CHAPTER 6

The 25 Most Common Usage Problems

You should read this chapter if you need to review or learn about

• ➜ The most common writing errors
• ➜ Finding errors in your own writing
• ➜ Correcting these errors

Top Trouble Spots in Writing

When someone complains that a person “can’t write,” they are most often referring to errors that person makes in grammar and usage. Below are the top 25 writing hot spots.

The 25 Top Writing Errors

Grammar and Usage

1. Lack of clarity
2. Redundancy (unnecessary words)
3. Problems with subject-verb agreement
4. Lack of parallel structure
5. Wrong verb tense
6. Mixed metaphors
7. Dangling modifiers
8. Misplaced modifiers
9. Incorrect idioms
10. Biased language
11. Incorrect voice (active versus passive voice)

Sentences

12. Fragments (incomplete sentences)
13. Run-ons (two sentences run together)

Spelling

14. Missing letters
15. Extra letters
16. Transposed letters
17. Incorrect plurals
18. Errors in confusing word pairs (such as weather/whether)

Punctuation

19. Missing commas or extra commas
20. Missing or misused apostrophes
21. Misused exclamation marks
22. Misused semicolons

Capitalization

23. Proper nouns not capitalized
24. Errors in titles

Proofreading

25. Missing words

Now, we will review each of these problem places so that you can have writing that is letter perfect.

Most Common Grammar and Usage Errors

1. Lack of clarity
   Incorrect: Prehistoric people used many inorganic substances difficult to find at archaeological sites, which included clay and rock.

   Correct: Prehistoric people used many inorganic substances, including clay and rock, which are difficult to find at archaeological sites.

   Sentences can be confusing for many different reasons. In the previous example, too many phrases come between the pronoun and its antecedent. As a result, the pronoun reference gets confusing. This can happen even if the intervening material is logically related to the rest of the sentence, as is the case here.

   Sentence construction is so important that it’s covered in four chapters: Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 13. If you’re having trouble constructing logical and cohesive sentences, review all these chapters. Here’s the quick and dirty lowdown:

   • One sentence = one complete thought. Don’t cram too much into one sentence.
   • The more complex your ideas, the shorter and more simple your sentences should be.
   • Check that all parts of the sentence are logically related. Are they in the same tense, for example?
   • Reread your sentences to make sure all pronouns refer to their antecedents and are placed as close as possible to them.
   • Check that you have punctuated your sentences correctly.


2. Redundancy (unnecessary words)
   Incorrect: If you reread your work, you will find upon serious reconsideration that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by careful editing and revising and attentive reevaluation. Scrupulous editing can also help you make your writing less wordy.

   Correct: If you reread your work, you will find that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by careful editing.

   Long-winded writing may sound educated and impressive, but it actually turns off your audience because it wastes their time. Say what you need to say concisely. Since your writing will be more intelligible, it will communicate its message directly.

3. Problems with subject-verb agreement
   Incorrect: Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

   Correct: Verbs have to agree with their subjects.

   Agreement means that sentence parts match, singular to singular and plural to plural.

   Since the subject verbs is plural, it takes a plural verb, agree.

   This is confusing because we add -s or -es to make the third-person singular form of most verbs but add -s or -es to make the plural form of most nouns. For example, he starts is singular, but six papers is plural. Both end in s. Agreement is covered in detail in Chapter 5.

4. Lack of parallel structure
   Not parallel: To avoid getting hit by lightning, never seek protection under a tree, lying down on wet ground, or staying on a bike.

   Parallel: To avoid getting hit by lightning, never seek protection under a tree, lie down on wet ground, or stay on a bike.

   Parallel structure means putting ideas of the same rank in the same grammatical structure. Your writing (and speech) should have parallel words, phrases, and clauses.

   • Parallel words share the same part of speech (such as nouns, adjectives, or verbs) and tense (if the words are verbs).
   • Parallel phrases create an underlying rhythm in your speech and writing.
   • Parallel clauses also give your writing balance.

   Parallel structure is covered in detail in Chapter 9.

5. Wrong verb tense
   Incorrect: President John Quincy Adams owns a pet alligator, which he kept in the East Room of the White House.

   Correct: President John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator, which he kept in the East Room of the White House.

