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Avoiding Common Usage Errors
As you review your first draft for errors and problems, look for these things in your writing:
PASSIVE VOICE
Active constructions put the "doer” up front in a sentence; passive sentences bury the "doer.” Active sentences put the
"doer” of the action before the verb. Passive sentences put the object of the action before the verb and often don't even
bother to include the "doer.” Look at these sentences:
Active: "Robin closed the account.”
Passive: "The account was closed [by Robin].”
The passive sentence has a form of the verb "to be,” followed by a past participle ending in -en or -ed B in this case, "was
closed.” The "doer” in the passive sentence isn’t even necessary; a writer interested in hiding the identity of the person
responsible could just as easily leave out the words in brackets. We’d never know who closed the account; we’d only
know that the account "was closed.” Please note that the active sentence is also shorter B by one-third in this case. That
four-page memo could be three pages, or that 100-page staff study could be reduced to 75 pages, just by writing actively.
It’s easier to read, it takes responsibility for the action in a sentence, and it’s almost always shorter.
PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT ERRORS
Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns. Pronouns such as he, she, they, or it get their meaning from their
antecedent, or the noun they substitute for. As a rule, pronouns must be clear about which nouns they stand in for.
Unclear: "Jennifer told Barbara that she took her case file to the front office.” (Whose file? Jennifer’s or
Barbara’s?)
Better: "Jennifer took Barbara’s case file to the front office and told her about it later.”
Unclear: "The technician removed the disk drive from Rick’s computer and repaired it.” (What was repaired,
the computer or the disk drive?)
Better: "The technician removed the disk drive and repaired Rick’s computer.”
A pronoun must also be close enough to the antecedent so that its meaning is clear.
Unclear: "Colleen found a report in a file cabinet that her predecessor had worked on.” (Did her predecessor
work on the report or the file cabinet?)
Better: "In a file cabinet, Colleen found a report that her predecessor had worked on.”
As a rule, a pronoun must agree in case with the noun it substitutes for. Grammatically, case indicates the functional
relationship of a pronoun to the other words in a sentence. When a pronoun is used as a subject of a phrase, clause, or
sentence, it takes the subjective case; if it is used as an object, it takes the objective case. If it reflects possession or
ownership and modifies a noun, it takes the possessive case. The subjective case, for example, indicates the person or
thing acting:
Correct: "He took responsibility for the account.”
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The objective case indicates the thing acted upon:
Correct: "The account was given to him.”
The possessive case indicates the person or thing owning or possessing something:
Correct: "The account was his.”
Case errors usually involve the substitution of a pronoun in the wrong case. This sentence requires an objective case
pronoun, but incorrectly contains a subjective case pronoun:
Incorrect:
"The senior vice president gave the assignment to he and I.”
Correct: "The senior vice president gave the assignment to him and me.”
The same sort of error has been made with this sentence, which requires a possessive case pronoun, but has been
incorrectly written with an objective case pronoun instead:
Incorrect:
"The department applauded him landing the account.”
Correct: "The department applauded his landing the account.”
A pronoun must agree in number with the noun it substitutes for. If the antecedent is singular, it takes a singular pronoun;
if it’s plural, a plural pronoun will follow.
Incorrect:
"Would the person who left their briefcase on the desk please remove it?”
Correct: "Would the person who left his or her briefcase on the desk please remove it?”
Better: "Would whoever left this briefcase on the desk please remove it?”
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
Verbs must agree in number with their subjects. It’s usually easy to see that a plural subject takes a plural verb, for
instance.
Incorrect:
"Gail and Jonathon works in accounting.”
Correct: "Gail and Jonathon work in accounting.”
It is not often easy to see whether the subject is singular or plural if it is separated from the verb by a subordinate clause
or phrase:
Incorrect:
"The procedures found in the new employees’ manual is somewhat unclear.”
Correct: "The procedures found in the new employees’ manual are somewhat unclear.”
Remember, verbs should agree with their subjects in person, number, and gender. Find the subject of the sentence,
determine whether it is singular or plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter; and 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. If in doubt, consult
a grammar handbook.
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COMMON PUNCTUATION ERRORS
More writers have more trouble with commas than with any other punctuation mark. Less common, but just as confusing
can be trouble with semi-colons, apostrophes, dashes and quotation marks. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Use commas in a series or list: "Do you prefer economics, marketing, or management?”
2. Use commas to separate a series of phrases: "First he spoke to Dan, then to Megan, and then to the boss.”
3. Use commas to separate adjectives: "It was a dark, dismal day on Wall Street.”
4. Use commas with numbers, geographical names, and addresses: "More than 7,500,000 people live in the Chicago,
Illinois area.”
5. Use commas to separate introductory phrases: "In fact, there was very little money in the account. As a consequent,
he received an overdraft notice.”
6. Use semicolons to separate independent clauses: "Travel vouchers are frequently submitted without proper receipts;
this practice must stop.”
7. Use apostrophes to demonstrate possession: "John’s report was magnificent; the teams’ achievements are
impressive.”
8. Use apostrophes to contract two words into one: AI wouldn't say that he’s incorrect; he just can’t see my point of
view.”
9. Use an apostrophe to contract it is, but omit the apostrophe when making it possessive: "It’s difficult for me to tell
what’s wrong with its microprocessor.”
10. Put quotation marks around direct quotes from another source: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at
a typewriter and open a vein.” Red Smith.
11. Put single quote marks around a quote within a quote: "Steve Martin once said, >I think I did pretty well,
considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.’“
12. Use a colon to announce elements at the end of a sentence: The Business School offers four separate majors:
accountancy, finance, marketing, and management. Use it also to announce quotations or to precede examples and
illustrations, just as we've done here.
