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Avoidable Writing Mistakes

By on October 23, 2018
Avoidable Writing Mistakes -Writer's Life.org

When it comes to writing, we know it pays to be professional. Whether we’re fiction writers or freelance writers, making sure we thoroughly check our work and weed out any errors is crucial.

It might be impossible to create every piece of writing perfectly every single time. However, some writing mistakes seem to crop up time and time again and, if we take a little more care and are a bit more aware of them, they could perhaps be easily avoided.

So what are some of the most common writing mistakes?

Choosing the incorrect word

Many words in the English language have double meanings or similar spellings or pronunciations but don’t mean the same thing. Sea and see, for example, or your and you’re, there and their or then and than. A spell-checker won’t flag these up as they are not incorrect words. If misused, however, they’ll leave your work looking unprofessional, so remain eagle-eyed for these when proofreading your work.

Errors in sentence construction

It’s very easy to make mistakes when constructing sentences. Often people start a comparison in a sentence and then fail to complete it, or write a fragment of a sentence instead of a whole one because a verb or subject must be included to correct it. An incorrectly placed comma can also make sentences clunky or, in the worst cases, cause them to have a different meaning altogether.

Mistakes around pronouns

Using pronouns as the subject or the object in a sentence also cause mistakes to be made. It is the person or thing performing an action within a sentence that is its subject, and the object is the person or thing who is being acted upon.

Punctuation errors

As well as spelling and grammar mistakes, people often leave punctuation errors in their texts that can make them seem a little sloppy. For example, adding unnecessary semicolons is a common mistake and adding commas for no reason is another. A semicolon should be used when two independent clauses are joined in the absence of a conjunction. A comma, however, is only necessary between independent clauses when you also use a conjunction such as and or but.

Of course, there are always instances, mainly when writing creatively that the standard grammar rules may be broken, even purposefully to create a particular effect. This might be acceptable but depends on the specific piece and its intended audience. At the end of the day, no writer is perfect, however by avoiding these common writing mistakes you can neaten up your prose and make your writing more professional and easier to read too.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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