100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid: A Review

Hi everyone, you just came here to see the first ever review on Writers’ Treasure. Are you aware of Daily Writing Tips? I had a guest post featured on there, and they recently launched an eBook: 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid written by Maeve Maddox, the Editor-in-Chief. Now, in my opinion, anything that’s written by her is bound to be great and worth its price. But still I was sceptical, because I thought I knew all the common spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes of English. I turned out to be wrong.

Now, having read it, I’m as impressed as can be. It was a quick read, 45 pages long, and time flew when I was reading it, because I was so engrossed.

In short, the book was amazing.

Overview

One of the fastest ways to improve your writing skills is to free yourself from the most common English mistakes: things like exchanging less with fewer, misspelling its as it’s, or placing commas where they are not supposed to be. ~Daniel Scocco

That’s what Daniel Scocco says, and he’s correct. 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid details all the common mistakes that English writers make: common spelling mistakes, common grammar mistakes, confusion over word usage, punctuation mistakes and more. Although I say “common”, some actually were not so common to me, which was not what I expected, and which made me impressed.

I mean… everyone knows the “its” and “it’s” mistake, but how many people know that flammable and inflammable actually mean the same thing? And that’s only one example. There are tons like that, and some are controversial, because some people disagree with some grammar rules. (Wow, just look at how many times I said “some” in the last sentence).

For e.g. – many people hate having been forbidden to end sentences with prepositions. Hence they break the rule. And when you break a rule like that you don’t make a howler.

Then there are some words which are spelled (or spelt) differently in England and America. Here in India we use a mix of both of the languages, British English and American English to form Indian English. I must admit, I got a bit confused in this section: which is the correct spelling for me to use in my writing? I found later that the answer was “it depends”. That answer is very common in the world of writing.

The book is presented in an attractive design, easy navigation, appropriate fonts and an appropriate line height. Kudos for having a great eBook design.

Good stuff

What I really like about this book is that it’s a one stop resource for teachers, parents and students. As I’m a student, I found this book extremely helpful and most likely will consult it if I have any niggling problem about the unique English language. In fact, I would go even as far to say that every aspiring writer should have this book, because not only is it an easy read, it’s also packed full of value.

I also love the explanations and examples. In my opinion, any theory or any concept or anything new generally requires an explanation and some examples. The brain learns by examples and comparison, so it’s nice to see that examples have been used a lot in the book to explain any rule.

Not-so-good stuff?

I honestly couldn’t find anything bad to say about this book, it is well worth a read and it’s well worth buying. Usually, I am an expert in giving critiques, but this eBook is so polished in everything that my mouth hangs open. Excellent stuff.

The only thing that I’d like to say in form of a suggestion is that a second book detailing writing mistakes of the narrative kind would be excellent. What I mean is that this book contains only 100 punctuation, grammar and spelling mistakes to avoid. It would be great if a second book would be written containing dash number of narrative mistakes such as too many adverbs, run on sentences, style and so on. I for one would love to read such a book because I’m an aspiring fiction writer so a book of such a kind would help me in my endeavours.

Bottom line

I think I’ve written enough. 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid is an excellent value packed book which should help any writer, beginner or expert. I’m glad I chose to read it, because it’s a one stop writers’ resource. What are you waiting for? Buy 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid now and download it instantly.

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