Every IGCSE English examiner’s report says some version of the same thing: too many candidates lose marks for basic punctuation and sentence-level errors that obscure otherwise promising ideas. The good news is that most of these errors fall into predictable patterns. Fixing them is, in most cases, straightforward — it requires awareness and practice rather than innate talent.
Here are the errors that appear most often and cost the most marks.
1. The Comma Splice
A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma: “The room was quiet, she could hear her own breathing.” This is incorrect. Independent clauses need either a full stop (creating two sentences), a semicolon, a colon (if the second clause explains the first), or a coordinating conjunction: “The room was quiet, and she could hear her own breathing.”
Comma splices are extremely common in student writing and signal a writer who isn’t confident about sentence boundaries. Eliminating them from your writing is one of the quickest single improvements you can make.
2. Apostrophe Errors
Two types: possessive apostrophes (John’s book, the students’ work) and contraction apostrophes (it’s = it is, they’re = they are, you’re = you are). The most common confusion is between “its” (possessive, no apostrophe) and “it’s” (it is). If you can replace the word with “it is” and it still makes sense, use an apostrophe. If not, don’t.
Apostrophe errors signal carelessness to examiners and detract from an otherwise strong piece of writing. A quick apostrophe check in the final minutes before the exam is time very well spent.
3. Sentences That Don’t Exist
A fragment is a group of words punctuated as a sentence but missing a main verb or subject: “Because she had been waiting for so long.” This is not a sentence — it’s a subordinate clause that’s been left dangling without a main clause to attach to.
Fragments are particularly common at the end of long sentences that have run on too far. Read your sentences aloud — if one feels incomplete, check whether it has a subject and a main verb. If it doesn’t, it needs attaching to the sentence before or after, or extending to make it complete.
4. Paragraph Breaks in the Wrong Place
A new paragraph should signal a new idea, a new speaker (in dialogue), a new time, or a deliberate shift in focus. Many students either don’t paragraph at all (resulting in one enormous block of text) or paragraph randomly (starting a new paragraph mid-thought for no apparent reason).
A useful test: before starting a new paragraph, ask yourself “what is different about this part of my response?” If you can’t answer clearly, you may not need a new paragraph yet. If the answer is clear — “this is a new argument,” “this moves the story forward in time” — start one.
5. Inconsistent Tense
Creative writing should maintain a consistent tense unless there’s a deliberate reason to shift. Many students begin a piece in past tense, drift into present tense under the pressure of describing action, then drift back again — often within the same paragraph. This creates disorientation for the reader and suggests a writer who isn’t in control of their choices.
Choose a tense before you start and stick to it. If you want to vary tense for effect (a flashback, a moment of reflection), do it deliberately and clearly signal the shift. Check your work for tense consistency in your final review.
6. Overusing Particular Words
Very. Really. Suddenly. Then. Also. These words are not wrong — but they become a problem when they appear repeatedly in the same piece, signalling a limited vocabulary or lazy sentence construction. “Very scared” becomes “terrified.” “Then she ran” becomes “she ran.” “Also, the writer uses…” in five consecutive sentences signals that the student doesn’t know how to structure analytical prose.
The fix: in your final check, circle every instance of the five words above. For each one, decide whether the sentence is improved by removing or replacing it. More often than not, it is.
These basics are addressed from the first session in Thorogood English’s IGCSE English programme — not assumed, and not left to chance. Join the waiting list for January 2027 classes.
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