Writing
is an art form and it takes a great deal of practice to get it right.
And there are a myriad of mistakes that you can commit. And these
mistakes can have dire repercussions. Especially if you are writing a
book. Committing writing mistakes can mean the difference between
failure and success. It can mean the difference whether your book sells
or not. Which is why it is important to be able to spot them. Here are
some great book writing tips on how to avoid common writing mistakes.
- Misspelled words
This is one of the most common mistakes out there. It is also one of the
most prevalent when writing a novel and even seasoned writers
are prone to committing this mistake. This is mostly done out of
carelessness rather than lack of skill and can be avoided very easily by
double checking your work. Using a writing software makes it even
easier because most writing software have built in spelling checks. But
don’t rely on spell checks too much because spell checkers cannot
identify certain misspellings and are prone to miss homonyms, compound
words incorrectly spelled as separate words and pronouns. It is always a
good idea to proofread your work afterwards.
- Wrong use of words
Writers can misuse words in a variety of ways.
Sometimes writers can mistakenly use a word that sounds like the word
that he or she is using. Although the words sound the same, their
definitions are very different. They can also be wrong prepositions or
another type of wrong word in an idiom. You can avoid this easily by
double checking your work every few paragraphs. Remember that attention
to detail is key when it comes to effective writing.
- Unnecessary use of commas
Commas are the most frequently used of punctuation marks. And commas
are usually used to separate words and create a brief pause. Commas are
very useful and necessary writing tools but they can sometimes be used unnecessarily when creating a sentence.
- Awkward sentence construction
Awkward sentence construction usually occurs when two different
sentence constructions are put together and ends up sounding very clunky
and awkward. To avoid committing these mistakes you should remember to
maintain a grammatical pattern within the sentence. Always remember that
each of the sentences must have a subject and a verb. The overall
sentence must also make sense.
- Missing capitalization
Due to how obviously easy it is spot, proper capitalization is often
overlooked by some writers. Always remember to capitalize the first
words in a sentence,
proper nouns and proper adjectives and important words in titles. You should also capitalize words that indicate directions and family relationships.
- Misuse of Apostrophes
As a writer you should always remember that apostrophes are used to
make a noun possessive. You can use an apostrophe or an apostrophe
alone. Remember that you should not use an apostrophe in the possessive
pronouns ours, yours and hers. You can avoid this mistake by taking the
time to double check your work.
- Misuse of hyphens
Always remember that hyphens are only used for special occasions
during the writing process. Its main purpose is to glue words together.
They are used to show the reader that two or more elements in a sentence
are linked. It is a
rule though that a compound adjective requires a hyphen when it modifies a preceding noun.
And that a two-word verb should not be hyphenated. It is also
understood that hyphens must never be used interchangeably with dashes
and there should not be spaces around hyphens.
- Fragmented sentences
Sentence fragments can be defined as a group of words that are too
clumped up to be a coherent sentence. A true sentence consists of a
group of words that contain both a subject and a verb and can stand on
its own. Sentence Fragments on the other hand lacks all of these
requirements and although they may look like a true sentence. You will
find that they do not form a complete thought.
You can fix a sentence fragment in various ways.
- Attach the fragment to a nearby complete sentence
- Revising the fragment by adding the missing words.
- Rewrite the fragment or the entire sentence
All in all when it comes
efficient and correct writing you will have to be ever vigilant. Always remember that there is a fine margin between a reader liking your book or dismissing it because of writing mistakes.
