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Within Grammar, here are the most common issues I had in my story:
1. Missing Article .
2. Redundant preposition .
3. Confused preposition .
4. Object instead of a subject pronoun .
5. Adjective instead of an adverb .
6. Wrong article with set expression
7. Incorrect use of progressive tense
8. Incorrect noun form
The wrong article with a set expression, this means that a set expression requires a definite article. Articles are words like an, a, the, his, my, our, very and each, as discussed in “Missing Article”. Instead of it is missing, in this case, the wrong one is being used.
Here are some generic examples:
Incorrect: A trouble is that I forgot what to do.
Correct: The trouble is that I forgot what to do.
Incorrect: Be ready to go at the moment’s notice.
Correct: Be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
I found a few of these in my draft. Honestly, I saw them before the program pointed them out. Wrong articles make the sentence choppy or flow weirdly. Some like “Pass time” and “Pass the time” did slip by my proofread, so I included that one for that reason.
Incorrect: Get that done by end of the day and I’ll give you a bonus.
Correct: Get that done by the end of the day and I’ll give you a bonus.
Incorrect: We were limited to what we could do to pass time.
Correct: We were limited to what we could do to pass the time.
In my head, I wrote ‘making the list’ and read it again as fine but once it was pointed out that it’s not grammatically correct I saw the difference.
Incorrect: I sat there making the list.
Correct: I sat there making a list.
The same thing happened with the next one, once it was pointed out I saw the problem. It’s narration so it’s important that it reads properly.
Incorrect: I took the moment to let that sink in.
Correct: I took a moment to let that sink in.
NOne of these errors were in any dialogue where I would expect to find them. I did have a fair number of the wrong article with a set expression’s, most were typos and easily caught. Some did a good job of hiding from me.
My advice about the wrong article with a set expression:
It’s not the end of the world to make mistakes. I actually found one of these in a printed published book. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s our job to minimize the number of them by finding and fixing them.
-Sheryl
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