Common Writing Mistakes: The Top Fifteen, Fixed

Fifteen errors account for most of what makes learner writing look like learner writing. Each one below: the error, why it happens, and the fix. Eliminate these and your text jumps a level overnight.

Structure Errors (1–5)

1. The comma splice — two sentences joined by a comma alone. 2. The run-on — sentences with no joints at all. 3. The fragment — a dependent clause standing alone. 4. The missing subject — “Is raining today.” 5. Agreement drift — “The list of items are…” (the verb must agree with LIST, not items).

• Fix splices with a period, a semicolon, or comma + and/but/so.
• Fragments beginning with Because/Although/When almost always belong to the next sentence.
• English sentences cannot drop their subject, even when it feels obvious.
• Find the TRUE subject: “One of the students was…” (one = singular).

Word and Verb Errors (6–10)

6. Its/it's — possession takes no apostrophe. 7. Their/there/they're — sound twins, different jobs. 8. Tense drift inside a story or report. 9. Articles dropped with singular countable nouns (“I bought book”). 10. Double negatives and doubled connectors (“Because…, so…”; “Although…, but…”).

• “The company raised its prices.” / “It's raining.”
• “Their car is there; they're late.”
• Pick the text's tense and audit every verb against it.
• One connector per pair of ideas — because OR so; although OR but.

Style Errors (11–15)

11. Very + adjective chains (“very very good”) instead of precise words (excellent). 12. Announced topics (“In this essay I will discuss…”) instead of positions. 13. Empty intensifiers in formal writing — a lot of, huge, really. 14. Capital-letter chaos (see the Capitalization page). 15. Paragraph walls — no breaks for 400 words.

• Replace “very + X” with the strong word: very tired → exhausted; very big → enormous.
• State positions; never announce paperwork.
• Numbers are the formal writer's intensifiers: not “a lot of money” but “$2.1M”.
• Break paragraphs at every idea change — white space is a courtesy.

Watch Out: Common Errors

Practice

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