'no-brainers', usually makes for better written communication. Rely on the following precepts when preparing an essay to hand in, and your results will probably be more satisfying to you.
Consider: Assume your essay/journal is 100 words.
A common foreign language teacher-measure of accuracy in an essay is to accept 1 mechanical error for every 12-15 words written in a foreign language. That would be 6-8 errors for the 100 words.
When writing in their own language, native speakers, particularly university students, make far, far fewer errors; native speakers tolerate much lower frequency of errors.
When writing in German, you should strive to reduce the number of mechanical errors to the 1 error per 12-15 word level. That is the challenge: reduce the number of mechanical errors by doing mechanical things, things which require your attention, yet require only some thought and minimal skill.
1. Verify the correct genders/plural forms
Verify genders and plural forms of nouns; gender can’t be guessed — check to be sure,“meeces”, or “mices” are incorrect for English, while “mouses” is acceptable when speaking computerese.
2. Subject-Verb agreement
Make sure the verb conjugates to the subject; “I are” and “Ich sind” are equally incorrect.
3. Avoid using “sein” as you main verb
Using “sein” as you main verb in essays usually signals weak, phatic thought and communication; be more “German”, use “real” verbs…
4. Verify correct verb form
Check that you have used the correct helping verb, or the correct form of a verb; have you remembered to umlaut the -a- in fährt? Or have you made the mistake of saying the German equivalent of “She find/founded/finded her passport”. Yuck!
5. Verify word/expression usage
Check that you have used the correct word or expression for what you want to say; if you want to place something on the counter, don’t use the German word “Zähler”, for that is “counter” as in 1, 2, 3. “die Theke” would be better here; dictionaries can trip you up.
6. Check and correct Word Order
Assure that conjugated verbs are in the second position in an independent clause; conjugated verbs come in the final position in a dass-clause or after other subordinating conjunctions: wenn, weil, damit, obwohl.
7. Umlauts and ß
Always enter umlauts from the keyboard; hand-entered umlauts or “ß” is unacceptable.
http://montgomery.cas.muohio.edu/siebendc/ under “Umlauts” provides the keystrokes in both Win and Mac.
8. Spellcheck
MS Word (current Win/Mac versions) include a German dictionary. Use it! It’s free! All ILRC-computers have spell checkers installed.
9. Don’t stumble over your pride: ASK!
The door is open. If you can’t seem to figure out how to do, say, or find something, you should swallow your pride, and ask for assistance. However, if you wait too long to ask before a deadline, then you are on your own.