1. No comma after introductory element
| Example: | After we watched the movie we went over to the pizza joint for a bite to eat. |
2. Vague pronoun reference
| Example: | John Smith reported the problem to Bob Adams, and he corrected it immediately. |
3. No comma in compound sentence
| Example: | John Smith reported the problem to Bob Adams and Adams corrected it immediately. |
4. Wrong word
| Example: | Building a new fiber optic network will take less dollars then originally suspected. |
5. No comma in nonrestrictive element
| Example: | Contemporary animal rights groups who are using the same strategies that the civil rights movement developed in the 1960s find that non-violent civil disobedience is effectively drawing attention to their cause. |
6. Wrong or missing inflected endings
| Example: | Teacher representatives in the United States’ could have wrote the book themselves. |
7. Wrong or missing preposition
| Example: | The man to whom you were speaking to was the curator on the exposition. |
8. Comma splice
| Example: | In 1980, Reagan promised to balance the federal budget, however, by 1988, the federal deficit was the largest in U. S. history — until now. |
9. Possessive apostrophe error
| Example: | The Presidents speech was punctuated by enthusiastic applause from both sides of the aisle. |
10. Tense shift
| Example: | John was edgy all day. He challenged anything that anyone said to him. Once at a meeting, John looked right at me and he says, "What do you mean by that?" |
11. Unnecessary shift in person
| Example: | Students should register for classes early if you want to ensure that you get a good schedule. |
12. Sentence fragment
| Example: | Publishers today are at a loss trying to cope with the new trends in information technology. Which is not surprising actually. |
13. Wrong tense or verb form
| Example: | The market has responding favorably to the surprisingly strong earnings that the high-tech sector reports yesterday. |
14. Subject-verb agreement
| Example: | The President as well as his advisors were in meetings all weekend at Camp David. Neither the President nor his advisors is commenting on the status of the negotiations. |
15. Lack of comma in a series
| Example: | Forget what Wheaties tells you; the real breakfast of champions is pizza, beer and eggs. |
16. Pronoun agreement error
| Example: | Everyone should register early to make sure that they get the classes they want. |
17. Unnecessary comma with restrictive element
| Example: | Several of the guys on the team were here at the time, but the guy, who is talking to the police, is the only witness to the accident. |
18. Run-on or fused sentence
| Example: | Courses in entrepreneurial businesses are increasingly popular however few faculty members are qualified to teach them. |
19. Dangling or misplaced modifier
| Example: | While smoking a cigarette, the coffee in his cup had grown cold. He says often he smokes cigarettes. |
20. Its/it's error
| Example: | Its commonly assumed that any bear will defend it's offspring by attacking any human that wanders too near a cub. |
Robert J. Connors and Andrea A. Lunsford studied 3000 college essays and how instructors responded (or failed to respond) to a variety of mechanical errors. See "Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle Do Research," (as published in
The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing 2nd ed. Ed. Robert Connors and Cheryl Glenn. New York: St. Martin's, 1992. page 398.)
This table below summarizes their analysis. Their research suggests areas in which students might concentrate when writing for an academic audience.
| Rank by frequency of error | Error or Error Pattern | No. found in 3000 papers | % of total errors | No. found marked by instructor | % marked by instructor | Rank by no. of errors marked by instructor |
| 1 | No comma after introductory element | 3,299 | 11.5% | 995 | 30% | 2 |
| 2 | Vague pronoun reference | 2,809 | 9.8% | 892 | 32% | 4 |
| 3 | No comma in compound sentence | 2,446 | 8.6% | 719 | 29% | 7 |
| 4 | Wrong word | 2,217 | 7.8% | 1,114 | 50% | 1 |
| 5 | No comma in nonrestrictive element | 1,864 | 6.5% | 580 | 31% | 10 |
| 6 | Wrong or missing inflected endings | 1,679 | 5.9% | 857 | 51%
| 5 |
| 7 | Wrong or missing preposition | 1,580 | 5.5% | 679 | 43% | 8 |
| 8 | Comma splice | 1,565 | 5.5% | 850 | 54% | 6 |
| 9 | Possessive apostrophe error | 1,455 | 5.1% | 906 | 62% | 3 |
| 10 | Tense shift | 1,453 | 5.1% | 484 | 33% | 12 |
| 11 | Unnecessary shift in person | 1,347 | 4.7% | 410 | 30% | 14 |
| 12 | Sentence fragment | 1,217 | 4.2% | 671 | 55% | 9 |
| 13 | Wrong tense or verb form | 952 | 3.3% | 465 | 49% | 13 |
| 14 | Subject-verb agreement | 909 | 3.2% | 534 | 58% | 11 |
| 15 | Lack of comma in series | 751 | 2.7% | 184 | 4% | 19 |
| 16 | Pronoun agreement error | 752 | 2.6% | 365 | 48% | 15 |
| 17 | Unnecessary comma with restrictive element | 693 | 2.4% | 239 | 34% | 17 |
| 18 | Run-on or fused sentence | 681 | 2.4% | 308 | 45% | 16 |
| 19 | Dangling or misplaced modifier | 577 | 2.0% | 167 | 29% | 20 |
| 20 | Its/it's error | 292 | 1.0% | 188 | 64% | 18 |
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For more information about these and other grammatical and usage issues, consult
The Composition Links page (click on
manet) below has another wide range of useful online handbooks, style guides, and dictionaries for the writer.
