Among the list of the twenty most common grammar errors, I would like to highlight three mistakes that I noticed in my writing before. They include putting a comma after an introductory element, spelling, and quotation errors (Excelsior Online Writing Lab, n.d.). As for the former, in middle school, I experienced difficulty deciding whether I should put a comma after an introductory phrase. As such, the fact that the necessity to put commas depends on the location of the introductory element in the sentence was quite confusing for me during that time. Thus, I would sometimes mistakenly put a comma before the introductory phrase at the end of the sentence or conversely would not put it when the sentence starts with this element.
As for the quotation error, I usually have problems with determining whether commas, exclamation or question marks, and semicolons should be within quotation marks. Moreover, I often confuse the usage of single and double quotation marks. Therefore, when dealing with quotes, I always double-check the grammar rules on the internet to avoid mistakes. Finally, my writing has always suffered from spelling errors, but, before, I would misspell the words, verbs, and proper names, nowadays, only the latter is the problem for me sometimes.
Without a doubt, clear writing is a skill that everyone should strive to develop. It can be argued that the better the person’s ability to express one’s thoughts on paper, the higher the chance of successful communication. This, in turn, leads to increased personal and collective productivity at work or in university. In this regard, such online resources as Excelsior College OWL, QuickandDirtyTips, The Purdue Writing Lab, and Writer’s Digest University, to name a few, can help to improve one’s writing skills significantly.
Reference
Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). 20 most common grammar errors. Web.