7 Most Common Grammatical Errors in Essay Writing That Students Make

If we make a list of all the errors a student makes in essay writing, grammatical mistakes will top the list. No matter how much education they have, people have some things that they always mess up. For students, it’s grammar.

Most of the times, words work in strange ways. When we read them aloud in our minds, they sound all right, but when that thought gets written on paper, words come off in different ways. They are hard to find and can easily get omitted during revision. It requires a cautious eye to detect and correct them and perfect your essay writing.

Most common grammatical errors

Mentioned below are some most common grammatical errors students make in essay writing:

They’re vs there vs their

We all are familiar with these three. There denotes a place; their indicates something owned by a group of people while there is the short for they are. As they sound same, it’s quite easy to get them mixed up.

Eg, They’re playing there with their equipment.

Its vs. It’s

One of the most confusing ones which baffle even the best. The fact that they are hard to detect increases the complexity tenfold for they are separated only by an apostrophe.  ‘It’s’ is an abbreviation of it is while ‘its’ is possession of it.

Eg, It’s a beautiful place, but I don’t know its name.

Your vs You’re

‘Your’ is used when you own something while ‘you’re’ is short for you are and denotes being something. ‘Your’ is possessive whereas ‘you’re’ is a contraction.

E.g., Call me when you’re selling your old stuff, I will buy them from you.

Affect vs effect

Both of these words are used when something is changing or altering something. ‘Effect’ is a noun that denotes the change itself while ‘affect’ is a verb which denotes the act of changing.

Eg, Her behaviour affected me badly, I never thought it would have any effect on me.

i.e. vs e.g.

Both of them are used when elaborating on a point or argument. i.e. means ‘that is’ or ‘in other words’ whereas, e.g. stands for ‘example given’ or just ‘example’. The former is used for clarification while the latter is used to explain through an example.

Peek vs Peak vs Pique

Another bunch of commonly mistaken words. ‘Peek’ means taking a quick look whereas ‘peak’ means the highest point of activity, quality or achievement while ‘pique’ means to instigate or provoke, generally interest.

E.g., Take a quick peek through the window.

He climbed the mountain peak for the fifth time

The teacher’s lecture piqued the interest of the students on the  subject

Who’s vs Who vs Whom vs Whose

Quite an assortment of words we have got here. A confusing bunch.

Who’s is the short form of who is and is used to identify a human being.

‘Who’ denotes a living pronoun and poses a question for the identity of the subject.

‘Whom’ denotes a person who is at the receiving end of something like action or an object.

‘Whose’ is used to assign ownership to someone and points to the person to who something belongs.

E.g., Who’s the owner of the car?

Who came through the door?

To whom does the car belong?

Whose car is that?

English is quite a strange language with its own set of words and the rules applying to their usages. It’s common to make grammatical mistakes, but with the help of the guide given above or contact an essay writer, along with some practice, you can reduce them to zero.


Si prega di attivare i Javascript! / Please turn on Javascript!

Javaskripta ko calu karem! / Bitte schalten Sie Javascript!

S'il vous plaît activer Javascript! / Por favor, active Javascript!

Qing dakai JavaScript! / Qing dakai JavaScript!

Пожалуйста включите JavaScript! / Silakan aktifkan Javascript!