A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Find general principles in specific comments
Learning from your returned paper
Part I. Research and writing: from planning to production

Teachers are baffled and annoyed when a student looks only at the grade on his paper and ignores substantive comments, or, worse, doesn't bother to pick up the paper at all. Since you'll write many reports in your academic and professional life, it's smart to understand how your readers judge them and what you can do next time to earn a better response. For that, you need one more plan.

12.1 Find general principles in specific comments

When you read your teacher's comments, focus on those that you can apply to your next project:

Look for a pattern of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If you see one, you know what to work on.

If your teacher says you made factual errors, check your notes: Did you take bad notes or misreport them? Were you misled by an unreliable source? Whatever you find, you know what to do in your next project.

If your teacher reports only his judgments of your writing, look for what causes them. If he says your writing is choppy, dense, or awkward, check your sentences using the steps in chapter 11. If he says it's disorganized or wandering, check it against chapter 9. You won't always find what caused the complaints, but when you do you'll know what to work on next time.