Common Grammatical and Spelling Errors (Miscellaneous ...

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Common Grammatical and Spelling Errors

(Miscellaneous Resources)

Accept/Except Affect/Effect All right (not alright) Altar/alter Assure/Insure/Ensure Breath/breathe Complement/Compliment Counsel/Council Emigrate/immigrate Lead/Led Loose/lose Moot/Mute It's/Its Past/passed Principal/Principle Rein/reign Shutter/shudder Than/Then There/Their/They're You're/Your

Use of semi-colon (use it to separate two full sentences: The house is too hot; turn on the air conditioning.)

Comma before conjunction (use when second part of sentence after conjunction could stand on its own: The

house is too hot, and the garage is too cold.)

Agreement... their...his or her: Be sure to watch that subjects match their possessive pronouns and prepositional phrases.

Wrong: Christians need to experience healing in their life. Right: Christians need to experience healing in their lives.

Wrong: The believer is responsible for the strategic investment of their time. Right: The believer is responsible for the strategic investment of his or her time.

Use of me, myself, and I I went to the store. She told me to go to the store. I said to myself, I must go to the store. Wrong: Jack told Suzie and myself to go to the store. Right: Jack told Suzie and me to go to the store.

Use of that and who (use "that" for things, "who" for people). He is the one who came.

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Common Spelling Errors and misused Words

Top 10 Spelling Errors

Common Spelling Errors

Common Errors in Student Research Papers

Common Term Paper Problems

Finding Common Errors ________________________________________________________________________ ______________

ProofreadingforCommonSurfaceErrors:Spelling,Punctuation,andGrammar



Whataresomeofthemorecommonsurfaceerrors?

Hereisalistingofsomeofthemorecommonsurfaceerrors,brokendownbycategory.Eitherselectthelink

youwouldliketovieworscrolldowntotheappropriatetopic.

? Spelling

Periods

? Pronouns

? Punctuation ? Verbs

? Othergrammaticalerrors

Commas

? Subject-verbagreement Sentencefragments

Apostrophes

Misplacedordanglingmodifiers

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Common Grammatical Errors Here is a list of some of the more commonly committed grammatical errors. You may click on any of these errors to view an example of each as well as a discussion of the grammatical rule in question

? Adjective/Adverb Errors ? Apostrophe Misuse ? Article Errors ? Awkward Phrasing or Idiom ? Capitalization Errors ? Comma Omissions ? Comma Splice ? Contractions ? Double Negatives ? Failure to use Possessive before a Gerund ? Faulty Coordination ? Fragments ? Fused or Run-On Sentence ? Misplaced or Dangling Modifiers ? Misused Semicolons ? Mixed Construction ? Parallelism ? Past Tense Errors ? Plurality Errors-Nouns

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? Pronoun Case Errors ? Pronoun Errors-- Ambiguous, Redundant, etc. ? Pronoun Reference ? Shifts in Person or Number ? Shifts In Tense ? Subject-Verb Agreement ? Unnecessary Commas ? Verb Errors (wrong form)

The content of these pages was, in part, taken from the following sources:

Harbrace College Handbook (Revised Thirteenth Edition), Horner, Webb, and Miller. Harcourt Brace, 1998. Digital Design, M. Morris Mano. Prentice Hall, 1984. Physics: Principles and Problems, Zitzewitz and Neff. McGraw-Hill, 1995.

