Common mistakes in written English and how to correct them

Chating and joking are very easy with most of use, but when preparing a formal document (for example, a report, purchasing specification, contract, etc...) we usually make lots of mistake. Why we feel difficult to do those documents and how to mitigate mistakes made during writing English?
Thus, I think that listing those mistakes and correcting them together would, as a good method, improve our writing skill.
Welcome who has experience in solving this problem, please share your experience to others.

- input language: reading, listening.
- output language: speaking, writing.
input-output: highest product are presentation. I think writing skill is most difficult of language. So, I think you should influence listening, reading, speaking skills and have good foundation in gramma then you will pick up some skills in writing from the practice (report, presentation...).
This is good oppotunity for practice. pls. check it for me. Thanks and good luck.

I think this is an interesting & helpful topic, so I'll be willing to share my experiences as well as to learn from other members.

If you look back at your business emails in your mail box, you'll easily find that most of those emails are closed by "Regards", "Best Regards", "Thank you" anh so on. It's not wrong but we can see that perhaps we do not know many different ways to open or close a simple business emails or letter.

So, I'll show you some easy ways:

1. In case you first write an business email or letter to you customer or client... and you do not know exactly who s/he is, you can use this sample:

Dear Sir or Madam,
............................
..............................
................................
Yours faithfully,

2. In case you have talked to your customer or client on emails or phone several times, i.e. you know his/her name, but you still don't know him/her by face, this way is for you:

Dear Mr. A / Dear Ms. A (Remember never use Mrs. A)
....................
......................
.......................
Yours sincerely,

3. "Regards" or "Best regards" should only be used with familiar customers or clients, your colleagues, etc. Do not use these words in most your business emails or you would be regarded as an unprofessional writer.

4. To open an email or letter in the easiest way, just add "Dear" before the name of the person you are talking to. But, remember following rules:
- To foreigners, people call each other by family name, so if you're writing emails to foreigners, you have to write the family name after "Dear". For example: Dear Mr. Gates (for a man named Bill Gates), it'd be funny if you wrote "Dear Mr. Bill" . Or you can just write "Dear Bill", it's ok.

- To Vietnamese people, bacause we call each other by first name, so we should add first name after "Dear", for example: Dear Mr. Hung, Dear Mr. Tuan...

- In case you don't know if the person you are talking to is a man or a lady, just write: Dear + full name.

Above is my experiences on this topic, maybe it's a little long for you to read through but I hope it'd be helpful to you.

HH.

Dear Mr. HH!
Thanks you for useful post. We're looking forward to your coperation with our 4R in the future.
Best regards!

Thanks for your encouragement. But I don't think you should use "Best regards!" here because you absolutely do not know me both by face and by real name . Just joking, never mind8). By the way, I've learnt the above things from an Amarican teacher so I think they'd be helpful and worth remembering.

HH.

Oh, no sir! I especially (purposeful?) use this one. Because I think 90% I know you!!! I can smell ! Khặc, Khặc....(Sorry, I don't know "khặc khặc" in English !!!)

As my experiences, there are numberless mistakes in writing English, but some commons are shown hereinafter.

1. Instead of plural form, we use single form for nouns
- Overcome: using an E-E dictionary.

2. Lack of "a" or "the" before nouns
- Overcome: keep in mind that nouns always have "a", "an" or "the" before if they not in plural form or lack of prepositive adjectives.

3. Fragmentary sentences
- Overcome: write, write and write... and have an English consultant.

4. Incorrect word order, tenses
- Overcome: re-study from A-B-C.

Please note that computer's aids and dictionaries are also very usefull several tools for writing.

Conclusion: The best way to identify and correct common mistakes in writing English is writing as much as good.

One more mistake is confusing of using present participle and past participle as adjectives. How to use these as adjectives:
1. Using present participle as adjective when:
- It stands directly in front of the noun to be modified.
- Its origin is an intransitive verb
- Its act is in active voice and progressive tense
2. Using past participle as adjective when:
- It stands directly in front of the noun to be modified.
- Its act is in passive voice and in advance of act of main clause of the sentence.

Note: voice of several verbs such as to interest, to bore, excite and frighten should be carefully considered to use exactly.