A GUIDE TO AVOIDING COMMON WRITING ERRORS
Explained below are some of the chronic errors that
students make every term in every course. If you can learn to avoid only these pitfalls,
your writing will be much better.
1. A pronoun replaces a specific noun, its antecedent,
to which it refers by agreeing in person, number, and gender. Thus John must be
replaced by a third person, singular, masculine pronoun: he, him, or his.
a. Vague antecedent. Slavery was immoral. This
contributed to the Confederate defeat. In the sample, "This" has no clear
noun antecedent and therefore is incorrect. To correct, turn "This" into an
adjective: This immorality contributed to the Confederate defeat.
b. Wrong number. The Ku Klux Klan hated black
people. They wore sheets at night. Here the second sentence says that black people
wore sheets. Collective nouns such as team, army, and government are
singular in American usage and replaced by singular pronouns. Correct: The Klansmen
wore sheets at night.
2. A verb is the word of action, status, or location: jumped,
was, and remained.
a. Split infinitive. He wanted to fully understand.
Some teachers regard this point as pedantic, but literate people keep both parts of the
infinitive together in speech and in writing. Correct: He wanted to understand fully.
or He wanted fully to understand. (Note that there is a subtle difference of
meaning between the two samples.) Likewise, don't break up verb phrases: You may
also want to go for a swim. Correct: You also may want to go for a
b. Passive voice used to hedge. The domino theory
was developed in the 1950s. Here the writer avoided telling who developed the domino
theory, an unforgivable omission. You could use a "by" clause, but the active
voice is much better: The Eisenhower Administration developed the domino theory in the
1950s. Note the corrected sentence is much livelier.
c. Incorrect tense selection. Although the Tet
Offensive smashes the Viet Cong in 1968, American public opinion will never again support
the war. The sample is silly. History is the record of the past, and should always be
written in the past tense. Otherwise, as in this sample, you end up using the future tense
"will never again support" for something that happened many years ago. Correct: Although
the Tet Offensive smashed the Viet Cong in 1968, American public opinion would never again
support the war. Note, however, that ideas expressed in the past and preserved in
written form should be treated as if the writer were speaking today, regardless of when
his or her work was written. For example, In his landmark pamphlet "Common
Sense," Thomas Paine draws on Biblical imagery in his attack on monarchical forms of
d. Subjects and predicates. Don't separate the two by
a non-restrictive clause or phrase. Lincoln, during the worst war ever fought on the
American continent, was a great leader. Such a division creates confusion. Better: During
the worst war ever fought on the American continent, Lincoln was a great leader.
3. Usage and Structure.
a. Word usage. Correct diction depends upon your using
a dictionary to find the proper meanings. If you make the following two common errors, you
probably make others, so use your dictionary. (i) He had a large amount of troops.
Wrong, because "amount" is used only for things that cannot be counted, like
sugar or water, while "number" is used for things that can be counted, like
grains or gallons. So: He had a large number of troops. (ii) The army could not
control it's soldiers. Wrong, because "it's" means "it is." The
possessive of "it" has no apostrophe: "its." Correct is: The army
could not control its soldiers. (Note also that "its" is used instead of
"their." See A1b, above, to get the point.)
b. Improper parallels. To fight or going home were
their choices. Constructions on both sides of a conjunction-and, but, or, etc.-must
be in the same form. Correct: To fight or to go home were their choices. or Fighting
or going home were their choices. The same rule applies to nouns and all other parts
c. Overlong sentences. I love my wife because she's
nice to me except on Friday night when I want to go to the movies, but she wants to go to
a cocktail party, because she likes the Joneses whom I can't stand because Mrs. Jones and
I had an argument two years ago about where her son could play when my daughters weren't
home. No human mind can keep track of such a thing. A good rule is to keep sentences
limited to one main clause and no more than one subordinate clause. I love my wife
because she's nice to me. Sometimes she doesn't seem too nice to me. For example, on
Friday nights, she often wants to go a party when I'd rather see a film. Note the
d. Paragraph structure helps the reader understand
where you end one idea and begin the next one. A paragraph is a group of sentences which
are connected by a common idea. When the idea changes, there must be a new paragraph. If
you don't use paragraphs, you can't expect the reader to understand you.
