Some of the most common rhetorical, composition and communication errors
1. Style too low: inappropriate use of contractions [isn't; I'm; it's, etc.] in academic writing.
2. Style too low: slang, online lingo, vulgarities, street language.
3. Inappropriate use of universal 2nd person ("you") in academic writing when not addressing a specific audience.
4. Calling people “that” in academic writing [e.g. "The person that scratched my car..."]
5. English fluency / ESOL problems—have text checked over!
6. Verb tense formation problems—get a verb book!
7. Problems with formation and use of plurals, missing "s" for plurals.
8. Switching person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) unnecessarily within a paragraph.
9. Lack of or weak thesis statement or standpoint.
10. Excess use of passive verbs and constructions.
11. Concluding with “In conclusion,” or similar.
12. Failure to clearly establish your “right to write” on subject.
13. Absence of your own voice in writing, parroting others.
14. Works Cited problems, failure to cite sources in text, plagiarism.
15. Lack of coherence, babbling, unclear or nonsense writing, abrupt changes of standpoint.
16. Trying for too high a style, using “fancy” thesaurus words inappropriately.
17. Writing that fails the “Who cares?” test, boring, lacks visible purpose or interest.
18. No audience is defined or fails to serve intended audience, tries for an imaginary "universal audience."
19. Text includes fallacies or relies on unreliable, biased or unstated sources or arguments.
20. Verbal “fat,” excess wordiness, contains unnecessary repetition.
Some of the most common technical, grammar and punctuation errors
1. Missing commas, question marks, or other punctuation.
2. Vague or indecipherable pronoun references or antecedents.
3. Use of quotes without “framing” words or introduction.
4. Wrong word meanings / confused or incorrect word choice.
5. Missing quotation marks/ forgot to close quotation marks.
6. Spelling errors / careless typos / insufficient proofreading.
7. Wrong or missing prepositions.
8. Comma splices / “run-on” sentences.
9. Apostrophe problems with possessive nouns.
10. Unnecessary or abrupt shift in tense within paragraphs.
11. Unnecessary / incorrect shifts in pronoun person or number.
12. Sentence fragments, lack of verb in sentences.
13. Wrong tense or verb forms for meaning of sentences.
14. Lack of subject-verb agreement (singular / plural).
15. Missing commas or semicolons in series or lists.
16. Unnecessary apostrophes in simple plural nouns.
17. Unnecessary commas or semicolons.
18. Homophone problems, including Its/It's confusion
19. Misplaced or dangling modifiers, wrong word order in sentences.
20. Capitalization problems, unnecessary or missing capitalization..
