4 grammar and punctuation mistakes you must avoid

You don’t want to submit an essay with glaring grammatical and punctuation errors, do you? Check out these 4 grammar rules that the editors of proofreading services want you to know. These tips will help you to elevate the quality of your essays easily.

Implement the following tips while writing your essay to nail the paper like a pro. Also, you may not have to hire an editor from any proofreading services online since you can edit the paper yourself.

1. Run-on sentence

A run-on sentence consists of two complete sentences separated by a comma. You need to use conjunction while writing a run-on sentence. You can have a word with online experts in editing and proofreading services to understand the concept of run-on sentences even better.

Example:

Wrong: Practise gets over at 5 pm, you need to pick up Clara in time.

Right: Practise gets over at 5 pm, so you need to pick up Clara in time.

You can also use a semi-colon or a period to complete the two sentences. You may take the time to implement the changes. Until then, opt for professional proofreading services and allow the professionals to make the changes for you.

2. Improper use of pronouns

Pronouns are wonderful little words that make writing and speaking easier. They replace nouns and other pronouns as well to make the writing simpler. Here is a terrible usage of pronoun that most students make:

Wrong: Everybody must bring their own tiffin.

Right: Everybody must bring his/her own tiffin.

• Their’ is a pronoun, but it is not appropriate for this sentence. ‘His/her’ would have been perfect since it agrees with ‘everybody.’

3. Subject-verb disagreements

Many students search for professional proofreading services on Google because they assume editing is a time-consuming process. Well, it isn’t, if you know the right techniques. Errors in the agreement are quite common among students. Keep this rule in mind, and you can take care of it easily.

A singular subject needs a singular verb. A plural subject requires a plural verb.

Check out these examples to understand better.

Example 1

Wrong: There are some wonderful books being published this week.

Right: There are some wonderful books being published this week.

Example 2

Wrong: Here are guidelines to work on grammar errors.

Right: Here are the guidelines to work on grammar errors.

4. Dangling modifiers

If you use Grammarly, then you must be familiar with this term. A Dangling modifier is a word that does not relate logically to the word it modifies. The sentence with a dangling modifier seems abrupt to your professors, and they will deduct marks without a second thought. Now you can eliminate these errors from your essay in no time. Here is an example of dangling modifiers:

Incorrect: Having finished the essay, the TV was turned on.

Correct: Having finished the essay, Jill turned on the TV.

• Who turned on the TV?’ The first sentence doesn’t indicate the doer of the action. But, the second sentence clearly states that ‘Jill’ has turned on the TV.

These are the most common mistakes students make in their English papers. Revise your paper thoroughly to keep a check on these flaws. Nothing can stop you from getting good marks in the paper when you work on these mistakes.

Kady Smith is an ex-professor of the University of Sydney. She has completed his post-graduation from Oxford and provides flawless proofreading services to the students. She is an enthusiastic blogger and writes multiple blogs on editing techniques.