Common Mistakes/Common Mistakes 1

Academic English Structures - Common mistakes.

The following are examples from students’ essays. Re-write them correctly. The number in brackets indicates how many mistakes or problem areas there are.

1) Whether this is true, it still needs investigated. (two)

Please write your answer here:




2) Despite it is a small company, it has ambitious plans. (one)

3) Even so it cannot raise a big amount of capital, it may succeed. (two)

4) A few people registered for the trip, so it had to be cancelled. (one)

5) Identify the areas are needed to be improved. (one) (needs two changes)

Do you need some hints and clues (pieces of helpful information)? Then scroll down...................

Hints and clues:

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1) Whether this is true, it still needs investigated.

1) Use “whether or not”, or “whether………or not”.

Also

“need” is used with a gerund or a passive infinitive.

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2) Despite it is a small company, it has ambitious plans..

2) "Despite" Follows the same rules as "due to" or because of". These are used with "Despite the fact that + normal sentence structure, or "Despite" + gerund (the "-ing" form of the verb).

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3) Even so it cannot raise a big amount of capital, it may succeed. (two)

3) "Even so" is a backward reference". In other words it refers to something you have already said, not to something you are going to say (a forward reference). "Even though" or "although" are linking structures which can be forward referencing.

"Even if" is an emphatic (stronger) form of "if".

Also

"Big amount" is not a good collocation. (Words that go together)

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4) A few people registered for the trip, so it had to be cancelled.

4) "a few" means "some". It is a neutral word (neither positive nor negative); "few" means "not many" and has a negative sense.

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5) Identify the areas are needed to be improved.

5) "the areas" is an object, not a subject, so a new subject is necessary before the verb "need".

Also

"need" should be used in the active voice.

When you've rewritten the sentences, check further down the page to see if they're the same as the suggested answers..............

Answers:

1) Whether this is true, it still needs investigated.

1) Whether or not this is true, it still needs investigating.

Or

1) Whether this is true or not, it still needs to be investigated.

2) Despite it is a small company, it has ambitious plans.

2) Despite the fact that it is a small company, it has ambitious plans.

Or

2) Despite being a small company, it has ambitious plans.

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3) Even so it cannot raise a big amount of capital, it may succeed.

3) Even though (or “although” or possibly “even if”) it cannot raise a large amount of capital, it may succeed.

4) A few people registered for the trip, so it had to be cancelled.

4) Few people registered for the trip, so it had to be cancelled.

5) Identify the areas are needed to be improved.

5) Identify the areas which need to be improved.

Photo Album


The tops of these mountains are hidden by clouds. What do you think it means if we say about a person that "she always has her head in the clouds".

Answer:


It means she's a "dreamer" - an impractical person. A very practical and logical person may be said to be "down to earth". (Photo: Mt. Robson, British Columbia, Canada.)

Do you get it?

Vocabulary:

to dig - to make a hole in the ground using a digging tool (a spade)

to bury - to put a dead body under the ground

furiously - very angrily

I saw the neighbor's little girl Mary digging a hole in the garden, and I asked her what she was doing. "I'm burying my pet goldfish," she replied.

"Oh dear," I said. "I'm really sorry to hear your goldfish has died. Poor thing. That's very sad indeed." She carried on digging furiously, so I finally said, "I must say, that's a very big hole, just for a little goldfish."

"I need a big hole," she assured me, "because he's inside your stupid cat."