1. Wayne Smith, Ph.D. Department of Management CSU Northridge ws@csun.edu
Composition, Prose, and Rhetoric: Examples of Recurring Errors from MGT 360
Wayne Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Management
CSU Northridge

2. Superior, Contemporary Writing
Student-professionals must reduce basic composition errors over time
Remember that it’s important; clarity, precision, and due diligence will simply be expected of you, both in your academic work and your professional work.
Remember that it’s difficult; language is one of the most complex and sophisticated human endeavors.
Mechanics
Punctuation
Word Choice
Sentence Style
Grammatical Sentences
ELL Challenges
Meaning
Miscellaneous Anomalies

3. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Spelling
The most misspelled word on this assignment is manager.
In general, students used the word manger instead.
Slow down, be careful, review your draft after at least one full day, and run your work by someone else.
Also, don’t make up words (you aren’t Shakespeare…yet)
Incorrect: “…he was able to argue for her vetrancy, knowledge of the company, and the customer service department simply because she has been there [longer]
Correct: “…he was able to argue for her longevity status, knowledge of the company, and the customer service department simply because she has been there [longer]

4. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Commas
Link a (long, opening) subordinate (dependent) clause to a main (independent) clause with a comma (>= 5 words)
Example: “In order to be a successful manager you need to be able to motivate your employees…”
Example: “After working so many Friday nights dealing with usually the same parties we were able to work our organizational and management issues out.”
Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (i.e., for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so—”FANBOYS”)
Example: “The other employee was a young male who was in his early twenties but this employee had very long hair as well as long facial hair.”

5. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Homonyms
Heterograph (homonym) Errors
Words that sounds alike, but have different spellings and meanings
Incorrect: “I left orientation knowing two things; they will fire you if your late, and they will definitely fire you if you are rude to guests.”
Correct: “I left orientation knowing two things; they will fire you if you’re late, and they will definitely fire you if you are rude to guests.”
Incorrect: “…would have to be applied elsewere.”
Correct: “…would have to be applied elsewhere.”
Incorrect: “…worse boss of the century.”
Correct: “…worst boss of the century.”
Incorrect: “…and lead to the best organizational experience of my life.”
Correct: “…and led to the best organizational experience of my life.”

6. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Compound Words
Compound nouns are difficult partly because their use changes over time. Use a college-level dictionary to help: e.g,
Open Compounds (two words that are occasionally used together but not often enough yet to become either a hyphenated or closed compound):
Examples: work space, time frame
Hyphenated Compounds (a single word that was previously two separate words and is in the process of becoming a closed compound; hyphens are also used because they aid in clarity or pronunciation):
Examples: fast-paced, self-imposed, well-being
Closed Compounds (a single word that was previously two words but over time has morphed—changed—into a single, commonly used word) :
Examples: backbreaking, blindfolded, briefcase, elsewhere, flowchart, halfway, layoff, nonetheless, oftentimes, overworked, paperwork, salesperson, seafood, spreadsheet, underpaid, undervalued, wholehearted, workday, workforce, workload, workplace

7. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Compound Words (cont.)
Some compound nouns are especially difficult because their use depends on the context of the sentence. In addition to a college-level dictionary, you’ll also need to know the parts of speech (i.e., noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, prepositions, conjunction, and interjection).
Business Example:
Every day and everyday:
Example: Every day at work is a new challenge that waits.
Open compound: every (adjective) day (noun)
Example: I just get bored at work with everyday tasks.
Closed compound: everyday (adjective)
Other Business Examples:
Any one and anyone, break down and breakdown, over time and overtime, run around and runaround, start up and startup

8. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Run-on’s
Run-on Sentences (comma splice)
Example: “First of all, you can’t leave the job for three people to take care of everything, if the job requires more employees, then it’s in the best interest of the company to hire more employees.”
Either make it two sentences (use a period instead of a comma), or
Connect the two clauses with a semi-colon (”;”) instead of a comma (“,”)
Run-on Sentences (fused sentences)
Example: “I was living in Riverside, California it was closer [to] home but I still had to manage my free time the best that I could.”
Either make it two sentences (use a period instead of a <space>), or

9. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Inflections
Agreement
In Subjects and Verbs, and
in Antecedents and Pronouns
Verbs (conjugation)
Incorrect: “My duty as facilitator is to managed and plan the sessions…”
Correct: “My duty as facilitator is to manage and plan the sessions…”
Nouns (declension)
Incorrect: “I had to follow these two session and modify them…”
Correct: “I had to follow these two sessions and modify them…”
Be very careful with your listening skills—contemporary phonology (especially in music) is slightly de-emphasizing the last syllable (it sounds “cool”, so we occasionally miss the inflection when we write…argh!)

10. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Possessives
Missing Singular Possessive
Incorrect: Sally was afraid to switch with Marias shift hours.
Correct: Sally was afraid to switch with Maria’s shift hours.
Missing Plural Possessive
Incorrect: Our two interviews just concluded. Both of the interviewees depth in understanding our firm was limited and weak.
Correct: Our one interview just concluded. Both of the interviewees’ depth in understanding our firm was limited and weak.
Irregular Possessive
Incorrect: The company has a softball team. It’s team name is the “Firebrands”.
Correct: The company has a softball team. Its team name is the “Firebrands”.

11. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Needed Words
With respect to clarity, English is a context-sensitive language
Incorrect: “Upper management recognized guests found it confusing to park at [our establishment].”
Correct: “Wrong: “Upper management recognized that guests found it confusing to park at [our establishment].”
Incorrect: “He also explained to me in the letter how his family from Armenia had persecuted…”
Correct: ““He also explained to me in the letter how his family from Armenia had been persecuted…”

12. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Meaning
Digital computing does not now, and will not in the immediately foreseeable future, identify this issue
Example: “The restaurant was busy. It was really hard to sever all of the customers.”
Sometimes, the meaning is unclear or ambiguous
Example: “…she has [extreme] depression after her husbands’ death…”
Sometimes, the meaning is exactly opposite
Example: “Throughout my working career I have always strived to be apart of a management team.”

13. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Meaning (cont.)
Prepositions are small words, but they are important and hard to use correctly. Always double-check your preposition use for clarity and unambiguity
Example: “I thought planning the [snowboarding] trip was difficult, but I soon found out that giving snowboarding lessons as a beginner was much more difficult.” (emphasis added)
Using “as” means teaching while also being a beginner oneself is tough.
Example: “I thought planning the [snowboarding] trip was difficult, but I soon found out that giving snowboarding lessons to a beginner was much more difficult.” (emphasis added)
Using “to” means teaching beginners is tough regardless of the skills or talent of the instructor
There is no way for a reader/listener to determine original intention

14. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Consistency
Tense Consistency (Awkward Tense Shift)
“For this reason, all staff had to wait outside for over one hour. Then, the person in charge from our company does not seem to be a good leader with rich management knowledge. She had let all the staff from the advertisement company wait for her for a long time after we already spent a long time waiting.”
The first sentence is past tense.
The second sentence is present tense (“does”, should be “did”)
The third sentence is, again, past tense.
Don’t switch tenses abruptly.
This writing anomaly is often caused by a lack of re-writing.
Subject Consistency (often misuse of the passive voice)
Voice Consistency (use active voice and avoid passive voice when possible)

15. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Miscellaneous
Adjectives and Adverbs
Incorrect: “If so, will they take it personal?”
Correct: “If so, will they take it personally?”
Sentence fragments
Incorrect: “Leading to everyone doing everything they wanted and how they wanted.”
Correct: “This leads to everyone doing everything they wanted and how they wanted.”
Extra Word[s]
Incorrect: “…were willing to to pick up some more shifts…”
Correct: “…were willing to pick up some more shifts…”

16. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Miscellaneous
Faulty Grammatical Coordination
Coordinate elements only of the same grammar structure: clause and clause, prepositional phrase and prepositional phrase, etc.
(tbd)
Faulty Rhetorical Coordination
Coordinate elements in thought.
Ambiguous Modifiers
Ensure that the reader is clear about what a modifier, in fact, modifies.
Dangling Modifiers
A modifier dangles when its implied subject differs from the explicit subject.

17. Examples of Writing Anomalies — Sentence Revision and Rewriting
Ungrammatical, awkward, and nonsensical sentences.
“As well most of the events are held there isn’t any organization nobody never really knows what they should be doing because they are planned last minute or they request help from the teachers and assistants the night before of the event it is poorly organized most of the time, which leads to dysfunctional event that is held with people running back and forth waiting to be told what to making us all less proactive.”
Slow down. Take your time.
Plan ahead of time to review your work. Better, have someone else read your work both for content and for writing.
Ensure that each sentence contains a single idea
That sentence with that single idea should be related, somehow, either to the prior sentence or to the subsequent sentence.
Weaker writers should start with shorter sentences, and then (if only if a writer has improved her or his skills) add coordinating and subordinating clauses.
In professional, managerial, and executive circles…
you don’t write like you speak, and…
you don’t write like you text.

18. Professional Writing Conventions Do’s (no points missed, but change for next time)
Do use “number” for countable nouns; use “amount” for non-countable nouns
Example: “The number of bolts needed is too large to carry safely.”
Example: “Black Friday put a large amount of stress on the team.”
Do use (usually) “perhaps” instead of “maybe”
Example: “Perhaps John isn’t suitable for the new sales position.”
Do use “such as” for “like” is overused and misused
If appropriate, use as a verb (e.g., “John likes to do annual inventory.”
Also, save “like” for similes (e.g., “My smart puppy is like a mentor.”)
Do use “its” (singular) for a company (not, “they”)
Example: “The owner of the store assured me that its deliveries were always on time.”
Do use “American” English rather than “British” English

19. Professional Writing Conventions Don’ts (no points missed, but change for next time)
Don’t use “a lot” as an adjective (it’s often overused)
Example: “I thought that I was in a lot of trouble.”
Use, perhaps, “many” (for a countable noun) or “much” (for a non-countable noun), or often, just remove “a lot” (it’s a empty phrase; it doesn’t contribute meaning)
Besides, “a lot” has a specific meaning real estate (it’s a parcel of land).
Don’t use “pretty” as an adjective (leave it as a noun)
Again, it’s an empty phrase
Example: “That was pretty cool.”