reasoning only if it is related to your Evidence.  But don’t use your Reasoning as a dumping ground for other stray ideas you didn’t get to.  “And another thing… And another thing…”  Instead, focus like a laser on the Evidence you did choose and explain the heck out of it.

3. REDUNDANCY.  Filling space by repeating the same information is lame.  Sometimes students will pad their writing in an effort to make it look like they wrote more than they really did.  Each sentence should move the argument forward adding something new.

4. SKIPPING THE READ-ALOUD CHECK.  90% of sentence structure errors can be caught by simply reading your work out loud as it is exactly written on the page.  You aren’t graded on what you thought you wrote, on what you intended to write, but on what you actually wrote.  Take the time to read it out loud and see if anything needs to be fixed.  You will instinctively “hear” if it makes sense and “feel” like there is way to change it to make it better.

5. TELLING YOU ARE TELLING.  This isn’t meta.  You don’t have to transition with telling the reader what you are doing.  Just do it.  For example, “Now that the evidence is covered, it’s time for the reasoning.”

6. SPECIFIC ALWAYS BEATS VAGUE.  Avoid words like “stuff” and “things.”  Be specific.  Avoid words like “people.”  Which people?  Statements like “And then something happens…” What happened?

7. WEAK WORD CHOICES.  Upgrade your word choices.  Instead of “sick” be more specific with “heart attack.”  Instead of “heart attack” use more expert language like “cardiac arrest.”  Drill down into your word choices with control and precision.

8. FALSE FACTS.  Make sure that what you write is true. Students sometimes stumble through their own essays in an effort to fill space, never stopping to check if what they’re writing actually makes sense.  Weak writers sometimes make up facts because they didn’t do the work.  Strong writers control the facts because they know what they’re talking about.  If you don't remember, look it up!  There are no shortcuts.

9. OVERCOMPENSATING.  Sometimes students will go above and beyond to cover all of their bases but end up writing too much.  While thoroughness is a virtue, brevity is the soul of wit.  Less is more.  Focus on being direct instead of talking around an idea.  Focus on being quick and precise, not lumbering and clumsy.  Get in, make your point, and get out.  Be a laser or a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

10. RISK-AVERSION.  If you want to sound like everyone else, write like everyone else.  Why not take chances?  Be an original thinker.  Here, the way to innovate is to stay within the structure provided, but demonstrate creative and original thinking in your choices.  If you always go for the obvious -- plucking the lowest hanging fruit -- you may be safe for now, but you won’t stand out or be noticed.  Fortune favors the bold.  There’s room within this structure to think outside of the box and be innovate!

11. OVER CLOSING.   Sometimes writers guilty of "And another thing... And another thing..." belabor the point by continuing the back-and-forth argument well into the Synthesis.  At this point the argument should be "closed" and you should move on.  The synthesis is a place to provide additional thoughts that bubbled up through the discussion.  It is not a place to keep arguing.

12.  CRAMMING IN MORE EVIDENCE.  Sometimes students want to keep arguing their case by providing evidence beyond that which is required for the assignment. Some students may want to use a quote in the claim to establish the spirit of the source or narrative.  Other writers may want to close the paper by using a quote in the Synthesis that summarizes what they think.  These are good instincts and show creativity, but the purpose of the Micro CERS Plus structure is to limit the amount of evidence in order to focus on the thinking about that evidence.  So, instead of adding other quotes, paraphrase these ideas or shift the focus towards the thinking and not the evidence-sharing.