3 Ways to Get Better Grades on Your College Papers

Disclaimer: I need to say right up front that I can't guarantee you'll get an A. That's up to you and your professor. What I can do, however, is help you avoid making some screwups which will cost you points on your paper.

I'm married to a professor. This not only means listening to him grade papers (yes, listening, it can be a loud process) but sometimes participating with him in the process. I've learned that students make a surprising number of easily-avoided mistakes which lower their grade. I'm not talking here about your intellectual ability or anything, I'm talking about little errors that you made, "stupid mistakes." Catch them now and get a better grade!

First: Find out your professor's format preferences.

My husband outlines these in the syllabus. You might have to ask your professor if s/he isn't as helpful, but this will be worth a lot.

Format requirements are things like font-size, font-style, spacing, margins, etc.

It may not seem important to you, it may feel like trivial stuff which doesn't affect your paper's quality. That's true enough, it doesn't make a difference in your writing or your thoughts. But having the same format on each paper helps my husband know whether the student has fulfilled his other instructions. Format is the biggest way to alter page-length (which we'll be talking about next).

For example, a single page in double-space 12 point Times New Roman is quite different from the same page in double-spaced 12 point Courier New. Or 2.3-spaced 12 point Times. 1.5-inch margins can push your paper onto that needed fifth page where 1-inch might barely have you on four.

From talking with him and other professors, I've learned that such tricks frustrate them. They probably won't take the time to figure out whether your paper would have still met requirements. If they see 12 point Arial or Courier, they're immediately going to think "page inflater" or "cheater" and dock you a few points. After all, with 35 other papers to grade, they just don't have time to figure out the details.