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Common Mistakes in Writing English

 
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livinginkorea



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Location: Korea, South of the border

PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:57 pm    Post subject: Common Mistakes in Writing English Reply with quote

I don't have so much experience in this field and I was wondering if anybody (with students who write a lot) can tell me the main mistakes that Koreans have in writing English. Any age or level is fine by me.

Mine (young learners) only do a small diary here and there or write in a text book some answers which are very simple and don't test their creativity. I see the grammar is a little mixed up, writing b and d, wrong use of tenses or no captial letters, all can be spotted easily but I'm sure there are a lot more specific ones from other learners.

I think it's a skill that I haven't really looked into much and I really should look into it more. I have been teaching for ages now and think that writing is the one skill that I have neglected most.

So any mistakes will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
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Corky



Joined: 06 Jan 2004

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It depends on their level. For most students, I'd say (in no particular order):

1. Spelling
2. Word order
3. Subject/verb agreement
4. pronoun agreement
5. Possessives
6. Fragmented Sentences
7. Comma Splices
8. Run-on sentences
9. Verb tense errors
10. Prepositions, and prepositional phrases
11. Capitalization
12. Punctuation (especially commas)
13. Format for formal conventions
14. Plagarism
15. Right word, but wrong form
16. Annoying use of coordinating conjunctions instead of introductory expressions. It's fine for informal writing, but it really stands out as sloppy when every sentence starts with "and" or "so".

Learn the editing symbols. When it comes time to fixing the writing, students should see what kind of mistake they are making and then fix them. This also saves you a lot of time.

Limit your corrections to five or six corrections per page unless you really have to mark more. It will save you time, and it will help motivate your students. Returning assignments full of corrections is not a recommended way to teach writing.

Emphasize the processes of writing: idea gathering, grouping of ideas, writing a draft, having someone read it and give input, revision, final copy, and then maybe if you have time, you could give them a chance to fix their mistakes and hand the final copy in a second time, especially if they are getting a failing grade.

That might not be ideal for diary writing, but if you get into essay-writing, you might want to think about it. Good luck
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Smee



Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hit the basics first. Teach them what writing should look like. Koreans of all ages and abilities struggle with formatting. You'll notice, even in newspapers and journal articles, arbitrary capitalizaton, punctuation, and spacing. They often forget to indent or to capitalize the first letter, and you'll see they incorrectly break up words at the end of a line.

Then you can move into what a paragraph should look like (topic sentence, supporting deals), and also teach them why it looks this way. Same formula works for essays.

Corky has some good points, but a lot of those aren't unique to writing. Of course, when you'r echecking their papers, you will spend a lot of time fixing grammatical errors. You'll have to decide what you want to work on during a specific period of time. If you're fixing all their mistakes, it'll take you forever, and you'll basically have to rewrite all their papers. It'll be overwhelming for you, overwhelming for them, and they won't learn a thing. Have them focus their attention on a specific thing each time. I suggest starting with the basics I mentioned above.
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faster



Joined: 03 Sep 2006

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

At all levels of EFL:

Articles
Adj/preposition and Verb/preposition agreement

The former seems particularly common in Korea, and the latter is inherently problematic in English, since so many combinations are possible, each has a different meaning, and there is little rhyme or reason involved (get ON the bus, but get IN the car? go TO your house but go home? look at, look up, look over, look in on, look up to, look for, look upon, look to, look after, look to. Able TO but capable OF...it goes on and on).
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