Common Problems — and Suggestions for Eliminating Them

Adjectives modify nouns (e.g. a beautiful house, a cranky old sailor), while adverbs can modify verbs, adverbs, adjectives, or entire sentences. Most but not all adverbs end in -ly. Adjectives answer the question, "What is x like?" (e.g. What is the sailor like? Cranky and old.) Adverbs answer questions like, "How?" "Where?" "When?" or "To what degree?" (e.g. running quickly, an exceptionally sunny day). Tip: If you frequently confuse adverbs and adjectives, try asking yourself what each modifier in your text actually modifies and what question it answers.

Subject-verb agreement (S-V): Verbs must agree in person and number with their subjects. Tip: If you frequently have problems with S-V agreement, try working your way through your text sentence by sentence, locating the subject and finite verb in each clause and ensuring that they agree in terms of person and number.
Pronoun-antecedent agreement: Pronouns must agree with the gender and number of their antecedents (i.e. the nouns they refer back to). Tip: Backtrack from each pronoun to make sure it has the same gender and number as the noun it replaces.

These error codes identify problems with articles and determiners, including the a/an distinction. For a detailed discussion of articles, determiners, and quantifiers, please visit...

"Articles, Determiners and Quantifiers" (Capital Community College, Hartford, CT, USA)

Note: This page also includes a useful discussion of predeterminers (multipliers, fractionals, and intensifiers like quite, what, such, which are placed in front of the article, and not between the article and the noun. If you tend to use formulations like *a quite hot day* instead of quite a hot day, pay special attention to this section.

This error code refers to an incorrect use of simple or continuous tense. Writers of English textbooks in Germany seem to be quite fond of continuous verbs, perhaps because German does not have a comparable verb form. As a result, German-speaking students of English often overuse the continuous when writing in English. While the continuous may not be used as frequently in English as all those exercises on the continuous may have led you to believe, it may well be used for several more functions than you are used to.

Here is a list of those functions*, as formulated

• to describe actions already in progress at the moment "in focus" within the sentence, as in “I was doing my Qigong exercises when my cat ran into the room.” or “I will be leaving for the US about the same time that you arrive for your Fulbright year in Bremen.”
• to describe actions at the moment of focus in contrast to habitual actions, as in “We are usually flexible about accepting late papers, but this time we are insisting that students meet the deadlines we set.”
• to express repeated actions, as in “My neighbor is forever complaining about my wisteria vine hanging over his side of the wall.” (Note: This use may connote irritation or impatience on the part of the speaker. Note also how the use of the adverb "forever" sets the meaning of this sentence apart from that of sentences which describe uncompleted actions.)
• to describe temporary situations in contrast to permanent states, as in “I usually do not have any trouble sleeping, but for the past several weeks I have been waking up at two-thirty or three in the morning.”
• to express uncompleted actions, as in “The government is working on a new immigration policy.”
  

For an overview of verbs and verbals, see

"Verbs and Verbals" (Capital Community College, Hartford, CT, USA)

"Progressive, Stative and Dynamic Verbs" (Capital Community College, Hartford, CT, USA)

*The list of the uses of the continuous is based on information in Jan Frodesen and Janet Eyring, Grammar Dimensions: Form, Meaning, and Use, #3, 2nd Ed. (Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1997). Examples are mine.

Credit your sources properly, whether you quote directly or paraphrase. The failure to do so constitutes plagiarism (intellectual theft). You are responsible for knowing what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. The BA program in English-Speaking Cultures does not tolerate plagiarism. If you are not sure you understand what plagiarism is or what the consequences of plagiarising are, ask your teacher or consult my page on plagiarism. Please do not waste your language teacher's time and insult her intelligence by assuming she will not notice it when you use other people's formulations.

Sentences marked "awk" may contain one or more outright errors, but they may also be grammatically correct and simply awkwardly constructed, i.e. the information . In any case, awkward constructions require more reworking than a simple error correction. To improve such sentences, check for specific errors in grammar and punctuation, problems with word order for appropriate emphasis, and "flow" (Can you read it aloud with ease?).

