Common Errors in Composition

Eradicate these errors from papers by the end of the term to achieve passing grades. 

	Error/Obfuscation!	Clarification!	Writer’s Resource Text Page #
1	It’s vs. its	It’s = it is  (The apostrophe means that a letter is missing.)  Ex:  It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  I should never see it’s in one of your papers, since it is a contraction, unless it occurs in a quote or citation!!!
		Its = possessive of it.  Ex:  The dog wagged its tail.
2	Capitalization	The word English always begins with a capital E.
		Any name of any country or any language is always capitalized:  Greek, Greece, Spain, Spanish, Latin, Sanskrit, Kiswahili, Kenya, Zulu, South Africa,  Xhosa, Fon, Gambia, Pakistan, Laos, Vietnam, Thai, Arabic, Panjabi, Tamil, Azerbaijan, Khmer, etc.,…
3	Agreement in #’s everyone≠their each≠their a person≠their somebody≠their everybody≠their	Error:  Everyone took their seat.  Correct:  Everyone took his seat. Or  Everyone took her seat. Or Everyone took a seat.	482
4	Cannot	Cannot is one word.	CANNOT
5	A lot	A lot = 2 words.  Stop using this phrase.  It is too vague to convey much meaning to your reader!  It is also BORING!	A lot
6	However	If you use the word however, it will have either one or two commas with it.
7	However, Therefore, Moreover, For example, In other words,	Use commas after these transitional words and phrases.  If they occur mid-sentence, the commas occur on both sides of them.	Also see

8	Contractions	Do not use contractions in formal writing, unless you are quoting someone who used them.	Contractions include: can’t, shouldn’t, won’t, didn’t
9	Apostrophes	Use apostrophes to show plural numbers and denote decades. Ex:  The 1920’s were known as the Roaring Twenties. Ex:  The judge gave the gymnasts 9.7’s on their routines, regardless of performance quality.
10	Danglers	Never leave to be verbs or prepositions dangling at the ends of sentences: Ex. error:  There was no one to go to the dance with. Correction:  There was no one with whom to go to the dance. Ex. error:  They were as ugly as I said they were. Correction:  They were as ugly as I had said.	Prepositions and preposition phrases listed on 615-616
11	You-ing the reader	Never address the reader as you/your/you’re/yours/ Never use idioms referring to the reader as you:  in your face	This will always result in an “F” for a paper in this class!!!
12	Clichés, Slang, Idioms or Informal Language	Avoid using clichés in formal writing, because they are too colloquial.  Avoid using idioms, slang and other informal language, too!
13	Beginning and ending essays with quotations	Do not begin or end essays with someone else’s words.  Put your ideas first and last.	What you have to say is important and is what we want to read in this class!
14	Beginning sentences with coordinating conjunctions	Do not use a conjunction (and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for) to begin a sentence.	Just don’t do it!  It’s sloppy!

15	Commas	Commas should occur after introductory phrases: Since September 11^th, In the morning, Once in awhile, Today, On Tuesday,
16	Commas	Use commas with the conjunction when there is a complete thought/sentence (independent clause) on each side of the conjunction. Ex:  I went for a walk, and I saw Martians landing on the courthouse lawn. Do not use commas if the phrase on either side of the conjunction cannot stand on its own as a complete thought/sentence. Ex:  The Martians were skipping around the yard and singing cowboy songs.  (The phrase, singing cowboy songs, cannot stand on its own as a complete sentence, because there is no subject stated.  It does not tell who was singing.)
17	Referring to a word or phrase in text	When introducing or especially referring to a word, such as discussing a particular word or phrase, put it in “quotes” or italicize it.  Ex:  From Hindi, English acquired the words pyjamas, khaki and punch.
18	Hyphenating Words	Use hyphens with Fractions one-fifth Numbers 21-99 with prefixes all-, ex-, self-, well-, mid- with suffixes –elect, -like with number and mph, ex: 85-mph with age, ex:  seven-year old boy

19	Acronyms	Acronyms are acceptable abbreviations to use in your paper.  They promote brevity. To incorporate them, first write out what the phrase is, then put the acronym in parentheses afterward.  Throughout the rest of the paper, use the acronym.  Ex: The United Nations (UN) publishes an annual of statistics on Physical Quality of Life Indicators (PQLI).  PQLI’s include infant mortality rates, literacy rates and gross national product per capita.	Common acronyms: NASCAR UNESCO GMC NAACP ACLU AFL-CIO ESL ADD AIDS/HIV FBI & CIA DMV DOD DOE
20	Punctuation and Quotation Marks	Periods and commas go inside quotation marks.  Exceptions= MLA
21	Incorporating Quotations	(1.)  If quote is embedded in sentence, there should be a comma before the beginning of the quotes.  (2.) Capitalize beginning of quote unless quote is (3.) blended into the sentence. Exs:  (1.)  She told me, “The color of truth is gray.” (2.)  Saint-Exupery said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.” (3.)  Lane described the melee as a “goat rodeo.”
22	Punctuation at end of in-text citations	“The quoted text occurs inside the quotes” (the in-text citation goes here, in parentheses). Notice that the period/punctuation is after the in-text citation.
		“If an in-text quote has unusual ending punctuation, like ! or ?, then, put it inside the quotation marks like this!” (put the in-text citation here). Notice the period after the in-text citation, ie., after the parentheses.	Much more on in-text citations 384-392 in MLA section of handbook Examine sample paper 321-332 See p.322
	Punctuation at end of block quotes	For block quotes, do not put cited text in quotations.  Put citation at end.  Strangely, the punctuation occurs before the citation.
23	When to cite a source	Cite a source anytime you use info from anywhere other than your own head.    Even if you paraphrase or summarize information, such as statistics, you must acknowledge the source of your information.  Even dictionary definitions mentioned in papers require in-text citations and a works cited page entry.
24	Articles and studies say nothing.  Only their authors say something!!!	When introducing information from an article, study, or essay, do not say:  The article says… Say The author states…
25	So-ing the reader or (committing Valley Talk)	Stop writing sentences such as It was soooooo pretty! If you are going to use so, there must be a consequence.  The correct sentence would be:  It was so pretty that I could not believe my eyes!	It’s not in the book.  It’s just something you gotta do.