CommonGrammar Mistakes

Created by Melissa Cline

JCTC English Instructor

Colloquialisms/Cliches

• Do not use colloquialisms in formal writing. Colloquialisms can be defined as words, slang, or phrases often said in everyday speech, but that are not appropriate for academic writing.

• Examples: ain’t, gonna, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” etc.

• Cliches: Tired, overused sayings and expressions.

• Example: “His eyelids were as heavy as lead.” “I was hanging by a thread.” “I am cool as a cucumber.”

Faulty Parallelism

• Readers expect items in a series to appear in parallel grammatical form. When one or more of the items, violate readers’ expectations, a sentence will be needlessly awkward.– Abused children commonly exhibit one or more

of the following symptoms: withdrawal, rebelliousness, restlessness, and they are depressed.

– After assuring us that he was sober, Sam drove down the middle of the road, ran one red light, and two stop signs.

Wordiness

• For all intents and purposes, the reason Mr. Henderson arrived late for work was due to the fact that he stopped at very many traffic lights that were red in colour. (31 words)

• Corrected: Mr. Henderson arrived late for work because he stopped at many red lights.  (13 words)

Subject/Verb Agreement

• The subject of a sentence must agree with the verb of the sentence.

• They must agree in two ways: in number: singular vs. plural in person: first, second, or third person– Each of Sylvia Plath’s “bee poems” use the

theme of beekeeping to express aspects of the human condition

– The characters in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night lives in a world that has been turned upside-down.

Indicating Possession

• Possessive nouns indicate ownership, as in Tim’s hat or the lawyer’s desk.

• When to add apostrophe s– If the noun does not end in s, add ’s– If the noun is singular and ends in s, add ’s – If the noun is plural and ends in s, add only an

apostrophe.

• Avoid common misuses of the apostrophe with nouns that are not possessive– Some outpatient’s are given special parking

permits.

Run-on Sentences

• Run-on sentences join two or more complete sentences with no punctuation. – Michaela loves to draw horses she is a

talented artist. – The night was cold we forgot to bring our

coats.

It’s for its and they’re, their, there confusion.

It’s versus its• Download the HTA, along with it's readme file.• Download the HTA, along with its readme file.• The laptop is overheating and its making that funny noise

again.• The laptop is overheating and it's making that funny noise

again.

They're, their, there• The managers are in they're weekly planning meeting.• The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.• The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and

their not happy about it.