Common Errors

Vagueness (e.g. they)
 
The word ‘effective’ (A light bulb and a gun are both effective, but produce very different effects)
 
Use of the Passive Voice
 
Informal Register (Slang, abbreviations and expressions such as ‘kind of,’ ‘lots of’ and ‘a bit’)
 
Use of the Past Tense and mixed tenses (Commentary work must be in Present Perfect only)
 
Misuse of speech marks
 
Non-standard English (e.g. ‘both don’t,’ ‘he have,’ ‘themself’ and ‘gives out’)
 
Superfluous Words (e.g. ‘In the TV programme I watched, it showed…’)
 
Weak Diction (e.g. ‘shows’ ‘gives’)
 
Confused Words (violent/violence, instant/instance, fear/afraid, society/the society, different/various)
 
Phrasal Verbs (Just like = similarly, on the other hand = conversely, break apart = fragments)