ERRORS THAT DRIVE JONES CRAZY 
and 
WILL HURT YOUR GRADE

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1. Misspelled words. If you don't know how to spell a word, look it up. Spell checkers are great, but they are no substitute for dictionaries because they cannot distinguish among words that sound the same, but are spelled differently. Beware The Spell Checker. 

2. Using the contraction it's (which always means it is) for the possessive its (which signifies belonging, just like his, hers, theirs, ours, yours; possessive pronouns do not contain apostrophes!) -- or vice versa.

3. Not using apostrophes in possessive nouns or putting them in the wrong place (possessive nouns must have apostrophes!):

Singular: author's Plural: authors' (when plural formed with addition of s or es)
Ms. Jones' or
Ms. Jones's		 the Joneses'
goose's
man's
child's		 geese's (when formed by vowel change)
men's
children's

4. Forming a plural by using an apostrophe (this is only done when making a plural of one-letter words -- Ex. There are four s's in Mississippi).

5. Using the second person -- you -- in an academic essay. Avoid this problem by never using you at all except in direct dialogue or quotation.

6. Errors in compound and complex sentence punctuation (see pages 244-64 in A Writer's Reference). General rule that applies to all:

Simple sentence: One independent clause.
Jack and Jill went up the hill.
Compound sentence: Two or more independent clauses connected with a coordinate conjunction (and, or nor, so, for, but, yet) and a comma or a semi-colon:

Independent, and independent.  
Jack went up the hill, and Jill followed him.

Independent; independent.
Jack went up the hill; Jill followed him.

Complex sentence: One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses:

Dependent, independent. 
(Introductory dependent clauses are followed by commas)
When Jack went up the hill, Jill followed him.

Independent dependent.
Jill followed Jack when he went up the hill.
Compound-complex sentence: Two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses -- follow above rules for punctuation.

When Jack went up the hill, Jill followed him, but when they reached the top, she pushed him down the hill.

7. Sentence fragments: all sentences must have a subject and a verb and must express a complete thought.

8. Incorrect punctuation of titles: Titles of poems, short stories, one-act plays, articles and essays are "quoted." Titles of books, plays, journals, newspapers are underlined or italicized.

9. Misspelling of proper names of authors, titles or characters.

10. Beginning an essay with a phrase such as "I have chosen to write about...." This is writer-based prose, not reader-based prose.

11. Single-spaced typing.

12. Not indenting paragraphs.

13. Skipping extra spaces between paragraphs.

EACH TIME ONE OF THESE ERRORS APPEARS IN 
THE FINAL DRAFT OF AN ESSAY, 
YOU WILL LOSE POINTS ON YOUR ESSAY.

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