SHAWNEE STATE UNIVERSITY

SSU Writing Center

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:: Errors in SSU Student Writing

Complete List of Errors Found in SSU Student Papers in Order of Frequency

1	Comma error
2	Pronoun error
3	Spelling error (including homophone)
4	Wrong word
5	Capitalization error
6	Missing word
7	Sentence boundary error
8	Unnecessary words
9	Quotation mark error
10	Unnecessary tense shift
11	Apostrophe error
12	Hyphen error
13	Subject-verb agreement
14	Idiomatic error
15	Period error (tie)
15	Subject and object agreement (tie)
17	Verb errors (wrong/missing inflected ending; wrong/missing auxiliary)
18	Modifier problem
19	Underlining/italicizing error
20	Faulty parallelism
21	Semicolon error
22	Colon error (tie)
22	Question mark error (tie)
24	Dash error
25	Double negative (tie)
25	Transposition error (tie)
27	Parentheses error (tie)
27	Other (disconnected e hanging in middle of sentence)

Note that these errors are ranked according to the total number of times they appeared in the entire sample of student writing. An alternate method of ranking would be to indicate what percentage of papers contained each type of error.

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