COMMON ERRORS

* its-it’s: its (possessive pronoun, does NOT need apostrophe, as in belonging to it)—it’s (contraction for it is or it has, BUT you will not be using this because there are no contractions in formal academic writing)

* than-then: than (used for comparisons, as in “My car is dirtier than yours.”)—then (adverb, as in next, as in “Then, I went to my next class.” also in if-then sentences, as in “If you do not learn these rules now, then you will receive bad grades on your essays.”)

- were-where-wear: were (linking verb)--where (adverb, as in place, as in “Where did you come from?”)—wear (verb, as in wear clothes)

- there-their: there (adverb, as in over there or “There was a fly on the wall.”)—their (possessive pronoun, as in belonging to a group of people)--they’re (contraction for they are, BUT you will not be using this because there are no contractions in formal academic writing)

- your-you’re: your (possessive pronoun, as in belonging to you)—you’re (contraction for you are, BUT you will not be using this because there are no contractions in formal academic writing)

- who’s-whose: who’s (contraction for who is, BUT you will not be using this because there are no contractions in formal academic writing)—whose (possessive pronoun, as in belonging to whom, as in “Whose book is this?”)

- too-to-two: too (intensifier, as in too much/many, in excess—so it has an excess of o’s, as in “I ate too much.” Also means “also,” as in “I want some, too.”)—to (preposition, starts prep. phrases and infinitives, as in “I went to the store to buy milk.”)—two (the number 2)

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II. PRONOUNS:

- “we all:” For some reason, people are quick to find the error in “you all,” but they miss it in “we all.” We is a plural PN and already includes everyone, so it is redundant to add the “all” part. Simply say “we” or “all of us” or “everyone” (but mind the next error).

* everyone-his/her: Too many people make a PN-agreement error by using “their” to refer back to everyone (or another indefinite PN which takes a singular antecedent). Use different subject or plural noun.

* pronoun reference/agreement: PN’s replace nouns; thus, PN’s must agree in number with the noun they replace. That is, you need a singular PN to match/refer back to a singular noun, and you need a plural PN to refer back to a plural noun. Sounds simple, but it gets tricky with the indefinite PN’s. Most of these take a singular PN, even though it seems that it should be a plural PN. Anybody/one/thing, everybody/one/thing, each, either, every, neither, none, nobody/one/thing, and somebody/one/thing will take SINGULAR PN’s, as in “Each of the students submitted his/her essays.” Here, “his/her” refers to each, not students, because “each” is the proper subject and “students” is the object of the preposition. (EXCEPTIONS: both, a few, a couple of, many, several will take PLURAL verbs; all, any, half, more, most, no, and some will take PLURAL verbs if they refer to a plural countable noun like “facts” or “windows.”)(indefinite PN’s that refer to uncountable nouns like “furniture” or “jewelry” or “information” will take SINGULAR verbs.)

* who-that: who (refers to people, as in “A chocoholic is a person who constantly craves some form of chocolate.” )—that (refers to animals or objects)

- who-whom: who (the subject of a sentence; can be replaced by “he.”)—whom (object form; can be replaced by “him”—notice they both end in M; to whom, for whom, about whom)

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III. OTHERS:

* conjunctive adverbs: (however, furthermore, therefore, moreover) These words will always have a comma after them. However, it is a comma splice error to place a comma before them when they come between two independent clauses, for they cannot join sentences like coordinating conjunctions (and, but, yet, or, nor, for, so). In this instance, you must place a semicolon before the conjunctive adverb, and the semicolon will join the two sentences. (“You claimed that the maid killed Sir Randolf; however, the butler did it.”—Here, the C.A. comes between two independent clauses, so a semicolon, or a period, is necessary.)(“The truth is, however, that the butler did it.”—Here, the C.A. simply comes in the middle of a single sentence; there is no independent clause on either side of it.)

