10 Common Writing Errors - Task Cards, Grammatical Rules, Correct Usage and Challenge

This resource contains rules, examples, and short challenges for commonly confused words and grammatical errors. It covers the following:

1. There, Their, They’re
2. To, Two, Too
3. Accept vs Except
4. Your vs. You’re
5. A lot vs alot vs allot
6. Lose vs Loose
7. Its vs It’s
8. No vs know
9. Threw vs through
10. Correct use of semi-colon (;)

This resource contains 10 rules and example cards that can be used in the following ways:
1. As a revision e-book for anyone that needs a quick refresh on the most common writing errors.
2. As a group or pair activity for learners to practice and test each other in various ways.

Instructions / Ideas for Group Activities
Activity 1 – Group or pair competition
1. Print out the rules that you would like your learners to work on. (Laminate to keep them fresh, if you want).
2. Hand out 1 card to each pair or group. Have them read it and complete the short challenge. (Check to see if they have it correct – an answer sheet is provided)
3. Learners then present their task to the rest of the groups to complete (on whiteboard). This can be timed.
4. Groups get 1 point for each task that is correct.
5. Groups then brainstorm ideas to remember the associated rules.
6. Points are tallied up and the winner is announced.

Activity 2 – Group discussion and trouble shoot session
1. Learners select a card and read it to the group
2. They complete the task themselves first of all writing up sentence and answer on whiteboard.
3. Group members state whether they agree or not with the answer and share their thoughts
4. The correct answer is revealed by the teacher
5. Groups brainstorm ideas to remember the rules.

Activity 3 – Individual work
1. Print out the resource in its entirety, or print out parts that you’d like to work on.
2. Learners complete by themselves, and then check their answers in pairs.
3. Answers revealed by teacher and corrected if necessary.

Activity 4 – As a Warm up Activity
1. Select one card at the beginning of the session
2. Group discuss and agree the answer for the task.
3. In pairs or individually think up more tasks to challenge the rest of the group.