13. Put periods at the end of sentences. Use dashes B though not very often B to interrupt thought in a sentence. And
use exclamation points sparingly. Good grief!
14. As you type, use a single hyphen to join two words together that work as a team to modify another word or phrase:
"This report will be a three-day project.” Use two hyphens to represent a dash (--). The software in many word
processing programs will automatically convert two hyphens into a dash if you enter a space after the second hyphen
( B ).
15. Use parentheses ( ) to enclose supplementary or explanatory material in a sentence. Use brackets to add your
comments within a quotation ([ ]). Brackets, by the way, replace parentheses within parentheses.
16. Use ellipses periods (. . .) to indicate that you are omitting words from a sentence or paragraph. If they come at the
end of a sentence, add a fourth period to end the sentence.
17. Capitalize proper nouns, that is, the names-of particular people, places, or things, and not general types or groups of
things. Use capital letters to begin the first word of every sentence. Don’t use them for emphasis or as an
attention-getting device.
18. Don’t begin a sentence with Arabic numerals or figures. Instead, spell out numbers that are used to begin a sentence
or paragraph.
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WORDINESS
For the most part, you can say what you mean using fewer words. Select the proper words to begin with, don't repeat
yourself more often than necessary, and use compact phrases wherever possible. Rather than say, "In the near future,”
say "soon.” Instead of writing, "In the event that,” write "if.”
NOUN MODIFIERS
Long strings of nouns and their modifiers can clot up a sentence or paragraph and make it difficult for the reader to figure
out what's being talked about and what's being modified. What exactly does "Advanced Signal Processors Integrated
Logistics Support Management Team meeting” mean? Sometimes a preposition or two will help: "Meeting of the
Integrated Logistics Support Management Team for Advanced Signal Processors.” If you can break up some of those
long freight trains in your sentences, go ahead and do so. Your readers will appreciate it.
FORMAL LANGUAGE
Latin phrases and antiquated, 19th Century bureaucratic language won’t make your writing more official, more impressive
or authoritative, or any easier to read. Rather than say "It is the pleasure of the undersigned and hereby incumbent upon
those within this organization to present. . . ,” why not say "Here’s the information you asked for.”
MISPLACED MODIFIERS
Sometimes a word or phrase is placed so far away from what it refers to in a sentence that the reader may be confused.
"The assembly line workers were told that they had been laid off by the personnel director.” Actually, the personnel
director told them about the lay-off; someone else made the decision.
DANGLING MODIFIERS
Sometimes a word or word group will refer to something else that’s just not made clear in a sentence. "As a junior
executive, moving is often hard.” This one needs to be rewritten: "Moving is often hard for junior executives.”
Sometimes a word or phrase is simply out of place in a sentence: "Throw your daddy down the stairs his hat.” Sounds
like daddy is headed for a trip down the stairs. Instead, try "Throw your daddy’s hat down the stairs to him.”
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
A fragment really refers to an incomplete sentence. This one needs a subject and verb:
Incorrect:
"Five days spent on the beach relaxing.”
Correct: "Sharon spent five days relaxing on the beach.”
This one, on the other hand, has a misplaced period:
Incorrect:
"Travelers going to Australia in July should pack warm clothing. Because summer up here is
winter down there.”
Correct: "Travelers going to Australia in July should pack warm clothing, because summer up here is winter
down there.”
The second sentence in that example is actually a dependent clause that should be separated from the main clause with a
comma. Intentional fragments are written for effect. You shouldn’t do it often, but it can have a dramatic impact on your
writing. Consider the urgent, spoken tone of these: "Overruns. One after another. The history of this project is littered
with one cost overrun after another.”
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NEGATIVE TONE
Try, wherever possible, to write with a positive, upbeat and thoughtful tone. Rather than "I’ll never forget,” try "I’ll
always remember.” Instead of "Don’t write in the passive voice,” say "Write actively whenever you can.”
PARALLELISM
Keep things with things and actions with actions. Set up a rhythm that the reader can follow. Make a list of Ado’s” first
and a list of "don’ts” to follow. Keep nouns with nouns and verbs with verbs. "We'll have to accomplish half-a-dozen
things before five o'clock: collect . . . , arrange . . . , sort . . . , mark . . . , package . . . , and ship. . . .” If you’re dealing
with nouns, make the list parallel: "We’ll need special shipping materials to get this job done: boxes, tape, padding,
labels, and paper.”
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
We’ve already talked about writing actively, making your sentences compact and brief, and doing your best to keep
modifiers near their subjects, subjects near their verbs, and pronouns near their antecedents. We’ve mentioned a few
things about agreement and punctuation, as well. Here are a few more suggestions to improve your writing as you revise.
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Avoid quick shifts in person, number, verb tense, tone, voice, or discourse. Set a consistent pattern throughout
your writing that the reader can easily follow and stay with it.
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Make sure your phrases and clauses are properly coordinated and subordinated. Key transition words and phrases
can help: consequently, furthermore, moreover, on the other hand, beyond that. Conjunctions will help as well:
and, but, for, or, so, yet.
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Avoid double negatives: "We don’t have none in stock right now.” A single negative will do: "We don’t have
any . . . .” Or, "We have none in stock . . . .”
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Where possible, lead with verbs rather than nouns, especially when writing instructions for other people. Rather
than "The boxes in the warehouse must be labeled and stacked by Friday,” write "Label and stack the boxes in the
warehouse by Friday.”

Don’t bury the subject in a pronoun. Rather than say, "It is preferable for the auditor to see the original
documents,” say, "Auditors usually prefer to see the original documents.”
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Use a variety of sentence structures, types, and lengths. Don’t go to extremes to vary your writing, but if you
introduce a little variation in the way you express yourself, your readers will find it interesting and enjoyable to
read.