5 Most Common, Novel-Infiltrating Grammar Mistakes

The “Now What?” Months are here! In 2014, we’ll be bringing you advice from authors who published their NaNo-novels, editors, agents, and more to help you polish November’s first draft until it gleams. Today, Allison VanNest, from Grammarly, highlights some common grammar mistakes:

For many writers, each November is a new chance to write a complete novel—at least 50,000 words in 30 days—during National Novel Writing Month. In 2013, Grammarly joined the fray with GrammoWriMo, a group novel project. Together, nearly 300 participants wrote more than 130,000 words.

As you know by now, the breakneck nature of NaNoWriMo leaves very little time for editing. To reach the goal, every writer needs to put at least 1,667 words on the page every day. The resulting rough draft is, in many cases, really rough.

When Grammarly crunched the GrammoWriMo group novel in our automated proofreading program, we discovered a ton of comma confusion and grammar goofs. Here are our top five mistakes (and how you can avoid them):

Comma misuse. The comma is the most commonly used (and misused) punctuation mark. It is used to link items in a series, to complete a subordinate clause at the start of a sentence, to set off parenthetical information, and, when paired with a coordinating conjunction, to create a compound sentence. The Purdue Online Writing Lab has a complete rundown on the dos and don’ts of comma usage.

Even the most savvy writers sometimes slip up with commas. One of the most common errors is adding a comma before a subordinate clause as in the example below:

Wrong: Mary wanted to go to Applebee’s for happy hour, even though her sworn enemy was working there that night.

Right: Mary wanted to go to Applebee’s for happy hour even though her sworn enemy was working there that night.

Missing commas. Many writers, fearful of using too many commas, end up leaving out necessary punctuation. Non-essential information—meaning information that clarifies but does not change the meaning of a sentence—should be set off using a pair of commas.

Wrong: Mary wanted to go to Applebee’s for happy hour, even though her arch nemesis Rhonda was working there that night.

Right: Mary wanted to go to Applebee’s for happy hour even though her arch nemesis, Rhonda, was working there that night.

In the example above, Mary can have only one arch nemesis, so her name gets placed inside commas.

Run-on sentences. Run-ons aren’t necessarily long sentences; grammatically correct sentences can contain multiple clauses. When more than one complete thought gets mashed together without the correct punctuation, however, a run-on sentence is born.

The easiest fix is usually to separate the pieces into two or more sentences. More advanced fixes might involve the use of semicolons or subordinating conjunctions.

Wrong: Mary hated Rhonda she stole her high school sweetheart.

Right: Mary hated Rhonda. She stole her high school sweetheart.

or

Mary hated Rhonda; she stole her high school sweetheart.

or

Mary hated Rhonda, for she stole her high school sweetheart.

or

Mary hated Rhonda because she stole her high school sweetheart.

Comma splice. A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (i.e., complete thoughts) are joined by a comma.

A type of run-on sentence, a comma splice can be fixed by chopping the two complete thoughts into their own sentences, adding a coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’ or ‘but’, or replacing the comma with a semicolon.

Definite vs. Indefinite article use. Articles are used to indicate whether you’re talking about a specific noun, such as “the dog”, or a general noun, such as “a dog”.

When you’re talking about a specific dog, you use the definite article “the”. When you’re talking about a general, non-specific dog, you use the indefinite article “a” or “an”.

Nouns beginning with a vowel sound get the article “an”, while nouns beginning with a consonant sound get the article “a”.

Did you finish NaNoWriMo this year? What are your plans for editing your novel? Let us know in the comments!

A self-proclaimed word nerd, Allison VanNest works with Grammarly to help perfect written English. Connect with Allie, the Grammarly team, and its community on Facebook.

Top photo by Flickr user chrisinplymouth.