Avoiding Common
Mistakes
It is important always to check your work to make sure you
have not made any careless mistakes.
Revising your punctuation
Always check that your punctuation is correct. Make sure
you have not used commas instead of full stops. If you are in
doubt, always use a full stop or a semicolon. If you do this,
you are less likely to make a mistake. Remember that each
sentence must contain at least one main clause. A main
clause consists of the subject and a finite verb. There may be
additional words but they are optional. Don’t forget to put a
question mark at the end of a question.
Making nouns and verbs agree
If a noun is singular, it must be followed by the singular form
of the verb. Remember that collective nouns are singular
although they refer to a number of people or objects. It is a
common mistake to use the plural form of the verb with
some collective nouns. ‘Government’ is asingularnoun so
the singular form of the verb should be used with it.
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