   The tense of a verb shows its time. English has six verb tenses. Each of the six tenses has two forms: basic and progressive (also known as “perfect”). In the example here, the action takes place in the past, so the past tense must be used. Verb tense is the subject of Chapter 3.

6. Mixed metaphors
   Incorrect: Take the bull by the toe.

   Correct: Take the bull by the horns.

   Metaphors are figures of speech that compare two unlike things to explain the less familiar object. When used correctly, metaphors make your writing more descriptive and precise. In most instances, metaphors use words for more than their literal meaning.

   Here, for example, we’re not literally talking about grabbing a bull by the horns; rather, we’re figuratively talking about seizing an opportunity.

   For a metaphor to be effective, it must compare images or objects that go together. Here, for instance, we would grab a bull’s horns, not its toes. When two clashing images are combined in one comparison, we get a mixed metaphor, which confuses readers.

7. Dangling modifiers
   Incorrect: Flying over the countryside, cars and houses looked like toys.

   Correct: As we flew over the countryside, cars and houses looked like toys.

   A modifier is a word or phrase that describe a subject, verb, or object. (To “modify” is to qualify the meaning.). The modifier is said to “dangle” when the word it modifies has been left out of the sentence. Dangling modifiers confuse your readers and obscure your meaning because the sentence doesn’t make sense. Correct a dangling modifier by adding the word or words that have been left out. Here, the subject we was added and flying was changed to flew so the sentence makes sense. And while we’re dangling, let’s look at another mangled construction, dangling participles. A participle is a verb ending in -ing. It is dangling when the subject of the participle and the subject of the sentence don’t agree. For example:

   Incorrect: Rushing to finish the paper, Bob’s printer broke.

   The subject is Bob’s printer, but the printer isn’t doing the rushing.

   Correct: While Bob was rushing to finish the paper, his printer broke.

   One way to tell whether the participle is dangling is to put the clause with the participle right after the subject of the sentence: “Bob’s printer, rushing to finish the paper, broke.” You can easily hear that it doesn’t sound right.

   Note: Not all words that end in -ing are participles. For example: “Completing the task by Tuesday is your next assignment.” The word completing functions as a noun, not a verb. (Nouns ending in -ing are called gerunds.)

8. Misplaced modifiers
   Incorrect: My parents bought a kitten for my sister they call Paws.

   Correct: My parents bought a kitten they call Paws for my sister.

   A misplaced modifier is a phrase, clause, or word placed too far from the noun or pronoun it describes. As a result, the sentence fails to convey your exact meaning. As this sentence is written, it means that the sister, not the kitten, is named Paws. That’s because the modifier they call Paws is in the wrong place in the sentence. To correct a misplaced modifier, move the modifier as close as possible to the word or phrase it describes.

9. Incorrect idioms
   Incorrect: It’s raining cats and puppies.

   Correct: It’s raining cats and dogs.

   The phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs” is an idiom, an expression that has a figurative rather than literal meaning. Expressions such as “make a big deal out of it,” “on the double,” and “down and out” are idioms. If you decide to use idioms in your writing, be sure to use the correct phrase. For instance, it’s idiomatic to say, “She talked down to him.”

   It’s not idiomatic to say, “She talked under to him.”

   Idiomatic prepositions are very common and just as hard to use. Here’s a chart of the most useful ones:

   Incorrect	Correct
   according with the plan	according to the plan
   accuse with perjury	accuse of perjury
   apologize about	apologize for
   board of	bored with
   capable to	capable of
   comply to the rules	comply with the rules
   concerned to	concerned about, over, with
   conform in standards	conform to, with standards
   in search for	in search of
   in accordance to policy	in accordance with policy
   independent from	independent of
   inferior than ours	inferior to ours
   interested about	interested in, by
   jealous for others	jealous of others
   outlook of life	outlook on life
   puzzled on	puzzled at, by
   similar with	similar to

10. Biased language
    Incorrect: That old geezer is taking my parking space!

    Correct: That man is taking my parking space!

    Avoid language that denigrates people because of their age, gender, race, or physical condition. This is especially crucial in business, where such language could result in a lawsuit.

