Common Mistakes

In students writing
1. Writing a sentence too long.

Lastly, thank you to all because success the speech

today because you all hear the speech because it
was boring.

This sentence consists of 4 basic sentences, and all

the sentences are connected by the word 'because'.
It is better for the student to write shorter sentences
to minimize grammatical and structural mistakes.
The above sentence could be written

"Lastly, thank you to all. Today's speech is a success.

You all listened to it even though it was boring."
2. Using wrong connectors.

I think the maintaining good discipline at the school is very

important. However, it also can make (a student) become good
forever.

Connectors add information, introduce a similar idea, give an

opposite idea, and introduce the result. Using wrong connectors
will disrupt the flow between sentences. The word 'However' in
the second sentence above is wrongly used. It denotes that the
idea in the sentence is a complete opposite from the first,
although idea of making a student good is stressing the first idea
of maintaining good discipline. Thus, the appropriate connector
should be 'Moreover' as in this correction

"I think maintaining good discipline at the school is very

important. Moreover, it can also make a student to become a
good person."
3. Confusion in placing the adjectives.

The problem discipline is the nail long, the hair long and
other.

Adjectives are words to describe a noun, and they are

always put before a noun they are describing. In the above
sentence, the adjectives are put after the nouns. The
students probably confused with Malay language which
put the adjectives after the nouns - nail long (kuku
panjang), hair long (rambut panjang). Even 'problem
discipline' (masalah disiplin) is a confusion. The sentence
should be correctly written as

"The (examples of) disciplinary problems are long nails

and long hair."
4. No finite verb in a complete sentence.

I the president of the Civics Club.

The golden rule is that in a complete sentence,

there should be a finite verb. There is no finite
verb in the above sentence. I (a pronoun), the
(an article), president (a noun), of (a
preposition), the (an article), Civics (an
adjective), Club (a noun). The correct sentence
is

"I am the president of the Civics Club."

5. Disagreement between the subjects and its
verbs.

We arrives at the market. I is very excited.

This is the most common mistakes of all. No matter

how many lessons stressed on this particular
grammatical problem, the students never get it
right. They are still confused where to put 's' and
where not to put 's'. Singular and plural are the
same to them. The obvious correction for the above
sentence is

"We arrive at the market. I am very excited."

Correct these mistakes!
1. Suddenly, there was a blackout. I was
shouted loudly.

2. My brother and I cant joined them

because it is not school break yet.

3. My family thank to the police.

Correct these mistakes!
1. Suddenly, there was a blackout. I shouted
loudly.

2. My brother and I couldnt join them

because it was not school break yet.

3. My family thanked the police.

Correct these mistakes!
4. We shocked when we saw two robbers in
my parents room.

5. I was thankful and I cannot forgot that

memory.

6. The police wanted me followed them to the

police station.
Correct these mistakes!
4. We were shocked when we saw two
robbers in my parents room.

5. I was thankful and I could not forget that

memory.

6. The police wanted me to follow them to

the police station.
Correct these mistakes!
7. She thought her mother was injured but
her mother was safety.

8. Mimi saw two thieves with a long hair.

9. I was walking in front my house while

waiting my parents back home.

10. I looked torchlight in the darked.

Correct these mistakes!
7. She thought her mother was injured but
her mother was safe.

8. Mimi saw two thieves with long hair.

9. I was walking in front of my house while

waiting for my parents to return home.

10. I searched for torchlight in the dark.