Common Writing Mistakes

    Below are some common grammatical and spelling mistakes that I see made repeatedly in PHI 300.  You have now been duly warned - make them at your own peril!  At the bottom is a brief discussion of proper citation techniques.

I. Apostrophes  - Apostrophes are used to create contractions, possessives and in some cases plurals.  Most problems that I see involve possessives.

Contractions -  examples: I am = I'm; you are = you're; she is = she's; it is = it's; do not = don't; she would = she'd; he would have = he would've; let us = let's; who is = who's; she will = she'll; they had = they'd; and so on.

Possessives - Generally, if a noun is singular, we form the possessive by adding an apostrophe and then an s.

Correct: The student's notebook is on the desk.

Plural nouns ending in s tend to cause confusion; here the apostrophe usually goes after the s.

Correct: He looked in all of the students' notebooks.

Sometimes singular nouns ending in s are handled in the same way: "Dr. Chambers's notebook" is quite clumsy, hence "Dr. Chambers' notebook" would be preferable.

A common mistake is to confuse its, the possessive form of it, with it's, the contraction of it is or it has.

Correct: It's the economy, stupid.
                   I returned the notebook to its rightful owner.
Incorrect: Its my way or the highway.
                   Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow.

For more guidance on forming possessives, see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/grammar/g_apost.html

II. Fragments

Any sentence without both a subject and a verb is a fragment.  e.g. "Some of the business students taking the class."  (Here we lack a verb.)  Often fragments contain both a subject and a verb, but do so as part of a dependent clause which cannot stand by itself.  e.g. "Since he was taking the class for the fourth time."  (If we take out the since, then we're okay.)

For further guidance on sentence fragments, see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/grammar/g_frag.html

III.  Who/That

Generally, we use who to refer to people; that to refer to things.

Correct: Bill Gates is a person who has done much to change American business.
Scantrons are forms that are used when taking multiple choice exams.

Relatedly, a company is a thing, so it falls on the that side of the who/that divide.

Correct: Walmart should treat its employees better.
Incorrect: Walmart should treat their employees better.

Admittedly, it's is easy to get confused about this when referring to a group composed of people.

Incorrect: Walmart's Board of Directors abrogated their responsibilities by not firing the CEO.

Correct: Walmart's Board of Directors abrogated its responsibility by not firing the CEO.
Also correct: The members of Walmart's Board of Directors abrogated their responsibilities by not firing the CEO. (The their is fine now since the subject of the sentence is now the members of the Board rather than the Board itself.)

IV. His/Her/Their

The general rule here is that a pronoun must agree in number (singular vs. plural) with that to which it refers.  The problem is that it has become common to use their as a way of being gender neutral, even in referring to a singular noun, which thus violates the rule.

For example: A doctor should do everything possible for their patients.

    Frankly, this makes me cringe, although some authorities regard this sort of usage as acceptable, largely because it has become so prevalent.  Admittedly, remaining gender neutral without such devices can quickly lead to awkwardness.

For example: A doctor should do everything possible for his or her patients, unless his or her conscience forbids it, in which case he or she should follow his or her own best judgment.

    The old resolution to this problem, of course, is to use male personal pronouns.  While not incorrect, this can sound sexist, particularly in some contexts.  Instead, some writers alternate male and female pronouns; others try to avoid using personal pronouns as much as possible.

For example: A doctor should do everything possible for a patient, unless forbidden by conscience, in which case the doctor's own best judgment should be followed.

    Where possible (and it usually is), this approach is often best.

V. Assorted Other Common Grammatical Failings

A poor but prevalent construction I see involves being that.

For example: Being that LaKeisha is likely to lose her job anyway, she should go ahead and tell the truth.

Since almost always is better.

For example: Since LaKeisha is likely to lose her job anyway, she should go ahead and tell the truth.

VI. Common Misspellings

sell or sale? Correct: If she could not sell her house, then Olivia would have to put her car up for sale.

conscious or conscience? Correct: After stealing the meatloaf, she became conscious of her troubled conscience.

lose or loose? Correct: Unless you lose the contract, there's no way the company will cut you loose.

there or their? Correct: There was no way to save their twinkies.

too or to or two? Correct: You too can learn to dance while holding two drinks.

affect or effect? Correct: The major effect of raising the drinking age is that this will affect how young people vote in the next election.
    (In general, ‘effect’ is the noun, and 'affect' is the verb. However, ‘effect’ can correctly be used as a verb, where it means to bring something about, especially a change. E.g. The new President effected many changes during her first year. But there are plenty of other good ways to say this, e.g. The new President made many changes…, so it’s not a bad idea to just skip ‘effect’ as a verb.)

moral or morale? Correct: By showing that she had no moral sense, the boss hurt the morale of her employees.

principle or principal? Correct: Agents who willfully ignore the interests of their principals violate an important moral principle. 

personal or personnel? Correct: Unfortunately, the human resources manager allowed a difficult personnel decision to become personal.

VII. Footnoting

    Whenever you draw on material that is not your own, whether or not you are quoting the source directly, the source(s) should be cited.  In the text, following the appropriate material, refer to the source parenthetically. If you are quoting directly, then quotation marks are also needed.

For example: Mrs. Fiorina was subsequently charged with insider trading. (Parsons, 2004)

Then, on your Works Cited page, you would give the full reference:

Parsons, W. (2004, September 24). HP CEO under SEC investigation. Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A8.

The full reference should give all of the relevant information - author, title, facts of publication, page number(s). Consistent with the learning goals stated by the CBED’s Undergraduate Programs Committee, you must use APA style formatting.

When referring to a newspaper, magazine, or journal in your text, the name of the source needs to be italicized or underlined.

For example: A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that Mrs. Fiorina is under investigation for insider trading.

Titles of journals, newspapers or books need to be underlined or italicized. (The APA Guide recommends italics.)