Common Mistakes/Common Mistakes 2

Academic English Structures - Common Mistakes

The following are examples from students essays. Re-write them correctly. The number in brackets shows the number of mistakes or problem areas.

1) Thompson describes that “Such companies are usually…………” (one)

Please write your answer here:[ANSWER]

2) It spent three months for the company to achieve it’s sales targets. (two) [ANSWER]

3) From the questionnaire we can know that the cellular phone presents many problems for elderly. (two) [ANSWER]

4) Most of people interviewed said they would buy inexpensive souvenirs from museums. (one) [ANSWER]

5) The people surveyed who were all Taiwanese gave a various range of answers. (two) (or three) [ANSWER]

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

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Hints and clues.

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1) Thompson describes that “Such companies are usually…………” (one)

1) "Describe" cannot be used with "that". What word can be used with "describe"? What alternatives are there to using "describe?" [ANSWER]

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2) It spent three months for the company to achieve it’s sales targets. (two)

2) Don't use "spent". What is needed is a word which means "the time necessary to do something". E.g. "It .............. a long time to learn a language".

Also

"it's" is wrongly punctuated. [ANSWER]

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3) From the questionnaire we can know that the cellular phone presents many problems for elderly. (two)

3) "know" is not a suitable verb here. It's what we call a static verb, describing a "state" rather than "something happening". We need a verb which suggests "to know for the first time", i.e., first you ......... then you "know".

Also

The "definite article" should be used with groups of people described in this way. [ANSWER]

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4) Most of people interviewed said they would buy inexpensive souvenirs from museums. (one)

4) "Most + noun" can be used when speaking in a general way. "Most + of + article + noun" is used when the group concerned is made more specific or defined. [ANSWER]

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5) The people surveyed who were all Taiwanese gave a various range of answers. (two) (or three)

5) The "who....." section is a "non-defining relative clause". It tells us more about "the people surveyed" and must be separated out from the rest of the sentence with punctuation, usually commas.

Also

"various range" is not a good collocation. The words aren't normally used together. [ANSWER]

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

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Answers:

1) Thompson describes that “Such companies are usually…..”

1) Thompson describes such companies as "usually....."

Or

1) Thompson comments that "Such companies are usually....."

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2) It spent three months for the company to achieve it’s sales targets.

2) It took three months for the company to achieve its sales targets.

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3) From the questionnaire we can know that the cellular phone presents many problems for elderly.

3) From the questionnaire we can see (or learn, discover, etc.) that the cellular phone presents many problems for the elderly.

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4) Most of people interviewed said they would buy inexpensive souvenirs from museums.

4) Most of the people interviewed said they would buy inexpensive souvenirs from museums.

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5) The people surveyed who were all Taiwanese gave a various range of answers.

5) The people surveyed, who were all Taiwanese, gave a wide range of answers.

Photo Album

Don't look down! (The verb is "look". What tense is it?)

Answer :

Did you say "present simple"? In fact it's a tense commonly used in speaking (though not in academic writing) called the imperative. It's used for giving commands or orders. Here are some more examples:

Positive:

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Sit down!

Stand up.

Look down.

Negative:

Don't stand up.

Don't sit down!

Don't look down.

Note also this plural form:

Let's stand up.

(Photo: Canada tower, Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

Do you get it?

If a tree falls in a forest and there's no-one there to hear it, does it still make a sound?

And how about this?

If a man speaks in a forest and there's no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?