Do you have Problem Writing in English as a Foreign Language?
I hope you have a great interest in English writing. You also have to avoid these common mistakes. There are five common errors we usually commit while writing in English as a Foreign Language :
- You should never use contractions. Contractions are shortened forms of two individual words separated by an apostrophe. Words like "don’t" or "won’t" or "I’d" or "I’ll" should ALWAYS be spelled completely in a formal document. Therefore, always fully spell out any contractions such as "do not" or "will not" or "I would" or "I will" in your formal essays.
- You should avoid using "passive voice" which are verbs preceded by words such as "have, had…" They indicate an ongoing action, but are not as concise and do not denote as much intent as when you use "active voice." For instance, instead of saying "I have improved my grades…" you can say, "I improved my grades…" By using "active voice" then it shows intent and active participation that appears more confident rather than passive action that simply happened on its own. In formal business and law documents written in English, "passive voice" is always eliminated as much as possible.
- Sometimes, students make mistakes in parallel sentence structure. Parallel sentence structure refers to using the same verb tense if you state several related sentences or several related issues within the same sentence. For example, it would be incorrect to write "I moved into my house yesterday and the floor is dirty." This is because the word "moved" refers to something that happened in the past, so you must also match that tense to any other verb in the same sentence. To correct this sentence, you must change the entire sentence to past tense because your action happened yesterday. A corrected version would be "I moved into my house yesterday and the floor was dirty."
- Word Confusions (homophones: words that sound the same when spoken but are written differently and have different meanings): Sometimes you'll find words whose spelling are so similar that you would get their meaning confused. For example: their and there, weather and whether, see and sea.
- Another common problem is noun/verb agreement. That is actually a simple issue but many people who are not careful often do not realize their mistakes. A noun that refers to one item/person must have a verb that is singular. A noun that refers to several items/persons must have a verb that is plural. Therefore it would be incorrect to write "Stray dogs and cats is a problem in my neighborhood." Since the words "dog and cat" are plural referring to more than one item, then your verb must also be plural. A corrected version would be "Stray dogs and cats are a problem in my neighborhood."
You must also use your Dictionary, because it would be very useful for you because it can be used in finding meanings, increasing your vocabulary power, writing essays, framing sentences, and boosting your confidence!