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Common Grammatical Errors 1.Noun-verbmismatch,e.g."Aherdofhorsesarebetterthanaflockofsheep"(herdissingular).The Cityfeelsthatthisisabadidea.(Acitycan ' tfeel) 2.Adjectiveusedasadverb,e.g.andespecially"Ididgoodinthiscourse" 3.Splitinfinitive,e.g."IurgeyoutonotsupportthisBill". 4.Misplacedmodifier,e.g."Weneedtostopdumpingwasteintotheenvironmentwhichkillsthefish". TOavoidthismistake,putthemodifierascloseaspossibletothenounitismodifying.Repaired:"Weneed tostopdumpingwaste,whichkillsthefish,intotheenvironment". 5.Dangling(ormisplaced)participleAparticipialphraseatthebeginningofasentencemustrefertothe grammaticalSUBJECTofthesentence.Wrong:"Asthelargestreptilesevertohavelived,smallmammals couldnotcompetewiththedinosaurs".Thissuggeststhatsmallmammalswerethelargestreptileseverto havelived.Repaired:"Beingsmallanddefenseless,smallmammalscouldnotcompetewiththedinosaurs". Moreexamples). 6.Endingasentencewithapreposition,e.g."Thisissomethingweneedtoworkon". 7.Startingaparagraphwithaconjunctionthatshouldrefertotheprevioussentence,e.g."Furthermore,...", "However,..." 8.Run-onsentences(twocompletesentencesjoinedbyacommaratherthanaperiodorsemicolon)The labisadangerousplace,youshouldwearalabcoat.(couldberepairedbytheadditionofso. 9.Incompletesentences,includingthosewithnoverb,e.g."Theseanimalscouldbeharmedbyvarious things.Pollution,forexample." 10.Mixingupthe"notoriousconfusables"(confusibles?)(e.g.theirvs.there) Otherusefulsitesifyouwanttoimproveyourwritingskills: GuidetoGrammarandWriting Pleonasms,redundanciesandtautologies(needlessrepetitionofwordsoverandoveragainmultipletimes) ________________________________________________________________________ ______________ CommonGrammaticalErrors&HowtoFixThem Dang l i n gMo d if ier s

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Adanglingmodifierisaphraseorclausethat--becauseofitsproximity--seemstomodifyaworditcould notlogicallymodify.Oneofthemostcommondanglingmodifiersoccursinthefollowingsentence: "Hopefully,theprojectwillsucceed.""Hopefully"isanadverbthatappearstomodifythenoun"project,"the subjectofthesentence.Buthowcanaprojectbehopeful?Tofixthesentence,weneedtoshowwho'sreally doingthehoping:"Wehopethattheprojectwillsucceed." Anotherverycommondanglingmodifierappearsinthefollowingsentenceconstruction:"Basedonour observations,theprojectwillsucceed."Again,themodifier--"based"--cannotlogicallymodifythenounto whichitisattached--"project.""Theproject"isnot"basedonourobservations."Tofixthesentence,weneed tosay,"Onthebasisofourobservations,webelievetheprojectwillsucceed." Incon s i s ten tVerbTenses Makesureyouusepasttenseconsistentlythroughoutasentenceandusepastperfecttensewhenitiscalledfor. Forexample,inthefollowingsentencethereisalackofconsistencyintense;itshiftsfrompasttopresent: "Governmentofficialssaidthattheyarecorrectingtheproblem."Sincetheverbinthemainclauseisstatedin thepasttense--"said"--theverbinthesubordinateclause--"arecorrecting"--shouldalsobestatedinthe pasttense.Thesentenceshouldread"Governmentofficialssaidthattheywerecorrectingtheproblem."If, however,theactionofthedependentclausewascompletedbeforetheactioninthemainclause,usepastperfect tenseinthedependentclause.Forexample,"Governmentofficialssaidthattheyhadcorrectedtheproblem. Nou nStr i n g s Trytoavoidlongstringsofnouns,suchasthefollowing,thatshownogrammaticalrelationshipsamongthe manynouns:"ArmyFiscalYear1990ApacheHelicopterSpareandRepairPartsBudgetRequest."Add possessivecaseandprepositionstoclarifyhowthenounsrelatetoeachother.Revision:"TheArmy'sFiscal Year1990BudgetRequestforSpareandRepairPartsfortheApacheHelicopter." Faul t yAgreemen ti nNum ber Oneofthemostcommonpronounagreementproblemsoccurswhenonetriestoavoidthesexistuseof pronouns.Forexample,thefollowingsentenceisinconsistentinnumber:"Eachstudentmustcleantheirown room."Thepluralpronoun"their"doesnotagreeinnumberwiththesingular"Eachstudent"andthesingular "room."Tofixthesentence,youcouldsay"Eachstudentmustcleanhisorherownroom."Ifyoufindthe"his orher"constructionawkward,makeallpronounsandassociatednounsinthesentenceplural:"Allstudents mustcleantheirownrooms." UnclearAnteceden t sfor"Th i s,""Wh ich,"and"I t" An"antecedent"isthenounapronounrefersto.Whenusing"this,""which,"or"it,"makesurethereisno questionaboutwhatthepronoun'santecedentis.Inthefollowingcase,theantecedentfor"this"isunclear:"The companyneedsaccuratedataforitsestimates.Thisisthepurposeofthetaskforce."Similarly,theantecedent for"which"isinclearinthispassage:"Thecompanyneedsaccuratedataforitsestimates,whichisthepurpose ofthetaskforce."Tomakethepassagesclearer,changethemto:"Thecompanyneedsaccuratedataforits estimates.Providingsuchdataisthepurposeofthetaskforce." Inthefollowingsentence,theantecedentfor"it"isunclear:"Whenthegovernmentworkerswhoshouldbe classedasadministratorsareenumerated,itreachesstaggeringproportions."Revisetoeliminatethevague pronounasfollows:"Whenthegovernmentworkerswhoshouldbeclassedasadministratorsareenumerated, thetotalisstaggering." Fail uretoUsePo s ses s i v eCasewi t haGerund Agerundisthepresentparticipleoftheverb(theverbalformendingin"ing")whenusedasanoun.The possessivecaseshouldbeusedformodifiersofagerund:"Iwouldappreciateyourattendingthemeeting.""Itis allcontingentonthePresident'ssigningthebill."If,however,youfindthisconstructionawkwardor impossible,rewordthesentence.Forinstance,toavoidawkwardconstructionsuchasthefollowing,revise: "ThisisoneofseveralstepstakenbytheSecretarytopreventtheceilingonexpenditures'beingbrokenagain

