BHSU Writing Center

September 14, 2006

Identifying the 20 Most Common Errors in Student Writing

In their 1988 study, Robert Connor and Andrea Lunsford tallied the most common grammatical errors in 3,000 college essays from across the country.[1][1] The following is the list, by no means comprehensive, that they developed. Frequency of error may shift across time and geographic lines, but this list provides a general starting place for helping us identify where students need to improve their grammar, usage, and punctuation.

1. No comma after introductory element.
2. Vague pronoun reference
3. No comma in a compound sentence
4. Wrong word
5. No comma in a non-restrictive element
6. Wrong/missing inflected endings
7. Wrong or missing preposition
8. Comma splice
9. Possessive apostrophe error
10. Tense shift
11. Unnecessary shift in person
12. Sentence fragment
13. Wrong tense of verb form
14. Subject-verb agreement
15. Lack of comma in a series
16. Pronoun agreement error
17. Unnecessary comma with a restrictive element
18. Run-on or fused sentence
19. Dangling or misplaced modifier
20. Its/it’s error