I am currently spending my every waking hour (ok, that is an exaggeration, but it does not feel like one) correcting essays. While there are glimmers in the darkness, this can sometimes be quite an aggravating affair. Especially when it appears all my helpful advice has fallen on deaf ears earlier in the semester.

Now, I know most of our regulars have finished their stint in undergraduate hell, but as some are taking it up again and there is a youthful contingent somewhere in the murky depths of the commentary fields, I decided to present you with 10 helpful tips that (if followed; ah, there's the rub) should magically cause good grades to appear. If you don't care about grades, please think of the poor person forced to suffer through it all when she has a lot of other stuff that she really, really ought to get on with.

Read the essay question properly (all of it!) and make sure you do what it tells you to do.