To find out how to attribute quoted material properly, refer to the MLA or APA style sheet and follow it carefully for books, articles, correspondence, and websites.

The language you use in your writing should be appropriate to your subject; it should be fresh and lively, and it should reflect your own unique authorial voice.

Clichés and trite expressions fall into the category of language that conveys little meaning and still less of the writer's unique voice.

Clichés are expressions that have been so overused that while everyone is likely to recognize them, they are not likely to hold the reader's attention because they convey little in the way of fresh, interesting meaning.

Trite expressions express ideas that are so obvious that they may well make the reader groan and roll her eyes, convinced that she is wasting her time.

A writer who chooses well-worn formulations, for example, who writes about diplomats meeting to "iron out differences" between their respective governments, or married couples "drifting apart," may find writing and revising their essays easier than a writer who wrestles with the language in search of words and formulations to express his thoughts precisely, but substituting prefabricated slogans and catch-phrases for one's own carefully articulated thoughts and reactions cheapens and weakens the text.

Clichés and trite expressions are often perceived by the reader to be symptoms of a lazy, uncritical mind.* Granted, this is not necessarily true of learners of English, who may be trying to expand their active vocabulary but who have not yet developed the native speaker's sense of the language. For these writers, the best advice may well be to go ahead and use an expression that seems to capture the intended meaning, and to risk discovering that the chosen phrase is considered a cliché—after all, how else can one possibly hope to acquire a nuanced sense of the language?

*Exception: In great satire characters can get away with speaking in nothing but clichés—all form, no content—but in EFL essay writing, this is not often the case.

Some words occur together so regularly that they form an expression; these are called collocations. Here is a list* of the most easily distinguishable types of collocations:

The code "coll" in the margin of your paper simply means that the text contains a combination of words that are not used together or, if the collocation does exist, it does not mean what the writer appears to want to communicate. Tip: If collocations are a frequent problem for you, try "googling" the combination you originally used to see if it occurs in the web and, if so, in what contexts. Try to determine whether it is being used by L1 or L2 speakers of English. Then "google" the suggested collocation to see how it is used. Does the suggested collocation communicate your intended meaning? If so, the suggestion is a good one. You may also want to try out the Collins Collocation Sampler.

*from Bruce Williams, "Collocation with advanced levels 1 - not entirely…proper/appropriate/good?"

As a rule, avoid writing choppy, telegraph-like texts by judiciously combining short sentences into longer, more varied structures. Example of choppy effects: "This is the ultimate difficulty. It developed from the evasion of responsibility for decades. Now the price has to be paid. We must come to terms with the it." Try something like: "This, the ultimate difficulty, developed because our predecessors evaded their responsibilities for decades. Now we have to pay the price." Note that subordinate clauses help combine sentences. Instead of a collection of short sentences we get a clear cause/effect process. Because it is short and contrasts with the longer first sentence, the second sentence emphasizes the thought the writer wants to leave the reader with.

Commas are used in conjunction with coordinating conjunctions to join two independent clauses. Independent (main) clauses should not be strung together with commas alone. Omitting the conjunction results in an error called a "comma splice." For example, "The book is on the desk, it once belonged to my father." or "The merchant repeats himself many times, he does not have a good memory." The comma in each example should be replaced with a semicolon or period (full stop). In some cases, a dash may also be used, but this is generally not recommended. Alternatively, consider reformulating the sentence using subordination: "The book, which once belonged to my father, is on the desk." "Because he often repeats himself, we see that the merchant does not have a good memory."

A modifier is said to "dangle" when the noun it modifies does not immediately follow the modifier. Examples: "Looking out the window, the leaves began to fall" (leaves cannot look out windows). "Sitting in the bathtub, the telephone rang." (telephones do not normally sit in tubs). "Reading the poem carefully, irony shows what the author intended" (irony does not read poems). Correct: "Reading the poem carefully, we see that the author's irony suggests is intent." Yes, "we" can read poems carefully.

Dummy subjects—"It is" or "There is/There are"—are called "dummy" (or "placeholder") subjects because they stand in for the real subject of a sentence. In effect, they force the reader to guess what "it" refers to or where "there" can be found. Dummy subjects do not convey meaning, and thus should be avoided whenever possible. When you catch yourself using "It is" or "There is/are," rethink the sentence and try to eliminate the dummy subject.

