The most common grammatical mistakes

Grammar is one of the key elements that make your work coherent and clear. The presence of
grammatical mistakes in your writing makes your text unprofessional and weak; it affects the
coherence and clarity of your ideas.

There are dozens of mistakes in grammar that could be committed in Academic Writing, but in
this guide, we decided to review the most common ones. By checking this guide, you will have a
chance to make your writing more effective.

🚫 So, you need to avoid the following in your writing:

A sentence fragment (or incomplete sentence) is almost a sentence but lacks a subject, a finite
verb, or a completed thought. It is unclear out of the context, and thus, cannot stay alone.

Examples:

| > Because of the rain

Bacon and eggs Translating this sentence, full of inconsistencies. | | --- |

How to correct it? Just add missing grammatical elements (the subject, the finite verb, or the
completed thoughts) or combine this sentence with the previous or the next one to create a
complete thought. Rewrite the sentence so that all of the different items are presented in the same
way.

📍 Faulty Parallelism

Faulty parallelism occurs when parts of a sentence that are either in balance or part of a series
are not presented with the same (or parallel) grammatical structure.

Examples:

| > The investigation involved several methods of research to analyze, collect, and scrutinizing
data received.

She understood how to change the oil and replacing the air filter. Driving a car requires
coordination, patience, and to have good eyesight. | | --- |

How to correct it? To correct faulty parallelism, you first must recognize that you are balancing
items in your sentence or presenting two or more items in a series.
📍 Subject-verb Disagreement

Lack of subject/verb agreement occurs when a verb does not agree in number with its subject.

Examples:

| > The children becomes happier.

The speech, which caused loud applause, and the firework at the end of the night was reason for
the mayor happiness that day. One of my friends like to cook Italian food. | | --- |

How to correct it? To correct a lack of subject/verb agreement, you must identify the subject of
the verb and then change the verb to agree with that subject. Do not be fooled by words that may
come between the subject and the verb.

📍 Mistakes in conditionals

Conditionals describe the result of a certain condition. The if clause tells you the condition (If
you study hard), and the main clause tells you the result (you will pass your exams). The order of
the clauses does not change the meaning.

How to correct it? You just need to learn how to detect such sentences and be able to determine
the right group of the situation to apply correct grammatical forms.

📍 Unclear Antecedent/Unattended Determiner

When a sentence does not clearly identify which noun a subsequent pronoun refers to, the error
is referred to as an unclear antecedent. Ensure that the word the pronoun refers to is clear and
has the same form.

These terms may seem different, but they have a common origin and effect on your writing.

👉 If you write a sentence with an unclear antecedent, the reader can’t tell what noun a given
pronoun is standing in for.

> My boss gave the angry customer her credit card.

👉 Unattended determiners are part of the wide group of unclear antecedents. They mainly
consist of the use of “this” without any following noun that could clarify the context.

> The topic of the global warming is prevalent among the word leaders discussions, and the
majority of the population try to handle this issue as well. This is a good sign.
How to correct it? Work on the structure of your sentences. Keep your antecedents crystal clear
by making sure your sentences aren’t loaded with too many antecedents or, conversely, totally
devoid of an antecedent.

📍 Misused prepositions

Prepositions are limited in number, but they are critical because they are essential markers of
logic and meaning. They represent contextual relationships among persons, objects, and
locations.

How to correct it? There is no actual rule here. You just have to learn the main pairs and their
meaning in the text. Otherwise, it is better to check such a combination every time. You can find
more extended material on the matter here.

📍 Comma splice (Run-on sentence)/fused sentence

These issues have a common origin and are based on the same issue of an incorrect
understanding of a sentence structure; thus, we will observe them together.

👉 Run-on sentence is a combination of several sentences without any necessary punctuation.

Examples:

| > Helen cooked dinner therefore Ralph will wash the dishes.

I love to write papers I would write one every day if I had the time. The study involved sufficient
number of participants but the final result were still questionable. | | --- |

How to correct it? Separate the complete sentences with (1) a period, (2) a semicolon, (3) or a
comma followed by a conjunction (such as "but," "and," or "so").

👉 A comma splice occurs when a comma separates two complete sentences without any
conjunction; the use of a comma instead of another punctuation mark can also cause this issue.

Examples:

| > Rose likes fruit, she doesn’t like vegetables.

The examination took about three hours, the researchers were satisfied with results. I don’t speak
French, however I wish I did. | | --- |
How to correct it? You can correct this issue by (1) using a period instead of the comma, (2)
using a semicolon instead of the comma, or (3) adding a conjunction (such as "or," "but," "and,"
"if") immediately after the comma.

📍 Capitalization mistakes

Capitalization means using capital or upper-case letters. Capitalization of place names, family
names, and days of the week are all standard in English.

There are numerous capitalization rules. Here you can find a more extended guide on the matter,
but the main rules are:

📍 Misspellings and typos

This issue is quite self-explanatory. However, it may be caused by a lack of attentiveness or

How to correct it? You should proofread your work. Also, check the table below with the most
commonly confused word pairs to make sure you know their sense and can use them in the
context effectively.

📍 Hyphen-Dash Issue

Hyphens and dashes may look similar, but they serve different purposes.

👉 Dashes (Em Dash (—) and En Dash (–)): A dash is used to separate words or groups of
words. They essentially stand for a pause or a range. There are two types of dashes: the em dash
and the en dash.

Em dash (—) in place of parentheses

> There has recently been an increase—though opposed fiercely by many people—in
alternative education practices.

Em dash (—) with lists

> Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla—all ice cream tastes good, especially on a hot summer’s
day.

En dash (–) to indicate a connection

> My ice cream–themed birthday party was so much fun.

En dash (–) with numbers or time

👉 Hyphens (-): A hyphen is a punctuation mark that’s most commonly used to join compound
nouns or a compound noun and a gerund into a single word. So, they are used in:

Compound modifiers

> This restaurant is dog-friendly.

With prefixes

> The book was written by the Armenian ex-president.

With numbers

> The study was based on the results of sixty-six students survey.
> The 40-minutes presentation will took place in the room 54.

Compound words

> My son-in-law works in that hospital.

📍 Misplaced Modifiers

A "modifier" is a word or phrase that "modifies" or changes another word or phrase. A modifier
is misplaced if it modifies the wrong word or phrase. A modifier is "dangling" if the word or
phrase that is supposed to be modified does not appear in the sentence.

Examples:

| > Ron took a nap in his car, tired after the tense working day.

She arrived in office, covered in mud. The patient arrived in ER with acute abdominal pain. | | ---
|

How to correct it? If a sentence begins with a modifier followed by a comma, whatever word or
phrase is being modified must immediately follow the comma. If the modifier is "dangling," the
writer needs to supply the word or phrase that is being modified.

Also, check the guide on the most common issues in terms of punctuation.