Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage
Composition English 1101		Contact Form

Twenty Common Usage Errors

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 on which students might concentrate when writing for an academic audience.		Current work:   Days remaining this term: Notes: Add Note |  Log in? | Privacy | Change Name & Email Mail this page to a friend
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 Va gue pronoun reference 2,809     9.8% 892 32% 4 3 No  comma in compound sentence 2,446     8.6% 719 29% 7 4 Wr ong word 2,217     7.8% 1,114 50% 1 5 No  comma in nonrestrictive element 1,864     6.5% 580 31% 10 6 Wr ong or missing inflected endings 1,679     5.9% 857 51% 5 7 Wr ong or missing preposition 1,580     5.5% 679 43% 8 8 Co mma splice 1,565     5.5% 850 54% 6 9 Po ssessive apostrophe error 1,455     5.1% 906 62% 3 10 Te nse shift 1,453     5.1% 484 33% 12 11 Un necessary shift in person 1,347     4.7% 410 30% 14 12 Se ntence fragment 1,217     4.2% 671 55% 9 13 Wr ong tense or verb form 952     3.3% 465 49% 13 14 Su bject-verb agreement 909     3.2% 534 58% 11 15 La ck of comma in series 751     2.7% 184 4% 19 16 Pr onoun agreement error 752     2.6% 365 48% 15 17 Un necessary comma with restrictive element 693     2.4% 239 34% 17 18 Ru n-on or fused sentence 681     2.4% 308 45% 16 19 Da ngling or misplaced modifier 577     2.0% 167 29% 20 20 It s/it's error 292     1.0% 188 64% 18

For more information about these and other grammatical and usage issues, consult

• Modern English Grammar "Error Correction Terms and Abbreviations"

  A list of resource around the web with helpful advice on finding, editing, and correcting the twenty common usage errors listed above.

• Free tools! My Editing Toolbar and macros for Microsoft Word

  Based on the 20 most common errors above, this Word toolbar will help you insert comments into your students' documents. Scroll to the bottom of the page to download the toolbar and read the installation instructions.

• The Modern English Grammar HyperTextBook

  A thorough and rigorous review of modern English grammatical structures from the word rank to the clause rank and beyond, written by yours truly.

• Grammar and Style Notes

  On online usage handbook by Jack Lynch at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Composition Links page (click on manet) below has another wide range of useful online handbooks, style guides, and dictionaries for the writer.

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