Common Writing Errors
Does your Hawk's Eye Report contain:- a sentence fragment?
- a comma splice? This drives Ms. T wild!!!!
- a run-on sentence?
- subject/verb agreement error?
- shift in verb tense?
If so, FIX it!
Acronyms
An acronym is a word formed from the first letters of a word in a set phrase. ALWAYS use the full phrase first. Then use the acronym.
- After Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was responsible for helping the city of New Orleans rebuild.
Capitalization
McGehee girls are notorious for capitalizing random words in their writing and then neglecting to capitalize the words that really need to be capitalized. Check your writing NOW. Use Writer's Inc. as a reference.
- Days of the Week
- Months
- Events in history: the Iraq War, the War on Terror
- Political parties: the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Tea Party
- Official documents: the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence
- Official titles: Senator Mary Landrieu, President Barak Obama
- Cities, States, Countries
- Races, nationalities, languages, and religions: African American, Hispanic, Latino
Other Things to Keep in Mind
- Supreme Court cases: Roe v. Wade (1973)--always italicize the title of the case, use v. and not vs. and include the date.
- Presidents, Senators, and other public officials: even though our culture uses the term Obama or Vitter to refer to our elected representatives, please include the official title of the people elected to serve us: President Obama, Senator Vitter.
