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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thewitch'sbroom. Pluralnounsuseonlythe-'-: Vanderbilts'estate theWoodsons'crazydog. Youdonot,however,useanapostrophetoformthepluralofanabbreviationoranumber: PhDs 1990s. 5.Donotmistakeitsforit's.Thefirstisapossessive,thesecondisacontractionof"itis."Itisbest,actuallyto spurnallcontractionsinformallanguage.Justsayno. 4.Playsareconsideredliteratureandthusarealwayshappening.Youwriteaboutthem,then,inthepresent tense.Productionsofplaysareephemeralandsingular.Youwriteaboutthem,then,inthepasttense. 3.AllpartsofMLAstylepapersaredoublespacedincludingtheworkscitedandoff-setquotes.Marginsare oneinchandyoushouldusefontnobiggerthantwelvepicaandnosmallerthanten. 2.Justbecauseyouspellcheckdoesnotmeanthewordwillbespelledcorrectly.Whenindoubt,lookitup.The moralofthisisPROOFREAD!PROOFREAD!andthenPROOFREAD!Tryreadingyourworkbackwards sentencebysentence,thiscanhelpyoulookatthewordsandnotautomaticallymoveintomeaning. 1.PlaytitlesareALWAYSunderlinedoritalicized. Moreat: ________________________________________________________________________ ______________

Common Grammar & Usage Errors AandAnbeforeawordbegi n n i n gwi t h"h":"Anhistoricalbook"isnotidiomaticinAmerican English.Beforeaprono u ncedh,theindefinitearticleshouldbea.Ahotel;ahistorical.Therefore,precedea wordbeginningwitha"breathy"hwithana. D uetoorBecauseof?Duetom o d if iesno u n sandisgenerallyusedaftersomeformoftheverbtobe (is,are,was,were,etc.).Jan'ssu ccessisduetotalentandspunk(duetomodifiessuccess).Becauseof shouldmo d if yverbs.Tedres i g nedbecauseofpoorhealth(becauseofmodifiesresigned). I tsorIt ' s?Its :Thepossessiveformofthepronouni tisneverwrittenwithanapostrophe,e.g.,...readthe book."It stitleis..."or,"Whatisi t svalue?"It' s :contractionsofiti sandithas.It ' stimetogo.It ' sbeen great.( A H D 3 ) M yr iadAsanou n,myr i admeanstenth o u sand,oragreatnu m ber(amyr iadofaircraft). Inthiscase,you'renotusingmyriadtomodify:it'sthesubject.Asanadject i ve,myr iadmean s "havinginnumerableaspectsorelements"(thosemyriadchallenges-themyriadactivity ofthepeop le-myr iadbu t terf l ies).Thesedays,thedistinctionisblurred,andweseequiteabitof"...a myriadof..."

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Their,They 're,orThere?Their:possessiveformofthewordthey,e.g.,TheirWebsiteisfulloftypos.

They 're:Contractionofthewords"they"and"are,"e.g.,They 'redoingagreatjobontheirWebsite.There:

atorinthatplace,e.g.,"Nowt h e r e isastunningWebsite.

Youroryou 're?You 're:Contractionofthewords"youare,"e.g.,"You 'reupforanaward.Someonesaid

y o u 'releaving."Yourisapossessiveformofapersonalpronoun,e.g.,"IlikeyourWebsite.Tom,thanksfor

givingyourtimetothiseffort."Both:"YourknowledgeofHTMLshowsthatyou 'readedicateddesigner."

