Most Writers Make Similar Mistakes

Whenever I'm editing a book for an author, I provide them with specific suggestions to avoid common writing mistakes. Now I'm beginning to see the same patterns among a wide variety of authors. I find myself repeatedly advising them to avoid using trite expressions and colloquialisms, to limit the word "very," to remove overuse of the word "that," and to avoid repetitive words and phrases.

Most authors use way too many linking verbs, and I let them them know their writing could be more powerful if they avoided using "that is," "it was," or "there is." Better options exist for beginning sentences. Notice I didn't say "there are better options for beginning sentences."

The majority of authors have a good understanding of the active vs. passive voice, have learned to make use of spellcheck (although they know they cannot solely rely on it),and use proper punctuation most of the time. An exception would be the use of both the semicolon and colon. For some reason, many authors mistakenly interchange them and use the semicolon to introduce an element illustrating what has preceded the semicolon--when it should be a colon.

When it comes to editing, no one can know it all. For that reason, we have style guides. And you can often find me with my nose in "The Chicago Manual of Style!"