* comma splices: commas do NOT join; they signal and/or separate. Thus, it is an error to use a comma to join 2 independent clauses (complete sentences). For example, “I went to the store, I bought some beef jerky.” Here, a comma is used to join 2 complete thoughts, and this is an error. This sentence needs a semicolon (;) between store and I. Generally, we make this error when we want to show a connection or continuation of thoughts. This is a good intention, but use proper punctuation to do so.

* cannot: The word “cannot” is just that, one word. Unlike “did not” or “will not,” it is not spelled “can not.”

* coordinating conjunctions: these 7 words (and, but, yet, or, nor, for, so) join like/similar items, but they do NOT start sentences in formal academic writing—despite what you see in newspapers or magazines. Thus, it would be improper to write: “But I wanted the red one instead.”

*** NO “thing”: one of the lamest words in the English language, “thing(s)” has relatively no meaning and, thus, no place within formal academic writing. Therefore, say what you mean AND use the exact word you intend—if you do not know it, use a THESAURUS!!

* NO contractions: in formal academic writing, you must avoid these. Thus, use no “it’s,” no “can’t,” and no “isn’t.”

* NO slang/pat expressions: in formal academic writing, you must avoid these. Thus, use no “nice,” “cool,” or “easy as pie” and no “a lot,” “lots,” or “things.”

* NO abbreviations: in formal academic writing, you must avoid these, so no “TV” or “CD.”

**THESIS STATEMENT: as the word “statement” implies, this is only 1 sentence, not several. Follow the formula: topic + main idea + support. In a Comparison essay, for example, you will list the 3 points of comparison in the “support” part—“High school and college are similar in terms of A, B, and C.”

* songs vs. album titles: Use “quotation marks” around song titles, short poems, magazine articles, book chapters, and TV shows. Underline (but do not italicize) album titles, long poems, magazine names, newspaper names, book titles, and movie titles. Basically, remember that short material get quotation marks and long material get underlined.

* punctuation goes WITHIN “:” Most of the time, 9 out of 10 times, all punctuation will go within quotation marks. For example, I just love that new song by Marvin and the Martians called “Out of This World.” Notice the period is within the quotation marks, not outside.

- different from vs/ different than: “different from” is proper English; “different than” can be abbreviated d.t., and the DT’s are bad—that’s how I remember the difference.

* parallel structure: basically, this means that items in a series must be of the same grammatical type, such as 3 nouns, 3 prepositional phrases, or 3 “because” clauses. For example, “I hate my English class because I do not like grammar, because I do like to write, and because I do not like my teacher.” Incorrect P.S. would look like this: “I hate my English class because I do not like grammar, writing makes me break out in hives, and because my teacher is a jerk.”

- such as: When you want to give an example of something, use “such as” in the following manner: “Some students just disappear during the semester, such as Tom, Dick, and Harry.” Note the comma before “such as” and the commas that set off the items in a series. No comma, however, is necessary after “such as” and before the examples. Although you can use it in a similar manner, try to avoid using “like.”

- for example: Do NOT use “for example” as you would “such as” and do NOT use “for example” to start a sentence without following it with a subject and verb (*otherwise, you will create a fragment). Essentially, you want to employ this transition at the start of sentences only and follow it with a complete thought (subject and verb). For example, “One reason Metallica is my favorite band is because of their live shows. For example, I saw them at the old Philadelphia Spectrum in 1996, and it was one of the greatest concerts of my life.” Note the comma after the transitional expression. “For instance” can be used in the same way.

- hyphens vs. dashes: remember it this way: 2 hyphens=1 dash. Thus, to type a hyphen, simply hit one “-” and use it between words like pro-Choice, anti-Republican, or non-invasive. To type a dash, use 2 hyphens (“--”) and put it between two clauses without any spaces before it or after it—hook it up to the last letter of the last word in the first clause and the first letter of first word in the second clause (just as I have done here with the “t” in it and the “h” in hook).