Structure sentences so that the important words and ideas stand out. Put important ideas and words in slots which stress their value. Sometimes by reversing the order of clauses you can shift the focus of the sentence to the main idea away from a less important one. For example, "We learn that he values nothing more than success when we see him kill his own brother." This sentence would be more emphatic if we reordered the clauses: "When we see him kill his own brother, we learn that he values nothing more than success" (emphasis falls on "brother" and "success").

Your paper must supply evidence for your argument. In the main, this should come from the primary text/s you cite. If you think a passage reveals an important idea about the aspect of the work you discuss, you should cite it. Just as it's important to avoid paraphrasing a work (summing up its plot), it's important to select evidence carefully (do not string quotes together on after another to fill up space with redundant examples). Your paper must argue the details of the text, not general ideas; the more detailed the evidence, the more persuasive the case. Your evidence will reveal your sensitivity to language and how authors use it.

A fragment is a group of words or a phrase (a dependent clause) used as if it were a complete sentence (an independent clause). A fragment can be a dependent clause—a clause which must depend on, be connected to, a main or independent clause to form a complete sentence. "His first novel." is a fragment; "It was his first novel." is a complete sentence. "That he would leave soon" is a dependent clause and a sentence fragment if used as a complete sentence. "He decided that he would leave soon" is complete—here the dependent clause, "that he would leave soon," is linked to an independent clause ("He decided"). Sometimes fragments are used for effect—as in "She left the house in good order. Or so she thought." But do not take a chance unless you're sure you need the effect of the fragment. See #1 above.

General statements have the unexpected effect of undercutting the writer's authority and causing the reader to question his or her judgment. "Since time began," one might write, "women have been deprived of all their rights." One would immediately focus on the word "all" and take exception to such a statement—the sentence tries to claim lots of ground but overreaches, and in the end it has very little authority; "since time began" is another gross generality: a statement about all time is likely to require qualification. General statements tend to be abstract, categorical, and liable to be false.

These are words or phrases that act as modifiers, but are not where they need to be in the sentence to modify the word the writer intended to modify. The result can be quite amusing, but more frequently misplaced modifiers simply confuse the reader momentarily. Example: For sale: an antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers. (Who or what has thick legs and large drawers? This example is quite amusing because "drawers" has two rather different meanings.)

Missing words come in several varieties. Transitive verbs without the necessary objects, clarifying information Example: This afternoon there will be a meeting in the South and North Ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends. (both ends of what???)

Reduce wordiness by writing with strong verbs rather than weak verbs and nouns. Verbs should convey the main idea and action of the sentence. Using nouns and weak verbs when strong verbs could carry the action (and meaning) of the sentence is called "nominalization." Instead of saying "The resolution to the problem can be seen in author's attempt to reconcile..." try: "The author resolves the problem by reconciling..." Here, "resolves" replaces "resolution" and accompanying baggage.

Every paragraph needs a central idea; the definition of a paragraph is

A paragraph a page long does not have ONE key idea but probably contains several somewhat related ideas run together. Examine the structure of every paragraph before you hand in a paper. What's the topic sentence? How do subsequent sentences relate to it?

Employ parallel constructions for parallel ideas. Parallel constructions are easy to read and often express ideas elegantly and effectively. Strive to create them when they serve your purpose. Example: "His objective was to win, but playing fair also mattered to him." Correction: "His objective was not only to win, but also to play fair." Make nouns parallel to nouns, verbs to verbs: "The author shows the reader the path to being virtuous rather than to vice." Correct: "the path to virtue rather than to vice."

Parenthetical expressions—phrases in apposition to a subject or to another phrase—must be set off by TWO commas, not one. For example, "In the third chapter, which he actually wrote first, the author claimed to have discovered the cure for cancer." (Incorrect: "In the third chapter, which he actually wrote first the author . . . .) The "which" clause is set off by commas correctly here. These are also known as "restrictive clauses," since they restrict the main noun; they must be set off by two commas.