11. Incorrect voice (active versus passive voice)
    Passive voice: The meeting was attended by the executive.

    Active voice: The executive attended the meeting.

    As you learned in Chapter 3 in the section on active and passive voice, English has two voices: active and passive. A verb is active when the subject performs the action. A verb is passive when its action is performed upon the subject. The active voice is clearer and more concise than the passive voice.

    Even though the active voice is stronger than the passive voice, you should use the passive voice in these two situations:

Most Common Sentence Errors

12. Fragments (incomplete sentences)
    Fragment: If you want to be clearly understood.

    Correct: Don’t write sentence fragments if you want to be clearly understood.

    Every sentence must have three things:

    • A subject: the “doer” of the action. The subject will be a noun or pronoun.
    • A verb: what the subject does.
    • A complete thought.

    
    The fragment in this example is missing a subject and a verb. As a result, the group of words does not express a complete thought. See Chapter 8 for a complete discussion of sentence fragments.

13. Run-ons (two sentences run together)
    Run-on: Daddy longlegs spiders are more poisonous than black widows, daddy longlegs spiders cannot bite humans because their jaws won’t open wide enough.

    Correct: Daddy longlegs spiders are more poisonous than black widows, but daddy longlegs spiders cannot bite humans because their jaws won’t open wide enough.

    or

    Daddy longlegs spiders are more poisonous than black widows; however, daddy longlegs cannot bite humans because their jaws won’t open wide enough.

    A run-on sentence occurs when two complete sentences (“independent clauses”) are incorrectly joined. Sentences can only be joined with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) or a semicolon—a comma doesn’t cut the mustard. See Chapter 8 for a complete discussion of sentences.

Most Common Spelling Errors

Writers often misspell words because they mispronounce them. The three most common mistakes are

• Dropping a letter or syllable when we say a word.
• Adding an unnecessary letter when we say a word.
• Mispronouncing a word and so misspelling it.

14. Missing letters

    Here are 10 words that are frequently misspelled because the speaker drops a letter or syllable.

    • Accidentally: The word has five syllables; drop one and accidentally becomes accidently.
    • Accompaniment: The second a and the only i are the problems with accompaniment. To remember the i, you might want to use this mnemonic: there’s a lot of animal in accompaniment.
    • Acreage: The e presents the spelling problem because it is rarely stressed in speech. That’s how people end up with acrage. It’s also common for writers to misplace the e, as in acerage.
    • Anecdote: Letters get dropped when writers mispronounce anecdote as anedote. Then there’s antidote—a legitimate word, but the wrong one in context.
    • Asked: This word gets mangled as ast or even axed. This results in such curious spellings as askd, askt, and axst.
    • Asterisk: This word can end up spelled aterisk, askterisk, or even acksterisk.
    • Broccoli: It’s not hard to drop a c and add an l with this veggie. The correct pronunciation isn’t going to do you much good here, so try breaking the word into two parts: broc and coli.
    • Calisthenics: Stress the first i and the e to avoid dropping these letters when you spell calisthenics. Otherwise, you could end up with calesthenics or calesthinics.
    • Category: Make sure to say that e as an e rather than an a to avoid the misspelling catagory.
    • Cemetery: Cemetary is the result when the third e is pronounced as an a.


15. Extra letters

    Because of errors in pronunciation, spellers often insert an unnecessary vowel between two letters. Here are some of the most commonly misspelled words:

    • Athlete: Often mispronounced as athalete, resulting in that unnecessary a.
    • Disastrous: The word ends up with disaster stuck in there: disasterous. What extra letter do you see?
    • Grievous: Another common speech slip results in grieveous or grievious. No extra e or i, please.
    • Hindrance: This word falls prey to the same problem as disastrous: add hinder to hindrance and you get hinderance. Too many syllables!
    • Lightning: The bolt of electricity on a stormy night is often mispronounced and thus misspelled as lightening. Now, lightening is a legitimate word; it means that something is getting less dark. Say each letter to help you spell the word you want.
    • Mischievous: A surprising number of people mispronounce the word as mischievious, adding an extra i.
    • Perseverance: People often add an extra r, resulting in perserverance. Saying the word correctly will prevent this error.

