You don’t have to be a professional grammarian to write well. Many of the world’s bestselling authors will happily admit their spelling skills aren’t as impeccable as fans might think. Editors and proofreaders can help you polish your prose, and modern spell- and grammar-checking software can flag many common errors.
Yet they won’t catch everything, and nobody knows your work better than you. Too many mistakes will harm your ability to get your point across effectively. Furthermore, learning the top errors to watch out for ensures your prose is as strong and eloquent as possible.
Whether you’re just starting your manuscript or editing your first draft, keep the following 12 tips in mind. These errors are common across genres and can weaken even the best works if they’re not fixed before publication.
Let’s get these out of the way first. Misused or missing apostrophes are among the most common errors in all forms of writing, from Internet comments to published novels. They’re some of the trickiest to find when proofreading, which means you’ll have to be careful when writing your first draft. Remember:
[*] “You’re” is short for “you are.” “Your” means “belonging to you.”
[*] “It’s” is the abbreviated form of “it is.” “Its” means “belonging to it.”
[*] “They’re” is the abbreviation of “they are.” “Their” means “belonging to them,” and “there” is an adverb for place or position.
[*] “Should’ve” and “could’ve” are abbreviations of “should have” and “could have,” respectively. “Should of” and “could of” are always incorrect.
Spell check won’t catch or fix these errors in all cases, and even a professional proofreader can miss these mistakes on a first read. Keep the rules in mind when you’re writing to reduce editing later.
Much like the abused apostrophes, professional writers mix up these words from time to time. A quick review is always helpful.
[*] Who / Whom: “Who” is for the subject of the sentence; “whom” refers to the direct object. “Who is your favorite artist?” is correct, because the answer would be the subject: “Michelangelo is my favorite artist.” “Whom did you speak to yesterday?” is correct because your reply would be “I spoke to him/her yesterday.” When in doubt, phrase the sentence as a question or answer to see which works naturally.
[*] Affect / Effect: Generally, “affect” is used as a verb, while “effect” is a noun. There are certain instances where “effect” is used as a verb, such as when you “effect change.” Avoid using such phrases when in doubt.
[*] Everyday / Every Day: The single word is an adjective referring to something that happens regularly — as in, “an everyday occurrence.” Split into two, it’s an adjective and a noun, meaning “each day.”
[*] Insure / Ensure: State Farm and Metlife insure people and products in case something happens to them. You ensure success every time you follow these writing tips.
There’s no reason to remove every adverb from your writing. Adverbs only become tiresome when they don’t add anything to the sentence — or when a strong verb, adjective, or noun could replace them.
To “say loudly” is far worse than to “shout,” and “incredibly pretty” carries the same meaning as “beautiful.” Be particularly careful when working with dialogue tags. Many writers are hesitant to use the simple word “said” because it seems repetitive. In fact, readers tend to skip over dialogue tags and focus on what’s inside the quotation marks instead.
You don’t have to cut every word that ends in “-ly” from your writing, but it helps to run a search for adverbs when you’re finished writing. Make sure each one adds something crucial to the sentence that would be missing without the word.
Your readers are smart. They can gather your meaning without having to be hand-held with a plethora of adverbs.
Even if you didn’t have to look up the word in the last sentence above, you should still strive to avoid advanced-level vocabulary. Every time you use a word the reader doesn’t know, you risk losing their attention. Even technical writing should keep to specific industry terms — not SAT vocabulary that most people haven’t studied since high school.
The average American reads at a 7th-grade level, which means clear, simple writing works better in almost all cases. Thesaurus words are great for showing off, but don’t do much else.
Unless you’re certain your audience will enjoy reading a relatively obscure word like, say, “quotidian” or “distaff,” try to limit your vocabulary to those words and terms your readers will be familiar with. You’ll enjoy a wider readership and have more time to focus on building ideas and themes instead of vocab lists.
If there’s one thing editors watch out for above all else, it’s passive voice. This common error is particularly insidious since it’s easy to spot yet hard to avoid.
If the subject of your sentence isn’t clear, or is undefined, you’re likely using passive voice, and should rephrase your words to make them more effective. Passive voice can work when the subject is unknown, as in “the cookies were eaten while I was away.”
You can also emphasize a person’s lack of agency in a situation through passive voice. “Cleaning was a daily chore for Cinderella” carries a different meaning than, “Cinderella cleaned every day”—one that shows her lack of control in her life.
Aside from these specific situations, passive voice weakens your prose and often creates a vague image in the reader’s mind. For exciting books, active voice works best.
What does it mean for a modifier to dangle? Essentially, if you use a descriptive phrase after a noun that the phrase doesn’t describe, you’ve got a dangling modifier, and it needs to be rephrased. Passive voice often accompanies a dangling modifier — all the more reason to look out for both.
