From casual writers to those who make writing a profession, grammar mistakes are something that every writer wants to avoid. Unless you are an expert, you will slip up now and then. However, being aware of some of the more common errors can help you avoid them and improve the overall “feel” of your writing. Read on to discover five of the most common grammar mistakes and learn how to avoid them.
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- Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices – Improperly using commas is very easy to do. A run-on sentence attaches two separate clauses without the use of a comma or conjunction. For instance, a run-on sentence would be “She went to the store they had a sale on eggs.” You can fix this by adding the word “because” in the middle, separating it into two sentences or any number of other options. Comma splices are similar. They attach two independent clauses with a comma in between. An example of a comma splice is “The chicken is beautiful, it is brown.” Both clauses could stand alone, so it should have a semi colon instead of a comma or you can separate it into two sentences.
- Pronoun Errors – This is a broad class of grammatical errors that are easy to make. Many of these errors are caused when the pronoun does not agree in number with the noun to which it refers. Singular nouns should be replaced with singular pronouns, and plural nouns should be replaced with plural pronouns. Remember that a company or organization is an “it” not a “they” and that everybody, anybody and somebody are all singular.
- Apostrophe Usage – On common words, apostrophes are easy. For instance “Those are Mike’s cats.” This sentence makes sense to most of us. However, with pronouns and certain special cases, it becomes complex. You do not use an apostrophe after a possessive pronoun such as his, hers, their, theirs, my, mine, our, ours, or its.
- Subject/Verb Agreement – When writing in present tense, the subject and verb must agree in number. If your subject is singular you must use a singular verb “is”, while if your subject is plural, you must use a plural verb “are.”
- Misplaced Modifiers – When you use a modifying term, place it as close to the word it is modifying as possible. This avoids confusion. Look at the following sentence: “She served pizza to the children on green plates.” This is confusing because it makes it sound like the children were on green plates, not the pizza. This is easily fixed by moving the modifier as such: “She served pizza on green plates to the children.”
While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of grammar mistakes you can make, spending some time fixing these common errors can improve your writing dramatically.