10 Most Common Writing Mistakes – Avoid & Fix Those Grammar Errors

Today, let’s review some most common writing mistakes that every writer makes. Not to mention, that greatly impacts the writer’s credibility. Thankfully, we do have so many English proofreading and editing tools available. Still, learning can make you understand and recognize those errors using any proofreading tools. Only then you can improve your writing skills, meanwhile.

Please do remember common mistakes in English writing would be embarrassing. So, take some time to get familiar with those writing mistakes and remember to fix those always. Even confident writers make mistakes at times.

Let’s get into such common writing mistakes to avoid. Not to mention, that highly tract reader’s negative attention.

Most Common Writing Mistakes You Should Avoid

The best way to ace your writing is to learn things first. Then, write right. Here are the various English writing mistakes, especially the grammatical errors even expert writers would commit.

Here are some of the common writing mistakes –

Further, there are more specific spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors that seem lighter but impact greatly.

Common Grammar Mistakes in English Writing

Among these typical writing mistakes, grammatical issues are always hectic to handle.

#1 Wrong word usage

Wrong word usage would result in different forms of errors. If you don’t have good vocabulary words, then you will often commit these mistakes. There may be just a slight difference in meaning like ‘compose’ and ‘comprise’ or a completely different meaning like ‘embrace’ and ‘emphasize.’

So, while using any English proofreading tools or taking words from thesaurus, make sure to understand the meaning of the word before using it. Most importantly, in case of using writing assistant tools that automatically fix errors, keep an eye on each mistake.

Keep in mind; the spell checkers may not check words that are misused; it can only see if any word spelled right or not.

#2 Contextual spelling

Spelling mistakes are one of the top 20 common writing errors. It may seem silly, but that’s the fact. Sometimes, even your spell check might miss spotting the homonyms like ‘presence’ and ‘presents.’ Especially, the contextual spelling mistakes like ‘week’ and ‘weak’ or ‘bare’ and ‘bear’ are very common.

Sometimes, people would often compound words as two separate words. For example – using ‘every day’ instead of ‘everyday.’

#3 Using Passive voice

Passive voice isn’t a bad thing to use while writing. But, when it makes your content incredibly vague or wordy, then it is always good to avoid it wherever possible. When the action is more important than who does it, then you have to use passive voice. That’s inevitable. Sometimes, using passive voice looks more natural and makes sense. Look at this –

Don’t be fooled – passive voice- so simple to read and meaningful.

Don’t allow anything or anybody to fool you – active voice – makes sentences too complicated.

So, you can’t totally avoid using passive voice sentences. Still, understand the significance of it and use it appropriately.

#4 Improper comma usage

Indeed, dreadful writing mistakes! There is a misconception that you can always use the comma as a conjunction to connect two sentences or phrases. It may be true with the help of a coordinating conjunction, but not individually all the time.

The missing comma is yet another typical mistake every writer would do. Sometimes, you can identify these missing comma errors by just reading the text louder.

For an instant, ‘Thank you for attending, children’ is right instead of ‘Thank you for attending children.’

#5 Incomplete sentence

When it comes to academic research papers, it is always recommended to cite the resources. Otherwise, there will be plagiarism issues.

In other cases, people tend to write simpler sentences would result in incomplete sentences. Mostly, these incomplete sentences are the sentence fragments that are missing a subject. Adding a subject or verb to those sentences will make it complete and meaningful.

#6 Missing article

I often make this mistake. One of my most common grammar mistakes in English that I still find it hard to overcome.

Thankfully, I’m using Grammarly to eliminate such habitual errors too. Like me, some people miss giving an article ‘a,’ ‘an,’ or ‘the’ before nouns or noun phrases.

#7 Incorrect tenses

Using different verbs in a sentence or two similar sentences with no proper reason confuse readers.

He searched for a night owl. But, he takes photographs of all the birds out there.

In this sentence, ‘searched’ and ‘takes’ are two verbs in two different tenses. There are times when you can mix tenses. But, you must follow the right formula to escape from the common grammar mistakes in writing.

#8 Wordy sentences

Your piece of the article becomes hard-to-read when it is wordy. Wordiness makes your writing unclear. If you use more words (than required) to convey your message, then it is wordiness.

In such a case, you can spot the long-phrase and replace it with a single or two words, possibly. Try to eliminate the words that have a similar meaning. The words like ‘basically,’ ‘ideally,’ ‘in order to,’ etc, of course, these words could make your content more interactive. Still, if it is the cause for wordiness, ignore those.

#9 Apostrophe errors

Generally, we use apostrophes in two different cases –

When you misuse it, it can even change the complete meaning of the sentence. It looks dumb when you use it where it doesn’t belong to.

#10 Parallelism

While using bullet points, there are higher chances for parallelism. Usually, you will start every point with similar words. Like –

It offers…

It ensures…

It allows…

It provides…

This is even more critical when writing these points in the paragraph. At the same time, failing to use such parallelism might confuse your readers.

‘Over the weekend, I bought a new MacBook Pro, smartwatch, and arranged for free shipping.’ There is no parallelism here; indeed, users won’t find it annoying.

How To Fix These Regular Writing Mistakes?

If you have years of experience in English writing, I’m sure you can get rid of those common writing mistakes so easily. But as beginners or non-native English speakers, there must be a learning curve.

Fortunately, if AI-based tools can help you with more personalized suggestions, feedback, and review on your writing, then go for it and improve your writings. The only affordable and effective way to make your content error-free is nothing but using any proficient English writing assistant tools.

Final Words On Common Writing Mistakes

Knowing the common writing mistakes that every writer makes, try not to commit the same errors while practicing from scratch. Most importantly, write at least a few hundred words every day. Have a physical tutor or any writing assistant tool alongside to check your content.

Learn from the mistakes. Correct yourself. At the same time, make sure to embed fun and interactive elements into your content that greatly helps you when it comes to business writing.

As a student or an academic professional, build a strong foundation practicing in a better way from scratch. Make your content flawless and tract more reader’s attention.