Let’s look at the following example:
“Despite trying his best, the test results were poor.”
This seems to imply the test tried its best, and that the test has a gender — both of which are unlikely.
Rephrased, the sentence should be:
“Despite trying his best, Jacob did poorly on the test.”
This isn’t just a matter of improving your writing. Dangling leads to miscommunications that can cause some serious issues. It’s all the more reason to avoid passive voice and make sure your subjects stay front and center.
Some forms of writing are stricter than others when it comes to proper comma use. Unless you’re writing abstract poetry, however, you’ll want to avoid comma splices in all of your writing.
Comma splices happen when authors try to write the way they talk. In normal conversation, two separate ideas may be connected by a brief pause.
“I read a book, he watched TV.”
These are two separate thoughts that should not be separated by a comma. Instead, add a coordinating conjunction, or use a period to separate the sentence into two.
“I read a book, and he watched TV.”
Or:
“I read a book. He watched TV.”
The meaning may differ depending on whether you use a conjunction or a period. A comma splice isn’t a stylistic choice; it’s a syntax error that needs to be removed.
We all know how to conjugate verbs depending on the subject, at least when it comes to simple sentences. When the subject is vague or indefinite, even professional writers end up making mistakes.
Typically, errors with subject-verb agreement happen because of indefinite nouns. Words like “each,” “nothing,” and “somebody” are singular, while words that refer to more than one undefined subject like “both,” “many,” or “few” are plural.
For example:
“Each person is sitting at the table. Many are wondering when the food will arrive.”
Always keep track of the main subject of a sentence. A mid-sentence phrase doesn’t change the original subject.
“The theory described in all of our textbooks is outdated.”
“All of the people at the supermarket are shopping.”
Some collective nouns can be tricky. “Committee,” for example, is singular, but “staff” is plural. When in doubt, highlight the potential error so your editor or proofreader can double-check the proper use.
Wordiness, or verbose language, is a growing problem in all genres. Prose padded with needless extra words takes too long to get to the point and exhausts the reader’s attention span.
Watch out for the following phrases in your own writing. Try to use shorter substitutions whenever possible:
[*] Due to the fact that → Because
[*] For the purpose of → To
[*] She is a woman who is → She is
[*] In spite of the fact that → Although
These are just a few of the many examples we’ve all seen abused in books and online. You may have to hit a certain word count in your writing, but any unnecessary words are edited out later anyway. Give your reader stronger content and more detail before you resort to writing something redundant like “7 a.m. in the morning” or the dreaded “Absolutely completely.”
Despite the pleasant alliteration, this pronoun-related error frustrates readers and editors alike.
An antecedent is the noun a pronoun refers to, and usually appears earlier in the sentence. Antecedents are ambiguous when one pronoun could refer to two or more antecedents.
For example:
“The larger man only had a knife, but the smaller one held a gun. He stared at Alan with his beady eyes and smiled.”
The “he” that begins the second sentence could refer to either man in the first. “Alan” might even be one of the men. These kinds of sentences are common in fiction, but appear in non-fiction as well. In both cases, readers are at a loss for who’s doing what.
Only use pronouns when you’re sure the reference is clear. Otherwise, reformat your words to ensure consistency. Don’t be afraid to reuse a name instead of a pronoun. It’s better to be repetitive than it is to be ambiguous.
Despite what your high school teacher may have told you, split infinitives are not grammatically incorrect. They’re allowed by the murky rules of English, but editors and proofreaders nonetheless strike them from manuscripts.
An infinitive is the base form of a verb, written with “to.” There are a handful of cases where a split infinitive works. Star Trek’s famous “to boldly go” is more memorable than “to go boldly.” They’re also common in advertising, where copywriters may promise to more than triple your sales, or to greatly increase your income.
If you’re certain your split infinitive gets your meaning across better than any other phrasing, keep it in your work. Otherwise, readers are more comfortable seeing “to” directly attached to the verb. Rephrasing a split infinitive adds emphasis.
The final item on our list is one of the easiest to correct, and one of the more frequently misused. English speakers tend to overuse “was” when speaking in the first-person, using the word for both past tense and subjunctive.
Let’s look at two examples:
“I was studying at the library yesterday.” — Correct!
“If I was hungry, I would have gone to the cafe instead.” — Incorrect.
The first sentence is correct. The second refers to a hypothetical situation. Therefore, the “was” should be “were.”
These errors don’t happen with plural subjects since “were” is correct in both past tense and subjunctive. Third-person singular follows the same rule for first-person singular.
We wish it were easier to create flawless, effective writing.
If you’re struggling with some of these errors, just remember that all authors make mistakes. With practice, you’ll find these rules second-nature in no time.
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