Polishing Your Prose: Common Grammar Mistakes Students Miss Out On

Academic writing depends on specific parameters that make it the best. Making such writings free from grammatical errors is one such criterion. While students write any assignments or dissertation papers, they must concentrate on writing good sentences and maintaining proper grammar. You can use an online grammar checker to rectify your mistakes.

However, students often lack proper grammatical ideas and make mistakes. Thus, they need to improve their written assignments. Once you know the most common grammatical errors, try to avoid those. Hence, you can write your assignment excellently. Also, learning good grammar can improve your knowledge of English. It will help you later in your future study and professional career.

Which Are the Common Grammar Mistakes You Must Know About?

Do you have an assignment to write? Then, you must understand the common mistakes students usually commit. Knowing those can help you to avoid committing such mistakes. Read on to know more-

Not Placing Modifiers at the Right Place

You can consider it as one of the fundamental mistakes in sentence-making. As the name suggests, modifiers are the words that explain the sentence more. If you place those in the wrong place, you can go wrong with the sentence's meaning.

For example, it is wrong if you write 'He almost read all the books in his library'. You must write, 'He read almost all the books in his library'. So, you must remember that you should use the modifiers close to words that you want to describe through it.

Not Understanding Subject-Verb Agreement

The subject of a sentence is 'who is doing,' and the verb is what is doing. So, the subject and the verb must match in number. If you are using a singular subject, the verb must be singular. On the other hand, for plural subjects, you should use plural verbs.

For example, 'The students are going on an excursion.' In this sentence, 'Students' is a plural subject, so the verb is 'are.' However, the subject is singular in the sentence 'The group of students is going on excursion'. So, the verb used is singular, too. So, you must identify the main subject to understand which verb to use as per the subject. No matter how many words are there in between.

Mix the Homophones

Homophones are the kind of words that sound almost similar. However, those have different meanings and spellings, like 'here,' 'hear,' 'hare,' 'hire,' etc. So, you must know the meaning of each word and use those in the right place. Thus, you can write a meaningful sentence.

For example: 'You should come here' means coming to a particular place. 'Hear the mysterious sound' means you must listen to some sound. Again, 'A ground hare is eating all crops' means the giant ground rabbit is finishing the crops. Finally, 'He is the only hire of his father' means he owns everything his father will leave after death.

So, students should always double-check while using such types of words. You can find these mistakes while revising your text thoroughly.

Wrong Uses of Comma and Comma Splices

Students often need clarification when it comes to the use of commas. Commas are mainly used while adding lists. You can also use it to write clauses. But you must know how to use it correctly to avoid grammatical mistakes.

For example, you can use commas in sentences like, 'I love chocolates, ice creams, pastries, and savouries. Also, you can use commas in compound sentences like, I wanted to go, but I am down with fever'. For comma splices, write a sentence like, 'She scored high in exams, she will get a good job'.

If you use commas in the wrong place, readers will get confused. So, you must revise your write-up well to check for any such errors.

Wrong Uses of Tenses

This is another area that students find confusing. So, they make mistakes when writing sentences in the right tense. The most common mistake is switching between three tenses in a write-up.

For example, you must write 'she scores well in an exam because she studies hard throughout the year' instead of 'she scored well in an exam because she studies hard throughout the year'.

You should always be consistent with the use of tense. Stick with the tense you are using from the beginning of your write-up.

Using Passive Voice Too Much

Passive voice often makes sentences complex. So, readers need help to read. You must remember that your write-up must be clear and compact. So, try to limit the use of passive voice and use more active voice.

For example, instead of using 'The project is done by him',' you should write 'He does the project'.' The sentence will sound more robust and more transparent with an active voice. If you need any essay help, you can get guidance on these matters.

Conclusion

So, here you get to know about the common grammatical mistakes students make in their assignments. You must study well to understand grammar and improve your knowledge. Also, the above guidance will help you to rectify your mistakes. You can also get help from online grammar checker, as those are pretty effective in giving you quick results.