Grammar Pitfalls Vocabulary

a modifier that doesn't logically attach to anything in the sentence

“Walking to school, the sun shone brightly. (The sun wasn't walking.)”

a modifier too far from the word it modifies

“She almost drove her car into every mailbox. (She didn't almost—she almost hit them.)”

placing an adverb between 'to' and the verb

“To boldly go where no one has gone before. Once forbidden, now often acceptable.”

joining independent clauses with only a comma

“He ran fast, he still lost. (Use semicolon, period, or conjunction.)”

joining independent clauses with no punctuation

“He ran fast he still lost. (Missing punctuation between clauses.)”

unclear antecedent for a pronoun

“John told Mike he was wrong. (Who was wrong—John or Mike?)”

mismatch between subject and verb number

“The list of items are long. (Should be 'is'—list is singular.)”

breaking parallelism in a series

“She likes hiking, to swim, and runs. (Should be: hiking, swimming, and running.)”