Here are some common mistakes made by inexperienced writers (and some professional ones, too)...
- They randomly change tenses. If you are telling a story that happened in the past, stay in the past. Don't shift to present tense and then shift back again - especially in the same paragraph.
- They put an apostrophe where it doesn't belong. Don't put one in '1970's' or any in 'they were in their '50's'. Use '1970s' and 'in their 50s'.
- They use that instead of which. 'The school which gave me a diploma.' It should be 'school that gave me'.
Read and critically re-read your work before sending it out. I know, I know - that's what editors are for...
Mistakes I commonly make...
- typing the word 'the' incorrectly. Thank you, spellcheck, for correcting my tehs.
- typing Manitoba and Saskathcewan incorrectly - See! there you go! It's always Mantioba in my documents. And Saskatchewan! Why couldn't I live somewhere with less letters - like Iowa or Ohio!
- placing single quotation marks on the wrong side of the punctuation. They belong inside the period, I've been told. Argh!
Oh, well. Pobody's nerfect!
See Pobody's Nerfect #2.
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