ABSTRACT
Some students object that it’s unfair to judge a paper based on a few misspelled words or mechanical errors. The most obvious indicator of accuracy is spelling. The most glaring of spelling errors is that of authors’ names or the titles of works. Spelling these items correctly is simply a matter of copying. A fragment is a piece of a sentence punctuated as if it were a whole sentence. Some writers use fragments intentionally for effect, but in many cases the fragments are unintentional and awkward. A frequent error is to use a plural pronoun to refer to a singular noun. To produce a grammatical construction, the noun and the pronoun must be either both singular and both plural. A misplaced modifier is an adjective or adverb placed where it modifies the wrong part of the sentence or where its modification is unclear.