16. Transposed letters

    Mispronunciation can also result in scrambled letters. Here are some words especially prone to switched letters.

    aesthetic	allegiance	analysis	analyze	anonymous
    auxiliary	bureaucrat	diaphragm	entrepreneur	gasoline
    gauge	gorgeous	irrelevant	khaki	lingerie
    mileage	psychology	resuscitate	rhyme	rhythm

17. Incorrect plurals

    Remember that plural nouns name more than one person, place, or thing. There are regular plurals and irregular ones. The regular plurals rarely result in spelling errors, but irregular plurals often cause trouble. Keep regular and irregular plurals straight and you’ll eliminate a bunch of spelling errors. Below are some spelling rules to help you form the correct plurals.

    • Most regular plurals are formed by adding s to the end of the word

    Singular	Plural
    bird	birds
    hat	hats
    arrow	arrows
    pencil	pencils
    duck	ducks
    dog	dogs

    • Add es if the noun ends in s, sh, ch, or x.

    Singular	Plural
    class	classes
    inch	inches
    box	boxes
    stress	stresses
    sex	sexes
    tax	taxes
    Jones	Joneses

    • If the noun ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i and add es.

    Singular	Plural
    city	cities
    lady	ladies
    happy	happiness
    icy	iciness
    activity	activities
    cry	cries
    blueberry	blueberries

    • If the noun ends in y preceded by a vowel, add s.

    Singular	Plural
    essay	essays
    monkey	monkeys
    journey	journeys
    survey	surveys
    attorney	attorneys

    Exception: Words that end in -quy, as in soliloquy, which becomes soliloquies.

    • Words that end in -ly keep the y when they become plural.

    Singular	Plural
    bialy	bialys

    • If the noun ends in o preceded by a vowel, add s.

    Exceptions: dollies lilies

    Singular	Plural
    radio	radios
    ratio	ratios
    patio	patios
    studio	studios

    • If the noun ends in o preceded by a consonant, the noun can take es, s, or either s or es.

    	Singular	Plural
    takes es	potato	potatoes
    	hero	heroes
    	tomato	tomatoes
    	echo	echoes
    	veto	vetoes
    takes s	silo	silos
    	solo	solos
    	piano	pianos
    	soprano	sopranos
    	alto	altos
    	dynamo	dynamos
    either es or s	zero	zeros, zeroes
    	tornado	tornados, tornadoes
    	cargo	cargos, cargoes
    	motto	mottos, mottoes
    	domino	dominos, dominoes
    	buffalo	buffalos, buffaloes

    • Add s to most nouns ending in f. However, the f endings are so irregular as to be nearly random. If you have any doubts at all, consult a dictionary.

    Singular	Plural
    brief	briefs
    chief	chiefs
    proof	proofs
    belief	beliefs
    staff	staffs
    sheriff	sheriffs
    belief	beliefs

    Exception: In some cases, change the f or fe to v and add es:

    Singular	Plural
    half	halves
    knife	knives
    leaf	leaves
    life	lives
    self	selves
    thief	thieves
    wife	wives
    wolf	wolves

    Exception: This rule doesn’t hold for names. In that case, just add an s: Mr. and Ms.

    Wolf becomes The Wolfs.

    • Words that end in -ey, -ay, or -oy do not have -ies plurals.

    	Singular	Plural
    -ey	valley	valleys
    	abbey	abbeys
    	jitney	jitneys
    -ay	tray	trays
    	clay	clays
    -oy	ploy	ploys

    • In compound words, make the main word plural.

    Singular	Plural
    mother-in-law	mothers-in-law
    passerby	passersby
    sister-in-law	sisters-in-law

    Exceptions: If there is no noun in the compound word, add an s to the end of the word, as in mix-ups, takeoffs. If the compound word ends in -ful, add an s to the end of the word, as in cupfuls.

    • Some nouns change their spelling when they become plural.

    Singular	Plural
    child	children
    foot	feet
    goose	geese
    louse	lice
    man	men
    mouse	mice
    ox	oxen
    tooth	teeth
    woman	women

    • Some nouns have the same form whether they are singular or plural.

    swine	series	deer	sheep
    moose	species	Portuguese

    • The only plurals formed with apostrophes are the plurals of numbers, letters, and words highlighted as words.

