Chapter 5 of 518% of exam
Common Usage Errors
Formal writing has recurring pitfalls: verbs that resist the passive, disputed prepositions, and tricky agreement. This chapter collects frequent errors with corrected versions so you can recognize and fix them.
Verbs Not Used in the Passive
'Consist of' is active only: 'the experiment consisted of three stages', never 'was consisted of'. Some stative verbs cannot take a passive form.
Different From
In academic English, 'different' is followed by 'from': 'different from previous studies'. 'Different than' is treated as nonstandard in formal writing.
Agreement with 'Data' and 'A Number Of'
'Data' is plural in formal writing ('the data suggest'), and 'a number of factors' takes a plural verb: 'there are a number of factors that affect the outcome.'