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nextyear."Revision:"ThisisoneofseveralstepstakenbytheSecretarytopreventtheceilingonexpenditures frombeingbrokenagainnextyear." M i s u seof"That"and"Wh ich" Thekeytodeterminingwhentouse"that"andwhentouse"which"isindecidingwhethertheclauseorphrase thatfollowsisessentialtodefiningwhatyoumean(it's"restrictive")orissimplyparentheticalinformation (it's"nonrestrictive").Use"that"withrestrictivephrasesorclausesand"which"withnonrestrictivephrasesor clauses.Forexample,ifIamholdinguponlyonebookandsay"I'llgiveyouthisbook,whichexplains grammaticalrules,"youdon'tneedtoknowthatthebookisaboutgrammartoknowwhichbookImean.IfI'm holdingupahistorybookandagrammarbookandIsay"I'llgiveyouthebookthatexplainsgrammatical rules,"youneedtoknowthatthebookexplainsgrammaticalrulestoknowwhichbookImean. Asaruleofthumb,use"which"andsetthephraseorclauseoffbycommasiftheinformationthatfollowsis parenthetical,orunessentialtothemeaningofyoursentence.Use"that"anddon'tsetyourphraseorclauseoff bycommaswhentheinformationthatfollowsisessentialtothemeaningofyoursentence. AcademicResourceCenter SweetBriarCollege SweetBriar,VA24595 (804)381-6278 ________________________________________________________________________ ______________ TopTenLi s tofC o m m o nGram ma t icalError s BySue-teacher 10.Theuseofsexistlanguage.GibaldistatesintheMLAHandbook,"Becausegoodscholarshiprequires objectivity,carefulwriters...avoidlanguagethatimpliesunsubstantiatedorirrelevantgeneralizationsabout suchpersonalqualitiesasage,economicclass,ethnicity,sexualorientation,politicalorreligiousbelief,race,or sex"(37).Inotherwords,don'tuselanguagethatcouldbedeemedinsultingorignorant. 9.Donotchangeverbtensewithinasingleparagraph. 8.Usetheactivevoiceinallyourwriting.Itwillmakeyourpaperthatmuchmoreexcitingtoread.For example,"Thereasonheleft220wasthathishealthwasimpaired,"isapassivesentence.Thesentencebecomes morevigorousintheactivevoice:"Failinghealthcompelledhimtodrop220."Noticethatitisalsoashorter sentence.Whichbringsustopointnumber7. 7.Neverusemorewordsthannecessary.Thisdoesn'tmeanthatyoushouldabandondetailandcolor,spitting outshort,staccatosentenceslikewatermelonseeds,onlymakesurethateverywordcounts."Very,"forexample isafluffywordthatisonlyRARELYneeded.Anotheroverworkedandmushyphraseis"thefactthat."Inall situationsthisphrasecanbetransformedintoatighterpackage,forexample: owingtothefactthatsinceorbecause inspiteofthefactthatthoughoralthough Isuggestthatyourevise"thefactthat"outofeverysentence. 6.Thewaytoformapossessivesingularofnounsistoadd-'s-totheendnomatterwhatthelastletteris,thus, Marx'sprecepts Burns'spoem

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