Watch overuse of the passive voice (structures in which the subject receives rather than initiates or performs the action: The ball was caught). Sometimes the passive is necessary and helpful, but too often it is abused and it obscures the real subject and action of the sentence. The passive voice also becomes general and vague. It's usually better to write about people who do things than things which are done by an undefined somebody, especially if the whole point of writing is to write about people who ACT. "The ball was caught" may be the better way in some contexts, but "She caught the ball" describes the meaningful action more effectively.

Contractions are a matter of correctness rather than style. The plural of man is men, and the possessive of men is men's, not mens'. Do not confuse "it is," contracted as "it's," with "its," the possessive adjective. Example of the confusion: The cup lost it's handle. For "it's" here read "its." Do not confuse the possessive with the plural, either: Example: The boy's came home late. Read "boys." The possessive of "their" is theirs, not "their's."

On their own, prepositions do not express much. They express meaning only in context, where they establish spatial and chronological relationships. If prepositions plague you, try analysing them in context to determine whether they are establishing a spatial relationship (e.g., above, below, beside) between two other words or a chronological one (before, during, after).

Beware of vague or confusing pronouns and antecedents. Is it clear to what or to whom pronouns refer? Is the referent suppressed? Example: The disaster was reported in the papers. They still did not act. Who is "they"? Not papers, surely. If you write "Government officials still did not act" the reader understands. Be careful, when you begin sentences or paragraphs with "This," that the reader knows which noun "This" refers back to—if I've written "This what?" in the margin, it means that the referent is either vague or unnamed (that it exists somewhere in your mind, perhaps, a collective "This," rather than on paper). The test? Always supply a noun to follow: "This point," for example, "This issue," or whatever. Get into the habit of questioning your use of "This" in the sentence-initial position.

Make sure that a pronoun refers grammatically back to the correct noun and that the pronoun is not ambiguous (if two men have just been named, "he" could refer to either one of them.

Make sure, too, that you use "who" to refer back to people and "that" to refer back to things. The woman who wrote the book, not *The woman that wrote the book.*

Use commas to...

• punctuate a list or series of items (e.g. the good, the bad, and the ugly);
• set off non-defining relative clauses (e.g. Children, who learn remarkably quickly, need appropriate challenges. Here, all children are described as learning quickly, so the relative clause is a non-defining relative clause.);
• set off apositives (e.g. Prince William, Charles and Diana's first child, may have to wait a long time before becoming the King of England.)
• set off sentence modifiers (e.g. Luckily, the ambulance arrived in time and the accident victim survived.)
• punctuate two independent (main) clauses in combination with a coordinating conjunction (e.g., Among traditional Navajos, laughter is considered to be the first step toward becoming an articulate human being, and a baby's first laugh is celebrated as we might celebrate a "round" birthday.

Do not use commas to punctuate dependent (subordinate) clauses that follow the main clause, e.g., *I know, that she will do what she says she will do.*

Use a semicolon (;) as you would a period, not a comma. Use a semi-colon to separate lists of lists (e.g., horses, donkeys, and mules; rafts, rowboats, and sailboats; scooters, bicycles, and rickshaws;...) or to separate two closely related independent clauses without a conjunction, e.g., Williams wrote several books; none of his later publications, however, were as successful as the first.

Do not use a semicolon to join a dependent clause and an independent clause, e.g., *Williams wrote several books; The Triad being first.*

Do not isolate a dependent clause by putting a semi-colon ( ; ) before it, e.g., "He walked to school; a triumph over fear." Instead: "He walked to school—a triumph over fear." Use a comma, a colon ( : ), or (less often) a dash ( — ) to integrate a dependent clause into your sentence; a semi-colon is a full-stop, closer to a period than a comma.

Edit for economy; remove repetitious words and phrases. Repetition slows the progress of the paper and causes the reader to lose interest. Look at each sentence in isolation from its context and learn to identify the new information that sentence adds to the one before it. If the sentence contains little or no new information, you are either repeating what you have already said or you are not really saying anything at all.

