The Mistakes Everyone Makes
Your essay comes back. There's a red circle round something near the bottom, maybe a squiggly line, maybe just "??" scrawled in the margin — and that's it. No explanation. Just a mark, and that sinking little feeling that you got something wrong and you're not even sure what. You read the sentence again. It looks completely fine to you. So now you're annoyed and confused.
Here's the thing worth knowing before you spiral: almost every mistake in writing is a common one. It isn't rare, it isn't proof you're bad at English, and it definitely isn't just you. It has a name, a reason it keeps happening, and a quick fix — and once you've actually met it, you start spotting it coming a mile off. This page is the shortcut to the ones that trip up absolutely everyone.
What this is
Think of it as a walk-in clinic for your writing. You turn up with a symptom — "my tenses go weird halfway through", "I never know if it's its or it's", "my teacher keeps writing run-on and I don't know what she means" — and you leave with the fix. You don't have to read the whole pillar or sit through a lesson. You find the thing that's actually bugging you, sort it, and get on with your day.
Why it's worth five minutes
Most of these aren't really about being bad at English. They're the same small handful of traps, and they catch everyone — including adults who write for a living, and the people marking your work. That's genuinely good news, because it makes them some of the fastest wins going. Learn one fix properly and a mark that used to cost you every single time just… stops happening. You feel that twice over: once in your grades, and once in that quiet confidence when you hit "hand in" and don't sit there second-guessing it.
The one thing to remember
A red mark is a clue, not a telling-off. All it's doing is pointing at something that has a name. Name it, fix it, move on — that's the entire game. Nobody gets everything right first time; the people who look like they do are just faster at spotting their own slips and quietly fixing them before anyone else notices. That's not a talent you're born with — it's a skill, and it starts right here on this page.
Where to start — the usual suspects
These are the ones that walk in most often. Find yours and go straight to it.
- Why do my tenses keep slipping? — you begin a story in the past (she walked in…) and drift into the present (…and now she says) without noticing. The single most common slip there is, and one of the easiest to catch once someone shows you.
- Fragments, run-ons & comma splices — a "sentence" that stops before it's finished, or one that gallops on for three lines and never stops for breath. Three different problems, three quick fixes, all on one page.
- Its/it's, their/there, your/you're — the mix-ups everyone makes, and the ones spellcheck sails straight past because every version is a real word. One quick test each and they're sorted for life.
- Affect or effect? Accept or except? — word-pairs that look almost identical and mean completely different things (the weather affects my mood; the effect was huge). Here's how to stop grabbing the wrong one under exam pressure.
- Fewer or less? Some, any, much, many — "10 items or less" is printed on every supermarket till, and it's technically wrong. When fewer wins, when less actually does, and why it's a satisfying one to get right.
- The grammar "rules" that aren't real — "never start a sentence with And", "never split an infinitive", "never end on a preposition". Some of the rules you've been told off for were never actually rules. Stop worrying about the fake ones.
Where the full story lives
Every fix here is the quick version — enough to stop the bleeding. If the same mistake keeps coming back, though — you patch your tenses and they slip again next week — that's your sign the whole topic is worth a proper read. Each article points you home to the pillar that teaches it properly. Come here for the fast fix; go there so it stops happening for good.
Your first step
Pick the one that sounds most like your red-pen moment and open it. Five minutes on the exact thing that keeps catching you out beats reading a whole grammar book you'll have forgotten by Tuesday.