    How many 3’s make 9? There were too many but’s in the speech.

    • Some words from other languages form plurals in other ways, often determined by the grammar of their language of origin.

    Singular	Plural
    alumnus	alumni (female)
    alumna	alumnae (male)
    analysis	analyses
    axis	axes
    bacterium	bacteria
    basis	bases
    crisis	crises
    criterion	criteria
    hypothesis	hypotheses
    index	index, indices
    memorandum	memorandums, memoranda
    parenthesis	parentheses
    phenomenon	phenomena
    stimulus	stimuli
    thesis	theses

18. Errors in confusing word pairs (such as weather/whether)

    Some words in English have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings, such as bay/bay and beam/beam. We also have words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings, such as coarse/course or bridal/bridle. Distinguishing between these confusing words is crucial because it helps you write exactly what you mean.

    Below are some of the most often misspelled words. They’re mangled because they’re so close in sound and/or spelling. After you study the list, however, you’ll be able to tell them apart and use them correctly.

    • air: atmosphere. There’s no air in a vacuum—hence his empty head.
      err: make a mistake. To err is human; to purr, feline.
    • a lot: many. A lot of people are absent from work today.
      allot: divide. Allot the prizes equally among all guests, please.
    • all together: all at one time. The students spoke all together.
      altogether: completely. The job is altogether complete.
    • allowed: given permission. You are allowed to vote for the candidate of your choice.
      aloud: out loud, verbally. Don’t say it aloud. Don’t even think it quietly.
    • already: previously. We had already packed.
      all ready: prepared. The cole slaw is all ready to serve.
    • altar: shrine. The priest placed the prayer book on the altar.
      alter: change. She had to alter her dress.
    • arc: curved line. The walls have an arc rather than a straight line.
      ark: boat. Noah loaded the ark with animals.
    • are: plural verb. Mae West said, “Brains are an asset, if you hide them.”
      our: belonging to us. There’s someone in the corner of our living room.
    • ascent: to move up. She made a quick ascent up the corporate ladder!
      assent: to agree. I assent to your plan.
    • bare: undressed. You can find a lot of bare people in nudist camps.
      bare: unadorned, plain. Just take the bare essentials when you go camping.
      bear: animal. Look at the bear!
      bear: carry, hold. I bear no grudges.
    • base: the bottom part of an object, the plate in baseball, morally low.
      The vase has a wide, sturdy base.
      The catcher’s wild throw missed the base. The criminal is base and corrupt.
      bass: the lowest male voice, a type of fish, a musical instrument He sings bass. We
      caught a striped bass. She plays the bass in the orchestra.
    • beau: sweetheart. My beau bought me flowers.
      bow: to bend from the waist, a device used to propel arrows, loops of ribbon, the for
      ward end of a ship. The dancer liked to bow to his partner. We shoot deer with a
      bow and arrow. The baby wore a pretty hair bow. The passengers sat in the ship’s bow.
    • board: a slab of wood. The karate master cut the board with his bare hand.
      board: a group of directors The school board meets the first Tuesday of every month.
      bored: not interested. The movie bored us so we left early.
    • born: native. Born free taxed to death.
      borne: endured. Fortunato had borne his insults the best he could.
    • bore: tiresome person. What a bore he is!
      boar: male pig. They found a boar in the woods.
    • brake: a device for slowing a vehicle. Use the car brake!
      break: to crack or destroy. Don’t break my back.
    • breadth: measurement. The desk has a breadth of more than 6 feet
      breath: inhale and exhale. She has bad breath.
    • capital: the city or town that is the official seat of government, highly important, net
      worth of a business. Albany is the capital of New York state. What a capital idea!
      The business has $12 million operating capital.
      Capitol: the building in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Congress meets. The
      Capitol is a beautiful building.
    • conscience: moral sense. Your conscience helps you distinguish right from wrong.
      conscious: awake. Being conscious: that annoying time between naps.
    • cheep: what a bird says “Cheep,” said the canary.
      cheap: not expensive. Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.
    • deer: animal. The deer sneered at the inept hunter.
      dear: beloved. “You are my dear,” the man said to his wife.
    • draft: breeze. What’s causing that draft on my neck?
      draft: sketch. Life: A first draft, with no rewrites.

