ENGLISH COMPETENCY EXAMS
AT COLLEGE OF THE REDWOODS

SOME COMMON ERRORS TO AVOID

STRUCTURAL MISTAKES IN WRITING THE ESSAY FOR 150 STUDENTS:

1) As a result of spending too much time developing an introduction or body paragraphs, you either don't finish in time, or you don't leave yourself enough time to carefully reread and edit your work. A simple solution to this is to keep an eye on the clock or wear a watch.

2) You start arguing one position, but you change your mind. Remember, if you're in English 150, you will have a week to read over the two prompts. At this point, you should be clear both about the argument you are developing, as well as the support you're going to use to back up that argument. It's okay to understand what the opposition might say in argument, but you don't want to lose track of your overall thesis.

3) You simply restate what you read in the essay without making it clear in your thesis what your own argument is. Remember, this essay should be an argumentative response to a prompt. We want to know what you think about what the writer has said.

4) You simply agree or disagree with the writer, only using his or her text to show what the writer is saying. Remember, as with #3, we want to know what you think about what the writer has said--we don't simply want to read again what we're already familiar with.

STRUCTURAL MISTAKES IN WRITING THE ESSAY FOR 350 STUDENTS:

1) You mismanage your time. Typically, students spend too much time writing the introductory paragraph and one of the body paragraphs. The result is an under-developed second body paragraph, poor conclusion, and inadequate editing of sentence skills.

2) Another variation of mismanaging time is that in rushing to get started, you write a poor thesis that you cannot support. Invariably, a poor thesis leads to failing the exam.

3) You write a clear thesis and plan of development, but your body paragraphs detour from the plan of development. They address other subjects, and it is unclear how they support the thesis.

4) Your support in the body paragraphs is generic and unconvincing. Because you fear that you will bore your reader with details, you, in fact, lose your reader and fail to support the thesis because of your lack of specific support.

5) In writing the topic sentences of the body paragraphs, you forget to make clear how those topic sentences relate to the thesis. Your body paragraphs then appear to operate in isolation rather than function as an integral part of the essay.

GRAMMAR AND USAGE:

The Competency Examinations for English 150 and English 350 are not primarily concerned with grammar, spelling, and usage; in fact, the rubrics for both courses put mechanics well below the most important skills. However, an excessive number of errors in these areas can lower an essay's score enough to mean the difference between a pass and a fail. The following list, while by no means complete, contains a few of the most common errors found in competency exams. For a fuller treatment of these and other errors, please consult the Bedford Handbook. If you are a 150 student, refer to the Complete Sentence Workout Book. If you are a 350 student, consult the English Skills book. Otherwise, look at one of the many handbooks of English--there are several available in the Writing Center, the Learning Assistance Center, and the Light Center. Also, you might check out the English Department's web resources at: http://www.redwoods.edu/Main/dept/english/writing,grammarandstudyskills.htm

SENTENCE LEVEL ERRORS

The most serious errors in basic sentence construction are the sentence fragment, the run- on sentence, and the comma splice. The most common errors are typically spelling, pronoun agreement, and comma errors.

1) A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. Although sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, they should usually be avoided. There are several causes of sentence fragments--lack of a subject, lack of a proper verb, presence of a subordinating conjunction, and so on:

Example: And for several hours worked on the car. (Lacks subject.)

Example: A cool type of music popular in the 1960s. (Lacks verb.)

Example: Although he wouldn't do it. (Dependent clause fragment.)

2) A run-on sentence consists of two independent clauses (or complete sentences) joined together and punctuated as one sentence:

Example: I thought the paper was due tomorrow nobody told me it was due today.
(Period or semicolon required after "tomorrow.")

3) A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are separated by only a comma (which isn't enough to hold them together):

Example: I thought the paper was due tomorrow, nobody told me it was due
today. (Period or semicolon required after "tomorrow.")

4) Agreement errors occur when subject and verb do not agree or when noun and pronoun do not agree.

Example: Karen or Sandy go to the beach often. (The verb shoud be "goes" to agree with "Sandy.")

Example: Every student should know their rights. (The possesive pronoun should be "his or her" to agree with the singular subject "student.")

4) Faulty parallelism occurs when grammatical elements in a series do not balance.

Example: Jenny was good at working on computers, electronic installation, and rebuilding old cars. (In this case, there are verbs "working" and "rebuilding," so you need a verb in front of the phrase "electronic installation.")

5) Possessives

A) To form a singular possessive, use an appostrope and an "S":

Bob's car

B) To form a singular possessive with a word ending in "S", use an appostrope and an "S":

Sis's car

C) To form a plural possessive with a word ending in "S", use an appostrophe, but no "S"

Mr. and Mrs. Weiss' car

6) Confusing Pairs: often times in English there are words that similar in usage and spelling, such as "affect" and "effect." Here is an excellent website for learning some of the more notorious confusing pairs. http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/notorious.htm

7) Commonly Misspelled Words

no one (often misspelled as "noone")
a lot (often misspelled as "alot")
existence (often misspelled as "existance")
leisure (often misspelled as "liesure")
receive (often misspelled as "recieve")
forty (often misspelled as "fourty")
separate (often misspelled as "seperate")
friend (often misspelled as "freind")
independent (often misspelled as "independant")
writing (often misspelled as "writting")
occurence (often misspelled as "occurance")