25 Most Common Writing Errors (Ranked)
fr. St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, based on national survey of 21,000 student essays
1. Wordiness
e.g. The available receptacle, in any case, was of insufficient size to contain the total quantity of unnecessary waste.
2. Misused word
e.g. The Corpse of Engineers responded erotically to a stream of trouble calls.
3. Incorrect or ambiguous pronoun reference
e.g. Nineteen of twenty prison inmates were removed from its damaged south wing.
4. Verb tense errors
e.g. When the radiator clanked, she furiously kicks it.
5. Missing comma between independent clauses
e.g. Subtle differences of light and shade register on the retina and subtle differences in color at the red end of the spectrum are sometimes lost.
6. Problems with hyphens between compound adjectives
e.g. The buckling was not a heat caused incident.
7. Missing comma after introductory elements
e.g. Even when Chechnyan terrorist acts were not forecast Russian officials responded with heightened vigilance.
8 . Capitalization of proper or common nouns
e.g. The High School offered its auditorium for the ymca benefit concert.
9. Unnecessary comma between compound elements
e.g. A sequence of miscues, and an unanticipated calamity doomed the installation of the linear accelerator.
10. Incorrect spacing
e.g. Several qualities will mark the successful candidate:confidence, trustworthiness, competence-- and desire.
11. Missing words
e.g. Her efforts to prepare were as much and more than sufficient.
12. Missing commas with nonrestrictive word groups
e.g. The fifth asteroid a body nearly the size of the moon was the last to be discovered.
13. Comma splice or fused sentence
e.g. Catalytic agents with higher activation thresholds were needed, all of the synthetic reactions occurred at below designated atmospheric pressure.
14. Problems in using quotation marks with other punctuation
e.g. Who said, “Give me liberty or give me death?”
15. Missing or unnecessary hyphens in compound nouns
e.g. The reception for the ambassador was like a cattle-call.
16. Missing comma with transitio na l and parenthetical expressions, absolute phrases, and contrasted elements
e.g. Indeed the last theatre its marquee still sparkling closed without notice.
17. Problems of pronoun-antecedent agreement
e.g. Each individual at the reception was given their own free pass on Amtrak.
18. Incorrect preposition
e.g. The Provost’s Office’s help consisted with a sequence of written directives.
19. Misuse of who, which , or that
e.g. Any person that receives a gold tassel and which loses it will not receive another.
20. Unnecessarily complex sentence structure
e.g. Simplicity is, barring other considerations, preferable.
21. Spelling out or using figures for numbers incorrectly
e.g. A minimum of 6 eggs went into that batter.
22. Problems with apostrophes in possessive nouns
e.g. The three diode’s performances were literally on the blink.
23. Sentence fragments
e.g. Considering all the performance reviews and unnecessary cross-checking.
24. Missing comma in items in a series
e.g. The palette was smeared with cobalt blue, cadmium orange and titanium white.
25. Unnecessary comma with restrictive word groups
e.g. The first person, who abuses that privilege, will lose it.