| Symptom | Cause |
| Difficult to get into; have to re-read the first paragraph | Weak or vague thesis; language too abstract |
| Hard to follow; seems to ramble; is confusing | Thesis again; or essay gradually changes focus and direction; watch for ideas curving away from thesis |
| Seems okay on thesis level, but hard to follow in spots | Look to topic sentences; think about levels of generality; could be false or misleading transitions |
| Collapses in the middle | Middle paragraphs are themselves poorly constructed (VERY COMMON) |
| Have to re-read sentences | Danglers; lack of parallelism; whichery; poor subordination |
| Dull and boring | Passive voice; overuse of verb to be too many abstract words; jargon; no images |
| Sounds phony | Pompous diction; jargon; over-subordination, probably poorly envisioned audience |
| Little short paragraphs | Writer hasn't engaged topic; unfelt ideas, merely stated; avoids difficult part of argument |
| Feels windy--hard to stay focused on it | Too much generalization; not enough concrete evidence |
| Seems childish | Look to the thesis (too small and obvious) or look to sentences (lack variety, too many simple or compound sentences) |
| Ends with a whimper | Conclusion is only a summary of whole or recapitulation of opening paragraph; no reassessment; doesn't follow |