Have you ever had a teacher mark “comma splice” on your paper? Have you ever turned in your essay only to realize later that spell check “fixed” your word so that it reads defiantly when you meant to write definitely? Well, if these things have happened to you, you are not alone. These are among the most common errors writers make.
The rules of grammar and proper usage in English can be tricky. On top of that, the “rules” sometimes change with our language and culture. The errors found in writing evolve as well.
The Excelsior OWL first published this collection of writing errors in 2016. Originally, our section was based primarily on the 2006 study “Mistakes Are a Fact of Life” by researchers from Stanford University. That study was, in turn, built on research from the 1980s into the most common writing errors found in student papers. Back then, researchers found that spelling mistakes were the most common writing error by a margin of three-to-one. However, by 2006, the Stanford researchers found that spelling errors accounted for only 5% of student errors, while Wrong Word errors had become the most common. Why did this happen? Word processing programs corrected many spelling mistakes for students, but sometimes introduced errors by suggesting faulty corrections, such as in our example above.
In updating this section, we’ve drawn on previous research and the experience of instructors who have contacted the Excelsior OWL over the years. Do you have a common writing error you’d like to see covered here? Get in touch!
Writing errors happen to everyone—from students to professional novelists. Often, if a piece of writing is compelling enough, even the most fastidious reader will overlook some errors. The quality of writing is not inherently determined by its number of errors, or lack thereof.
With that said, turning in error-free writing—whether while in school or, later, in a professional context (or even socially!)—makes writers more easily understood, and therefore leads to more receptive audiences. Understanding the common errors in your writing and how to fix them will lead to better communication in realms beyond essays and research papers.
Let’s look at the list, so you can see if you have had similar errors in your writing. Once you understand the problem, you are well on your way to correcting it.