Most Common Punctuation Errors

19. Missing commas or extra commas
    Incorrect: Avoid commas, that are not necessary.

    Correct: Avoid commas that are not necessary.

    Have you ever been advised to “add commas where you would take a breath”? Sometimes this advice works—but sometimes it doesn’t. It’s especially dangerous when you’ve gone over and over your writing. At that point, nothing looks correct. To avoid confusion and frustration, don’t wing it. Instead, review the comma rules covered in Chapter 10.

    Use these rules as you write to help you correctly punctuate your documents.

20. Missing or misused apostrophes
    Incorrect: Save the apostrophe for it’s proper use and omit it where its’ not needed.

    Correct: Save the apostrophe for its proper use and omit it where it’s not needed.

    As discussed in Chapter 10, the apostrophe (’) is used in three ways: to show possession (ownership), to show plural forms, and to show contractions (where a letter or number has been omitted). The following chart shows how its, it’s, and its’ are used:

    Word	Part of Speech	Meaning
    it’s	Contraction	It is
    its	Possessive pronoun	Belonging to it
    its’	Is not a word	None

21. Misused exclamation marks
    Incorrect: Of all U.S. presidents, none lived to be older than John Adams, who died at the age of 91!

    Correct: Of all U.S. presidents, none lived to be older than John Adams, who died at the age of 91.

    Never overuse exclamation marks. Instead of using exclamation marks, convey emphasis through careful, vivid word choice. Exclamation marks create an overwrought tone that often undercuts your point.

22. Misused semicolons
    Incorrect: Use the semicolon correctly always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it is not suitable.

    Correct: Use the semicolon correctly; always use it where it is appropriate, and never where it is not suitable.

    A semicolon has two primary uses: to separate two complete sentences (“independent clauses”) whose ideas are closely related or to separate clauses that contain a comma. This is covered in detail in Chapter 10

Most Common Capitalization Errors

23. Proper nouns not capitalized.
    Incorrect: louisa adams, Wife of john quincy Adams, was the first (and only) foreign born First Lady.

    Correct: Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, was the first (and only) foreign born first lady.

    Here are the basic rules of capitalization:

    • Capitalize all proper nouns. These include names, geographical places, specific historical events, eras, and documents, languages, nationalities, countries, and races.
    • Capitalize the first word at the beginning of a sentence.
24. Errors in titles
    Incorrect: The Wind In The Willows

    Correct: The Wind in the Willows

    Capitalize the major words in titles of books, plays, movies, newspapers, and magazines.

    • Do not capitalize the articles: a, an, the.
    • Do not capitalize prepositions: at, by, for, of, in, up, on, so, on, to, etc.
    • Do not capitalize conjunctions: and, as, but, if, or, nor.

    See Chapter 11 for a complete discussion of capitalization.

Most Common Proofreading Errors

25. Missing words
    Incorrect: Proofread carefully to see if you have any words out.

    Correct: Proofread carefully to see if you have left any words out.

    This is a simple rule, but many people run out of time before they can proofread a document. Always make the time to proofread your writing. And try to let your writing sit and “cool off” for a few hours. The errors will become much more obvious and easier to isolate.

Improve Your Writing, One Step at a Time

How can you use the previous 25 guidelines to improve your writing? Try these ideas:

1. Don’t try to master all the rules of grammar and usage at once; it’s both futile and frustrating.
2. Instead, listen to the comments your readers mention when they discuss your writing.
3. Keep track of the writing errors you make by checking your own work against the guidelines. Review this checklist every time you write an important document. To isolate your most common writing errors, select several pieces of your writing, such as memos, letters, or reports.
   • Read the documents you selected for analysis several times.
   • Circle all the errors you find. Don’t panic if you can’t identify each type of error at this point. Just do the best you can.
   • Ask a friend or family member to read the documents and find additional errors.
   • Count up the number of errors in each category.
   • Reread the chapters that explain your specific writing problems.
   • Concentrate on these areas as you write.
4. Be patient. Learning the rules takes both time and effort. Remember that using standard grammar with confidence will help you build the credible image you want—and need.