In what ways can I improve my writing mechanics?

[Homeless Nutter]

[...]Anyways, what would you recommend I do to hone these skills? Because I obviously have not had issue with comprehending material, but as previously stated professors often pick on my grammar in papers. Understandably.

Read. A lot. And I mean - books, not blogs. Written by educated authors and published by companies, that can afford employing competent editors.

Despite of what some people will say - being able to write at a high level can be extremely important, especially if your aspirations are higher than waiting tables. People are judged on their ability to communicate, in the same way they're judged on - say - their appearance. It's ok if you want to look scruffy at a job interview, or write your CV in text-speak, but most potential employers will prejudge and penalize you for it - even if they won't say it outright. And in the academic world good penmanship is understandably even more important, because poor grammar and spelling often indicate, that the student doesn't read much and professors hate that.

Personally - I was educated in the times just before the use of computers became widespread in my country, so I had to hand-write all my school-work and papers. My cursive is so atrocious, that even I'm unable to read it. It cost me a lot at the time, in terms of test-grades but I refused to work on it - and I got away with it most of the time, mainly because otherwise I usually excelled academically. And now hand-writing is a dying skill... Who's laughing now?