Say you had to write a short article for your local newspaper about a few recently installed murals. The artists created these murals to celebrate your city’s cultural diversity. It was an arduous process — the artists painted outside during an August heat-wave. How would you begin?
Your first 100 words should look something like this masterpiece:

“It was gruelling work. Team spirit kept us going.”

Fighting to finish, August’s scorching sun beat down on the group of artists — they were overheated and working on a tight deadline. The six Toronto-based artists insisted on staying on site for awhile, they wanted to finish their artwork on time even though they were exhausted from the heat. The team of artists were unphased till the end; they withstood the heat everyday for 26 days straight.
Yesterday, the artists finally added the finishing touches to their first co-created project, entitled The 6ix, a permanent installation that comprises of six murals. The artists designed their murals to shed light on their respective ethnic backgrounds. Now there’s six vibrant murals that manage to capture the rich cultural diversity of Toronto.

OK, I lied. The passage above is no masterpiece — it’s atrocious. Let’s call this version our rough draft.

Spotting Common Grammar Gaffes
Too many writers let small issues slide. These errors can pile up and create chaos. Give my abysmal paragraphs one more read. This time, try to find every error.
Think you were able to catch each error?

1. Dangling modifier
Dangling modifiers, also known as dangling participles, change the intended meaning of a sentence. “Fighting to finish, August’s scorching sun beat down on the group” doesn’t make sense. Unless we are personifying the sun and saying the sun was fighting to finish (which we aren’t doing here), this sentence is silly.

2. Subject-verb disagreement
Team is a collective noun that calls for a singular verb. Change it to “team of artists was” for the quickest fix.
Want it to sound more natural? Either “the artists were” or “the team was” would work.

3. Awhile
In our case, “for a while” isn’t even necessary. But let’s go over why it’s a while and not awhile.

A while is a noun phrase that means ‘a moment of time’ and awhile — a real word! — is an adverb that means ‘for a time’. Don’t mix up the two, even if it’s for a while.

4. Comma splice
Without a firm understanding of independent clauses, comma splices are hard to catch.

An independent clause is a complete thought that can stand as its own sentence. It has a subject and a predicate (i.e., a verb and something about the subject).

Example:
“The Toronto-based artists insisted on staying on site”

Think the above sentence doesn’t say enough? We have options. We can put the comma back if we follow it with a conjunction.
Want a simpler fix? Since the two sentences are related, we can use a semicolon instead of a comma.
“The Toronto-based artists insisted on staying on site; they wanted to finish their artwork even though they were exhausted from the heat.”

5. Unphased
To faze people is to bother or disturb them. A phase is a stage of a process. To phase out is to gradually get rid of something.
Unphased is not a word. Use unfazed if you mean undisturbed.

6. Till
This one is contestable. A till is a cash register, but even Dickens and Shakespeare used till as an abbreviation of until. If you want to be precise, don’t use till this way. Just because Shakespeare did it doesn’t mean you should.
If you want to be extremely informal, I would use ’til. Otherwise, stick to until.

7. Entitled
This one is more contestable. Some say entitled must be titled in this context — but they’re mistaken. I’m only singling this word out because we have the freedom to remove it entirely.

8. Everyday
Everyday is an adjective that means typical or commonplace. In our case, every day is correct because we’re talking about each day.

Need an example? Try writing about everyday experiences every day.

9. Comprises of
Comprise is a transitive verb. Comprises of is never grammatically correct.

10. There’s
If you’re writing anything even remotely formal, use there are before a plural noun.

Incorrect: There’s many ways to improve your writing.
Correct: There are many ways to improve your writing.

This mistake is an example of subject-verb disagreement. I’m singling out there’s because almost everyone says it. It’s fine to say it in informal chats — after all, it’ll save you a syllable. Just leave this error out of your writing.

Let’s see what the corrected version looks like.

“It was gruelling work. Team spirit kept us going.”
August’s scorching sun beat down on the artists as they fought to finish — they were overheated and working on a tight deadline. The six Toronto-based artists insisted on staying on site; they wanted to finish their artwork on time even though they were exhausted from the heat. The team was unfazed until the end; they withstood the heat every day for 26 days straight.
Yesterday, the artists finally added the finishing touches to their first co-created project, The 6ix, a permanent installation comprising six murals. The artists designed their murals to shed light on their respective ethnic backgrounds. Now there are six vibrant murals that manage to capture the rich cultural diversity of Toronto.

Now we have a masterpiece. Or do we? I fibbed again. We’re not quite finished.

Polishing Your Prose
If you want your writing to shine, grammatical correctness isn’t enough. Our passage needs a trim. And did you notice the two semicolons in a row? At least one has to go.

Some writers trim much earlier. Style doesn’t come naturally to me, so I usually leave stylistic edits until the end. Once we make some tweaks, let’s proofread the passage one last time so we can call it a day.

The final product:

“It was gruelling work. Team spirit kept us going.”
August’s scorching sun beat down on the artists as they fought to finish — they were overheated and working on a tight deadline.
The six Toronto-based artists insisted on staying on site; they wanted to finish their artwork on time even though they were exhausted from the heat, longing to finish their artwork on time, stayed on site despite heat exhaustion. The team was unfazed until the end; they withstood remained unfazed until the end, withstanding the heat every day for 26 days straight.
Yesterday, the artists finally added the finishing touches to their first co-created project, The 6ix, a permanent installation comprising six murals. The artists designed their murals to shed light on their respective ethnic backgrounds. Now there are The six vibrant murals that manage to capture the rich cultural diversity of Toronto.

It may not be a masterpiece, but we now have about 100 words without the errors and pointless meandering seen earlier.

Wondering what the rest of the article should look like? I would move seamlessly from a second quote to facts about the murals. Who are the artists and what inspired them? What are the names of the individual murals and where are they located? How do passers-by feel about the art?
If you think I’m an extremist for sweating the small stuff, I want to clarify that I’m not a pedant. All I’m asking is that you strive to be a conscientious writer. When it comes to content, know your audience and cover what’s relevant. When it comes to grammar, be aware of your slip-ups and correct yourself. Then look at the finer details. Be consistent in your style. Don’t let needless words sneak their way in. Take time to revise and rewrite. The more we read and write, the better writers we’ll be.