Common Errors in Student Writing
The Mount Ida Writing Center and the Career Center asked faculty to list common mistakes in
student writing and give students writing advice. Their responses are compiled below.
Spelling:
Here are the correct spellings for commonly misspelled words:
 Tomorrow, battlefield (one word), a lot (two words), oriented (not orientated),
desperate, separate, attached, definitely, counselor
Here are the spellings and definitions of words commonly confused with each other.
Spell-check will not catch these mistakes because the mistake is also a word:
 A customer is a client; a costumer is someone who works with costumes
 A soldier is in the military; to solder is to fuse pieces of metal together
 Definitely means certainly; defiantly means with defiance
 Reviled means hated; relived is to live again
 Bizarre means strange; a bazaar is like a flea market
 Prospective means “possible future” as in “prospective student”; perspective is a
type of architectural drawing, or a person’s viewpoint
 Capitol is a government building; capital has several meanings (capital city,
capital letter, capital punishment, or referring to money)
 Their refers to something they own; there is a place; they’re is a contraction for
they are
 Your refers to something you own; you’re is a contraction for you are
 Its refers to something it owns; it’s is a contraction for it is
 Stationery is writing paper; stationary means “not moving”
 A part of the team refers to a team member; Apart as one word refers to being
separated from
 Weather refers to the climate; whether introduces two or more alternatives
 Past refers to what’s already happened; passed means overtook
 Affect is a verb; effect is a noun – To affect is to cause a change; an effect is the
change that was caused
Make sure to use spell-check and also visually proofread. Do not type important emails
on your phone where you will be more prone to typing mistakes.
Grammar/usage:
 Make sure to show the proper level of formality when writing professors or
employers
 Don’t put too many simple sentences in a row
 Stay away from run-on sentences
 Stay away from repetitive phrasing at the beginning of a sentence, such as starting
every sentence with the word “I”
 Stay away from repetitive use of the same word – try to find synonyms
 Make sure to write complete sentences
 Make sure there is agreement between the sentence’s subject and verb
 Stay away from vague wording
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Use an active voice
Use apostrophes only when referring to possessives (something that is owned or
possessed); use plurals without an apostrophe to represent more than one
Use quotation marks properly; put end of sentence punctuation inside the end
quote
Capitalize specific titles only and not vague references. For example, the following
is a correct sentence: I took several history classes including American Colonial
History. History is only capitalized when it’s part of the name of the class.
Instead of using “so” or “very,” replace the following word with a stronger one
(Instead of saying “The store was very big” say “The store was enormous”)
Numbers one through twelve should be written as words: use numbers starting
with 13
A novel is a type of book (a fictional story), but not all books are novels
Use the word “various” instead of “many different”
Substitute “many” for “a lot”
Use “to” rather than “in order to” because the words “in order” are unnecessary
Use the word “children” rather than “kids”
“Should of”, “would of”, and “could of” are all incorrect; “should have” is correct
Use a comma between city and state
Don’t use a comma between state and zip code
Organization/content:
 Make sure to write clear thesis statements, topic sentences and introductory
paragraphs
 Look for ways to split long paragraphs into two
 Make sure each paragraph only contains one idea
 End paragraphs with a concluding remark or analysis instead of a quotation
 Make sure papers/essays are well organized and stay on topic
 Find evidence to support your personal opinions when possible, and don’t state
your opinions as fact
Citation:
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Formatting
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Make sure that your ratio of quoted or source material is not too high relative to
the length of your paper – your paper should not just be a string of quotations
Use signal phrases when introducing source material
Document your sources, make sure to use in-text citations properly, make sure to
properly construct your Works Cited or References page
Make sure to cite the source in paraphrased work
Remember to italicize book or movie titles
Make sure to put short story titles, articles and poems in quotations
Make sure that your document has a consistent font and font size
Remember to set margins at standard width (usually one inch)
Remember to number pages
For any questions about the advice listed above, please visit the Writing Center in the library.