Avoid redundant and obvious expressions. Do not tell the reader what he or she does not need to know. Example: *In our modern world of today....* or *The author begins with an introduction...* "Today" and "modern" express nearly the same idea, and so do "our" and "modern." Likewise, *In Twain's first chapter, he argues...* (Twain's first chapter argues,... or In the first chapter, Twain argues...) Other examples: *Both Smith and Jones took different views of the war.* or *Both Smith and Jones took the same view of the war.* Both/different and Both/same are redundant. Since Smith and Jones are different people, the reader assumes that they took differing views and has to reread the sentence to see if something has been missed (it has not, except by the author-as-editor). Try, "Smith and Jones took different views of the war." Or, "Smith and Jones took the same view of the war."

Another example: For his young readers, the author must avoid intimidating them by taking too much for granted. Here, "For his young readers" and "them" are redundant. Try: "The author must avoid intimidating young readers by taking too much for granted."

Register refers to the level of formality or informality of a text. Register is reflected in the writer's choice of words and expressions as well as in certain constructions. Informal texts may, for example, use more phrasal and prepositional verbs than formal texts. Formal texts tend to use single-verb synonyms for such multi-word verbs. Contractions are considered acceptable in informal writing, but not in formal, academic or scholarly writing.

Example: Run-on sentence are series of short sentences linked by and or some other conjunction while these are very annoying to the reader they are easy to fix. Revised: Run-on sentences are series of short sentences linked by "and" or some other conjunction; while annoying, they are easily fixed.

Two points here:
1) Block indent quotes of 3 lines or more; do not italicize them, use a smaller font, or anything else; just indent them. If you indent, use quotation marks ONLY if the material is dialogue or direct discourse (otherwise the quotation marks are redundant).

In every case, integrate quotations into your prose. Do not turn your paper into a patch-work in which your voice suddenly stops and, with no transition, another voice begins. Such expressions as "According to..." are useful in linking your text smoothly with the text you are quoting.

If you quote a sentence or two from any source, enclose the quoted material within quotation marks and give the page number outside the quotation marks. Example: The narrator says that Janice stood "at six feet,"with "shining eyes, blond hair, and a warm smile" (323). Do not write "smile, p. 323," since the narrator did not say "page 323." Omit any sentence punctuation before the parenthesis, e.g., *"a warm smile," (323).* Omit that comma!

2) When writing for an American audience, use single quotes ( ' ' ) only when a quote occurs inside another quotation (e.g., "The smith objected to the 'silly' game he was forced to play," Austen wrote.). Note that British and American usage are exactly the opposite in this matter. British style mandates the use of single quotes first, and double quotes for quotes within quotes.

Avoid random quotes to set off imprecise or trite language, e.g., Elizabeth might be the queen, but this scene shows that she does not "get it." "Get it" is very informal slang; try to express this idea more precisely. She does not understand, or does not grasp the importance of something. In general, if you use quotation marks, make sure you are quoting a source. Do not use quotation marks to "telegraph" to the reader that you are not exactly sure what you mean or to allude to a slangy or loose definition and leave matters there. On rare occasions, however, you may want to use quotation marks to signal that you are using a carefully chosen term (e.g. "telegraph" in the sentence above) in an unusual context. In this case, the quotation marks signal the reader that you are well aware of what you have done with the language and of the implications of your choice of words.

Learn to distinguish the subjunctive mood from the indicative. The indicative refers to facts, the subjunctive to conditions contrary to fact. Example: "If I were you, . . ." (correct); "If I was you,..." (this construction is used conversationally, but "were" would be better, even in informal contexts.).

Do not summarize the plot in more detail than is absolutely necessary to situate your reader. Summarizing has a purpose, but only a limited one, in a critical paper; the objective of a critical paper is analysis of the material from a certain perspective. Unless the reader knows what will be argued—which is to say, unless an analytical objective is in view—he or she will have no context for an elaborate discussion of plot summary. Short summaries are necessary to support arguments; but you should expect in this case that your reader knows the material about as well as you do. Set up critical framework that clarifies the objectives of your paper; then, where necessary, fit brief summaries into that framework.

Syntax (syn) is something of an umbrella term. I use it to refer to a multitude of sins, but most frequently to indicate that the sentence has a problem which involves more than one type of error.

