10 grammatical mistakes to avoid

1. Independent/dependent clause confusion- Commas are difficult because there are so many rules surrounding their usage. However, clauses seem to be troubling to punctuate. When the independent (the one that is a sentence by itself) clause comes before the dependent (the clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence) clause, then you don't need a comma to separate the two. When the dependent clause is first in the sentence, then you need the comma to separate the clauses. For example:

• I went to the movies after I finished studying. (The independent clause "I went to the movies" could stand alone as a sentence, but the dependent clause "after I finished studying" could not stand alone as a sentence. However, no comma is needed because the independent clause preceeded the dependent clause.)
• After I finished studying, I went to the movies. (The dependent clause cannot stand alone, so the comma is used to alert the reader of the separation of ideas.)

2. Possessives- Where do you put the apostrophe and "s" when you write? Think about the situation. A simple rule of thumb is to consider the number of objects. For example:

• the boy's dog (the dog belongs to the single boy)
• the boys' dog (the dog belongs to several boys)
• boys (by itself) refers to several boys

3. Noun-verb agreement- Students get confused as they link nouns and verbs. Think of consistency for the two (if you have a singular noun, then you will have a singular verb) For example:

• he/she is
• they are
• a phone is
• phones are

When you get stuck, think of using the article a in your description. You would not normally say, "a books" or "a women".

4. Sentence fragments- When the sentence does not contain the necessary subject and verb, then the sentence is considered a fragment. The good news is that little revision might be necessary to correct the issue. For example,

• Complete with cake and ice cream. (This is a fragment. You might know what you mean, and to what you refer, but this sentence cannot stand alone.)
• The party was complete with cake and ice cream. (The sentence has a subject and verb "party was", which allows the rest of the sentence to make sense.)
• I want chocolate cake for my birthday. Which is my favorite dessert. (Starting a sentence with the word "which" usually creates a fragment.)

5. Homophomes- Simply put, homophomes are words that sound the same, but are not spelled the same. For example:

• their, there, they're
• not, knot
• principle, principal
• know, no
• whose, who's

The key to correct usage is to know the term you mean to use. A principle is an idea or guideline, while a principal is the school administrator. Here is a great link (by Paul Brians, author of Common Errors in English Usage) to help you know which word to use.

6. Comma splice- You cannot join two independent clauses (phrases that can stand alone as complete sentences) with just a comma. The splice can be fixed by:

• adding a period (.) and making two separate sentences
• adding a semi-colon (;) between them
• insert a conjunction (and/but/or/because) after the comma

7. General "you/your"- Never use the general "you" as if you are speaking directly to your audience.

• Personalize by using "I" or "my" if in a personal essay (making the language stronger by owning it)
• Replace with "one," "someone," or "people" if writing a formal 3rd person essay
• Replace with another descriptive noun, such as customers, patrons, diners, students, people

8. Contractions- Avoid contractions in essays, unless the contraction occurs in a direct quote. (Note that cannot is one word)

9. Run-on sentences lack punctuation between clauses. Inserting a comma before the conjuction usually fixes the problem.

10. Introductory phrases- Use a comma after introductory phrases, like those starting with: As, After, Since, With, When