e. Main/Subordinate clauses. Putting an idea at the
end of the sentence emphasizes it. But if the later part is a subordinate clause, the
emphasis is diminished. For example, Richard was the king, but Henry had the support of
all powerful elements. Better: Although Richard was the king, Henry had the support
of all powerful elements.
f. Improper conjunctions. Some words are never
conjunctions, although they are frequently used so incorrectly. Two premier examples: However,
he never came here. and Also, Lincoln fired McClellan. "However" and
"also" are adverbs, and should not be used to begin a sentence. Correct: On
the other hand, he never came here. and Moreover, Lincoln fired McClellan.
a. Quotation marks combined with other
American English, periods and commas are always placed inside quotation
marks and colons and semi-colons outside. Question and exclamation
marks are placed inside only if they are associated with the contents within
the quotation marks, such as:
b. Commas in a series. For greater clarity, place a
comma before the word "and" in a series unless the last two items in the series
belong together. Examples: The group included Jones, Simpson, and Wilson. and She
collected firearms made by Colt, Winchester, and Smith and Wesson.
1. Strive for an economy of prose. Keep your writing
simple, clear, and direct to achieve greatest potency. Use the fewest words possible to
express your ideas. As Mark Twain put it, "Eschew surplusage."
2. Avoid slang expressions and jargon, which are
usually inappropriate in formal academic writing.
3. Red flag words are those of quantity, such as many,
few, some, and several. They must be followed by examples. A few of
Johnson's advisers opposed the bombing. is something no thoughtful reader will take
seriously. A good reader will always say, "OK, name them!" Correct: A few of
Johnson's advisers opposed the bombing. The head of the CIA, John McCone, for example,
thought it would be useless. When you use words of quantity, let a "red
flag" pop up in your head: "Give examples, give examples."
4. Rhetorical questions make lousy arguments. Why
couldn't they see that the NLF had the support of the people? may seem unanswerable to
you. But if there is an answer, then the writer loses the argument: Because reflexive
anti-Communism made them blind to the popular sentiment. Much better is an assertion: None
of them could see that the NLF had the support of the people. followed, of course, by
examples and explanations.
5. Quotations. (a) Avoid them unless they provide
essential evidence or say something you can't say as well. You're better off paraphrasing,
i.e., using your own words to convey the idea. (b) If you must quote, limit the
words to exactly what you need and no more. (c) Always introduce the quotation before
using it. Without an introduction, Never in the course of human history was so much
owed by so many to so few. could refer to the Internal Revenue Service. Correct: As
Winston Churchill said in 1941 when crediting the Royal Air Force with the salvation of
Western Civilization from Hitler, "Never in the course . . ."
1. Identify foreign words by italicizing or underlining
them. For example: The importance of the bushido ethic in Tokugawa Japan cannot
be underestimated. Proper nouns, such as names of people or places (e.g., Ngo
Dinh Diem, Nairobi), do not require this distinction. Abbreviations of most Latin
expressions commonly used in academic writing (such as ibid., op. cit., etc., et al.,
i.e., and e.g.) do, however.
2. Save paper. When handwriting, don't leave one side
of the sheet blank. Think of the trees which gave their lives for the paper you use.
3. Leave margins and double space. I take considerable
pains to make my comments on your papers a valuable part of your education. Leave me space
to write them, please.
4. Proofread. There is almost always one paper where
some student leaves out "not" or makes some other silly proofreading error. Look
at it this way: (a) you're better off spending the last three minutes reading than
writing, because 100% correct on 80% done is better than 50% correct on 90% done, by a lot;
and (b) if you can't be bothered to read your own stuff, then why should I?