{"id":12594,"date":"2016-04-06T21:40:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T21:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdcontent.com\/blog\/?p=12594"},"modified":"2024-04-04T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T12:09:20","slug":"the-top-5-grammar-mistakes-that-content-writers-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/blog\/writers-hub\/the-top-5-grammar-mistakes-that-content-writers-make\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 5 Grammar Mistakes That Content Writers Make"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve all come across it at some point or another: content that has obviously been written by someone who failed English class or who isn&#8217;t a native English speaker.<\/p>\n<p>As many internet users will attest, <strong>nothing turns a good website bad like limited readability and poor grammar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the top 5 grammar mistakes that content writers make.<\/p>\n<h3>1. Changes in Tense<\/h3>\n<p>Whatever tense you start writing with should be the tense you keep throughout the entire piece. It&#8217;s sometimes necessary to change tense in order to show changes in time, but <a href=\"http:\/\/grammar.about.com\/od\/tz\/g\/Tense-Shift.htm\">unnecessary shifts<\/a> are just confusing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INCORRECT:<\/strong> When I get up in the morning, I always drank coffee before work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECT:<\/strong> When I get up in the morning, I always drink coffee before work.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Subject &amp; Verb Agreement<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s important to remember that the <a href=\"\/resources\/writer\/university\/grammar\/subject-verb-agreement\/\">verb of a sentence<\/a> MUST always agree with the subject.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you have a subject that is plural, then you must have a verb that is plural. Likewise, for singular and first person subjects, the verbs must be singular and first person.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INCORRECT:<\/strong> I cannot stand to walk barefoot and have dirt stuck to my feet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECT:<\/strong> I cannot stand to walk barefoot and have dirt sticking to my feet.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Dangling Modifiers<\/h3>\n<p><strong>A modifier is a phrase, word or clause that describes something else<\/strong>. When the <a href=\"\/resources\/writer\/university\/grammar\/dangling-modifiers-wheres-the-subject\/\">subject being modified<\/a> is missing from the sentence, it can often lead the sentence to have an unintended meaning.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, the modifier is misplaced. This happens when the subject and modifier are not together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INCORRECT:<\/strong> \u201cThe girl was consoled by the nurse who had just taken an overdose of sleeping pills.\u201d \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/writing.wisc.edu\/handbook\/grammarpunct\/commonerrors\/\">The Writing Center<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECT:<\/strong> The girl who had just taken an overdose of sleeping pills was consoled by the nurse.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Possessives Mistakes<\/h3>\n<p>We typically use an apostrophe or apostrophe+s in order to show <a href=\"\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/apostrophes\/\">possession<\/a>, however, misused apostrophes are a frequent mistake that content writers make. The point of possessives is to illustrate ownership, and the rules are actually pretty simple.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Plural Noun<\/strong> = Add Apostrophe After \u201cs\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Singular Noun Ending in S<\/strong> = Add Apostrophe After \u201cs\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Singular Noun<\/strong> = Add Apostrophe+s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>INCORRECT:<\/strong> \u201cEating an apple a day will keep the doctor away\u201d is nothing but an old wive\u2019s tale.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECT:<\/strong> \u201cEating an apple a day will keep the doctor away\u201d is nothing but an old wives\u2019 tale.<\/p>\n<h3>5. Passive Voice<\/h3>\n<p>The absolute worst, and most common, grammar mistake made by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/\">content writers<\/a> is writing in a \u2018<a href=\"\/resources\/writer\/university\/style\/active-voice\/\">passive voice<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In the English language, the majority of sentences are active i.e. there is a subject doing the action.<\/p>\n<p>However, a passive sentence is where a subject has an action done it to. <strong>Passive sentences usually occur when the object is at the beginning, instead of the end<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INCORRECT:<\/strong> The oven should be cleaned every month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORRECT:<\/strong> You should clean the oven every month.<\/p>\n<h2>Avoid These Common Grammar Mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>As a freelance writer, these top 5 grammar mistakes are enough to turn any client away from your work.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how great your grammar, style and word usage skills are, <strong>it never hurts for a content writer to review the rules of grammar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re ready for a review or have a few things that you\u2019re interested in looking up, head on over to the <a href=\"\/resources\/writer\/university\/\">Crowd Content University<\/a> and look around.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d prefer to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\">hire a professional content writer for your website<\/a>, be sure to get in touch with us.<\/p>\n<p>What are some common mistakes you see? Let me know in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve all come across it at some point or another: content that has obviously been written by someone who failed English class or who isn&#8217;t a native English speaker. As many internet users will attest, nothing turns a good website bad like limited readability and poor grammar. Here are the top 5 grammar mistakes that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":12600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Top 5 Grammar Mistakes of Content Writers - Content Creation Advice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out what big grammar mistakes that content writers are most guilty of and how to fix them. From punctuation to usage, we have it covered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/blog\/writers-hub\/the-top-5-grammar-mistakes-that-content-writers-make\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Top 5 Grammar Mistakes of Content Writers - Content Creation Advice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Find out what big grammar mistakes that content writers are most guilty of and how to fix them. 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