Improving your polishing skills

There are several things you can do to help yourself. In the first place, there are probably a few mistakes which you make frequently in your written work. It could be omitting definite articles, misspelling certain words, or misusing a particular tense, for example. Make a note of them and check these points first when you're reading through your work. Eliminate the predictable problems first! After that, check your work systematically. What you look at will depend on the type of writing, but here are some suggestions:

Answering the question

Have you

• answered all parts of the question?

• included all the necessary information?

• written the required number of words?

• organised your ideas appropriately, using paragraphs where necessary?

• written clearly so that it is easy to read?

Accuracy

Agreement

• Do all the verbs agree with their subjects?

Time

• Is your use of tenses correct for the context?

• Is your use of tenses consistent (or do you sometimes slip from past into present in a narrative, for example)?

Articles

• Are definite and indefinite articles used correctly?

Linking

• Are pairs of clauses correctly linked?

• Have you overused and and but?

• Could you make more use of words and expressions like while/whereas, despite, as a result and so on to link ideas?

Range

Have you used

• a variety of grammatical structures?

• a range of interesting vocabulary?

• a range of linking words?

Style

• Is your language appropriate for the type of writing? (Remember to think about who you are writing for.)

• Is your answer interesting for the reader, and would it have a positive effect?