Wanttodelvemoredeeplyintothecauldronofconfusingwords?HerearetwoofthebestontheWeb:

C o m m o nError sinEng l i s h : Pr ofes s orPau l Br ian s

No t or i o u s C o nf u sab les :Pr ofes s orC har lesDarl i n g

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LearningfromtheTwentyMostCommonErrors



1Missingcommaafteranintroductoryelement

2Vaguepronounreference

3Missingcommainacompoundsentence

4Wrongword

5Missingcomma(s)withanonrestrictiveelement

6Wrongormissingverbending

7Wrongormissingpreposition

8Commasplice

9Missingormisplacedpossessiveapostrophe

10Unnecessaryshiftintense

11Unnecessaryshiftinpronoun

12Sentencefragment

13Wrongtenseorverbform

14Lackofsubject-verbagreement

15Missingcommainaseries

16Lackofagreementbetweenpronounandantecedent

17Unnecessarycomma(s)witharestrictiveelement

18Fusedsentence

19Misplacedordanglingmodifier

20Its/It'sconfusion

Grammar,punctuation,andothersentence-levelmatterswillseldomdrawmuchattentionunlesstheyinterfere

withthemeaningyou'retryingtogetacross.Becausetheydogetintheway,however,theyareimportantto

yoursuccessasawriter.

Whatkindsofsurfaceerrorsareyoulikelytofindinyourwriting,andhowwillreadersrespondtothem?Our

studyofcollegewritingpatternsrevealedthatspellingerrorsarebyfarthemostcommontypeoferror,even

withspellcheckers,byafactorofmorethanthreetoone.Ourstudyalsoshowedthatnotallsurfaceerrors

disturbreaders,nordoinstructorsalwaysmarkallofthem.Finally,notallsurfaceerrorsareconsistently

viewedaserrors.Infact,someofthepatternsidentifiedinourresearchareconsiderederrorsbysomereadersbut

stylisticoptionsbyothers.

Whilemanypeoplethinkofcorrectnessasabsolute,basedonhardandfastunchanging"rules,"instructorsand

studentsknowbetter.Weknowthattherearerules,butthattheruleschangeallthetime."IsitokaytouseIin

essaysforthisclass?"asksonestudent."Myhighschoolteacherwouldn'tletus.""Willmorethanonecomma

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errorlowermygrade?"asksanother.Suchquestionsshowthatrulesclearlyexistbutthattheyarealways shiftingandthusneedourongoingattention. Ourresearchshowssomeoftheshiftsthathaveoccurredinthelastcenturyalone.Somemechanicaland grammaticalquestionsthatareoflittleornoconcerntodayusedtobeperceivedasextremelyimportant.Inthe late-nineteenthcentury,forinstance,instructorsatHarvardsaidthattheirstudents'mostseriouswriting problemwastheinabilitytodistinguishbetweentheproperusesofshallandwill.Similarly,splitinfinitives representedaseriousproblemformanyinstructorsofthe1950s.Nowadays,atleastsincethestarship Enterprisesetout"toboldlygo"wherenoonehasgonebefore,splitinfinitivesseemtowrinklefewerbrows. Theseexamplesofshiftingstandardsdonotmeanthatthereisnosuchthingas"correctness"inwriting-only thatcorrectnessalwaysdependsonsomecontext.Correctnessisnotsomuchaquestionofabsoluterightor wrongasitisaquestionofthewaythechoicesawritermakesareperceivedbyreaders.Aswriters,weareall judgedbythewordsweputonthepage.Weallwanttobeconsideredcompetentandcareful,andwritingerrors workagainstthatimpression.Theworldjudgesusbyourcontroloftheconventionswehaveagreedtouse,and weallknowit.AsRobertFrostoncesaidofpoetry,tryingtowritewithouthonoringtheconventionsand agreed-uponrulesislikeplayingtenniswithoutanet. Sinceyoualreadyknowmostoftheserules,themostefficientwaytoproceedistofocusonthosethatarestill unfamiliarorpuzzling.Toaidyouinthisprocess,wehaveidentifiedthetwentyerrorpatterns(otherthan misspelling)thatweremostcommonamongU.S.collegestudentsinthelate1980sandlistthemhereinorder offrequency.Thesetwentyerrorsarelikelytocauseyouthemosttrouble,soitiswellworthyoureffortto checkfortheminyourwriting.ThisareaofourWebsiteincludesbriefexamplesandexplanationsofeacherror pattern;formoredetailandadditionalexamples,youshouldconsultyourhandbook.

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