My Three Common Mistakes

After writing two essays for this module, I found out that there are some grammar mistakes which are commonly found in my essays.

The first common mistake that I made is the wrong use of articles. Usually, articles are used with common nouns or noun phrases. Articles such as "a" or "an" are used when the noun is singular, countable and nonspecific, for example, " an apple" or " a door". Articles like "the" is used when the noun is specified or known between the writer and reader. Articles are not used at all when the noun is general or uncountable, such as "water" or "oil". An example of my mistake is "... if that person has the passion and interest ...". The article "the" should be deleted and not used at all as the word "passion" is uncountable and general. Hence, the correct version should be "... if that person has passion and interest ...".

Another common mistake made would be the use of punctuations, specifically commas. Commas can be divided into four main categories: introducers, coordinators, inserters and tags. An introduer comma follows any elements that comes in front of the first independent clause in a sentence. An example is " Therefore, I decided to quit." Coordinator commas is used with a coordinating conjunction, for example, "She was tired, so she went home early." An inserter comma is used before and after any element that is inserted into the middle of an independent clause. An example would be "My brother, thus, decided to quit." A tag comma is used when adding certain elementsvto the end of a sentence, such as, "It is not right, is it?" My mistake in using the comma is "... the mindsets of people such as being..." The correct version should be " ...the mindsets of people, such as being..."

The third mistake that I made is the subject verb agreement. The verb used must agree with the subject in the same sentence. The "-s" or "-es" is used on a present simple tense verb with a third person singular, while for first or second person singular, or third person plural, there is no "s" or "es". An example of my mistake is "... the gravity measurement, which cost less..." The correct version should be "... the gravity measurement, which costs less..." since gravity measurement is third person singular and a "s" should be added to the verb.