10 Common Writing Mistakes People Should Avoid Making
Always be on the alert for the most common writing mistakes in your work. It’s possible that you’ve written and published a flawless book. You have the potential to be a wonderful blogger. Your poem has the potential to be spectacular.
When we write in a hurry, we all make mistakes with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. A good writer, on the other hand, will always repair mistakes before publishing anything online.
When writing an email, message, or social media post, you might not think about grammatical standards, punctuation marks, single or plural, or entire sentences. People, on the other hand, are acutely aware of any mistakes you may make.
Common Writing Mistakes That People Make
You’ve just finished your boss’s report, written a business letter, or done your college professor’s paper. There are no squiggly lines to show any probable issues once you run it through spelling and grammatical checks. You believe your work is flawless, but unless you proofread it properly, it may not be as flawless as you believe. If you get lazy, you’re likely to make one of the following common writing mistakes.
1. Incomplete Sentences
Fragment sentences are another name for this type of sentence. An actor and an action, or, to put it more properly, a subject and a verb, are frequently found in a complete sentence. Consider a sentence to be a “thought.” The entire thought must be expressed in a single sentence.
“Because it was raining.”
The sentence is incomplete. You can either make this a single statement or edit the sentence to complete it: “We canceled the picnic because it was raining.”
2. Run-On Sentences
Many people believe that a “run-on” means that the sentence is too long, although this is not technically right, despite the fact that it is frequently the case. You’ve produced a run-on sentence if you employ more than one subject and verb combination without utilizing proper punctuation.
“I’m concerned that if she’ll settle down in Europe it’s often difficult for Asians to adapt.” There are lots of options for resolving this:
- Write two sentences: “I’m concerned that if she’ll settle down in Europe. It’s often difficult for Asians to adapt.”
- Use a semi-colon: “I’m concerned that if she’ll settle down in Europe; it’s often difficult for Asians to adapt.” Read the article on semi-colon use to see why this easy fix works.
- Use conjunction: “I’m concerned that if she’ll settle down in Europe because it’s often difficult for Asians to adapt.”
“Comma splicing” is another popular run-on. With a comma, you’re connecting two thoughts that may have been different sentences. Use a semicolon, conjunction, or separate the sentences into two.
3. Similar Word Mistakes
This is a very frequent thing. People frequently mix up “it’s” and “its,” writing mistakes “your” when they mean “you’re,” and “affect” when they mean “effect.” Unfortunately, these words do not have the same meaning and are not interchangeable.
4. Incorrect Tenses
Depending on what you do, be cautious about how you transition tenses. Although there are situations when this is possible, you must use the correct formula.
“I was watching TV when the remote falls down.” is an example of incorrectly mixed tenses.
5. Use of a Comma
It would be simple to write a whole blog post about when to use commas and when not to. It’s not difficult to learn how to use commas correctly, but you may need to study the subject carefully to understand the requirements. Because most individuals are confused about where commas should be used, mastering the art will put you ahead of the pack.
6. Incoherent Flow
It’s essential to arrange your thoughts before you start writing in order to maintain your work crisp, clear, and short. If you don’t, you can wind up with a jumble of ideas that your reader doesn’t understand. What exactly are you seeking to interact with? It should be introduced. What points will you bring forth in order to support your main point? Make paragraphs out of them. What do you believe this proves? To reach a conclusion, bring everything together.
7. Plural Pronoun with a Singular Noun
This is more difficult than it appears. “When the student council met, they decided to contact the dean with their problem,” for example. Doesn’t it sound great? What a pity it’s writing mistakes. Because the student council is a single group or organization, it cannot be referred to as “they.” It may be made up of individuals, but it is not a person. All is alright if “it” and “its” are substituted for “they” and “them.”
8. Too Complicated
This is something that some bosses enjoy. When you write “With respect to” instead of “Regarding” or “About,” they are impressed. They prefer “We believe” to “We believe” and similar phrases. Although none of these examples are incorrect and do help you boost your word count, utilizing language like this can come across as pretentious and obscure the point. Many employers and I have had disagreements over clumsy, formal language. Communication in the workplace should be straightforward.
Long-winded statements are also much easier to get wrong, which is a problem for anyone trying to look impressive. Writing simply and clearly makes it easier to double-check your work and decreases your chances of making writing mistakes.
Here’s a beautiful example of “correct” but long-winded writing:
A two-person team proceeded toward the summit of a natural geological protuberance, the goal of their mission being the procurement of a sample of fluid hydride of oxygen in a large vessel, the exact size of which was unspecified. One member of the team precipitately descended, sustaining severe fractional damage to the upper cranial portion of the anatomical structure. Following that, the second member of the team performed a self-rotation translation oriented in the direction taken by the first team member.
What does this mean? Here’s the answer:
“Jack and Jill went up the hill to bring a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.”
9. Apostrophes Errors
We’ve seen the signs outside the super shop: “Apple’s, Orange’s, and banana’s special!” Restaurants are often guilty of this as well: “The best burger’s in town!” Those apples may be special, and maybe the burgers are pretty good, but the use of apostrophes isn’t correct. Apostrophes indicate “belonging to” with the exception of “its,” and they indicate a missing letter in an abbreviated phrase like “don’t.” In this situation, the apostrophized version is an abbreviation meaning “it is.”
10. Misspellings
Spelling mistakes are often interpreted as a sign of the writer’s concern with the project as a whole.
Allowing your hard work to be ruined in this way is unacceptable!
You can utilize spell checker, spelling dictionaries and lists of frequently misspelled words found in handbooks in addition to comprehensive dictionaries.