Common+Writing+Errors 

**//Apostrophes!!//** Use these for:
 * 1) Showing ownership (remember to ask "Who owns the x?" Your answer goes after whatever you answered to that question)
 * 2) Showing that letters are missing.

**//Tense://** Watch this doesn't change. eg: Tom busies himself with tidying his room, then opened up the window. "busies" is in the present tense (happening now). "opened" is in the past tense.

**//Loooooooooong sentences://** Any more than 3 lines long and alarm bells should be going off in your head!

**//Missuse of commas://** To keep it simple use these for:
 * 1) Listing things.
 * 2) Adding information. Eg: Piggy was a mummie's boy, even though he lived with is aunties, and this made him vulnerable to bullying. Note that the part between the commas should be able to be taken out and the sentence still make sense. If this isn't possible, then you've misused the comma.
 * 3) Placing before or after a quotation (remember to place them before the quotation marks).
 * 4) To show a pause in a sentence (but stick to one pause.

**//Lack of SPECIFIC examples://** Do you remember writing about static images in year 11? If the marker couldn't visualise what you were talking about, then you hadn't explained the specifics of that image. Saying "There is blue on some of the letters" doesn't help you imagine what that static image looks like does it? Same thing with essays about your texts. Saying "Piggy is an intelligent character" is NOT specific enough. Giving an example of what he did that showed that intelligence (eg: thinking up the idea of building huts for shelters and insisting the boys all work together to build them).

**//Incomplete sentences://** Every sentence has to make sense on its own. If a sentence has to rely on one before or after it to make sense then it is not complete. Eg: Because it's hot. (What's hot??)