Vt or Vtense is used to indicate that the writer has used a tense that does not make sense in the given context. When writing about literary texts, for example, the primary tense is the present tense because we treat the events in literary works as occurring in a timeless present.

The choices you make regarding the sequence of tenses you use in a paper greatly affect the reader's ability to reconstruct a sequence of events in the work you are writing about.

Two points here:
1) Every paper must have an identifiable thesis statement.That statement can be more or less direct, but it must be prominent in the paper's first paragraphs. Failure to provide a thesis statement is a strong indication that the paper is a description or a summary rather than an argument. A topic is something you write about; a thesis is an argument about a topic.

2) Along with a thesis, your paper should always convey a plan for pursuing the thesis. It is better to be mechanical (safe) than arbitrary and unclear (sorry) when you indicate the direction of your argument to the reader. A good thesis statement does not necessarily suggest how the argument will be organized. It might seem mechanical to write "First I will, and then I will, etc.," and you can always revise that kind of writing out of later drafts. However, a good structure helps the reader grasp the main points of the paper. Less mechanical ways of generating a plan include such phrases as, "By comparing X to Y in three key instances, I will show that . . .,In order to explain this claim, I will focus on two aspects of X," and so forth. (Most teachers do not have a phobia about using the first person pronoun, by the way; they expect you to write in your own voice.)

Be sure you give your paper an appropriate title. A good title will suggest that the paper has a specific focus and will say something about the thesis. Never title a paper something like "Second paper" or "The House of Mirth" (or whatever is the name of the novel or short-story or poem you are writing about). That shows a sad lack of imagination and effort.

Distinguish a topic—which is simply a subject—from a thesis. A topic can be complex and still be a topic: the need to repent and save the soul is a topic, not a thesis. The need to save the soul before death and judgment is still just a topic. A topic is something we discuss or argue or debate; it is not, itself, an argument, but you cannot have an argument without it.

A thesis is defined as "A proposition laid down or stated, esp. as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack (in Logic sometimes as distinct from HYPOTHESIS; in Rhetoric from ANTITHESIS) 2); a statement, assertion, tenet" (OED). Note: "To be discussed and proved." A thesis requires proof. What proof does "the need to save the soul" require? None. Does any source in Old or Middle English literature say that the soul does not need to be saved? What, then, is there to argue about? If you use a topic as your thesis, all you will do is summarize the work or explain what it already explains (see Plot summary above).

One of your major tasks is to let the reader know what your paper will attempt, and how you will go about it. The reader should not be in doubt about the direction your paper takes. Connections between sentences and between paragraphs should be unambiguously clear, for in order to make those connections, you need transition markers to indicate contrast or qualification; illustration; ("for example, for instance"); development ("furthermore, again also"); conclusion or result ("Consequently, Therefore"), and so forth. Your direction should always be apparent to the reader.

The reader depends on the writer's ability to choose words carefully, to say exactly what he or she means. If word choice is inexact, the reader will easily form the wrong impression. And even if the reader can second guess the writer, and think to himself, "Oh, this must mean ——," the reader has a right to be annoyed: he or she should not have to do the writer's work. Be sure you know the meanings of the words you use and be sure that they are appropriate to the context (not too informal or slangy, not pretentious or fancy). Sometimes word choice is a problem because the words are used incorrectly; sometimes word choice is merely inappropriate. Reading aloud is a good way to test word choice. "Unique" is a special case. Remember that you cannot qualify "unique": something either is, or is not, unique, and uniqueness does not come in degrees like smallness does—"quite unique, very unique," and so forth.

Edit for economy. Learn to eliminate unnecessary words and get to the point. For "She fell down due to the fact that she hurried" write "She fell because she hurried." Be concise; do not take ten words when you need only five. But being concise does not mean being abrupt; say only what needs saying, but say all that needs to be said. Wordiness results from redundant expressions and/or repetition; both problems can be corrected once you realize that you must search for them. Note too that wordiness may result from uncertainty about what you want to say. Learn to recognize this "exploratory style" as a stage in writing a good sentence, as part of the process. Revise the evasive, indecisive quality out of your prose.