The first one is the screwing up the preposition to with the adverb too (homonyms).
Here are examples of really poor writing I see all the time from people who claim themselves as writers, poets, or elegant blasphemers of English language:
Here I'm slaughtering the English language, to!
One Day, I'm going too be a general in an army set too destroy our language.
He went to far and assaulted the English language.
One Day, I'm going too be a general in an army set too destroy our language.
He went to far and assaulted the English language.
*Too means "also" and is generally used at the end of a sentence. "Too" also indicates too much of a particular quality.
Jane complains way too much in her blogs.
I'd like to be a general, too!
I'd like to be a general, too!
*To is generally used as a preposition. It is also used as part of the infinitive form of verbs.
He wants to be a better writer, too!
The verb "to understand" is irregular.
The verb "to understand" is irregular.
The second most common mistake I see all the time, especially in emails and blog posts is the absolute abuse, blatant disregard, and sheer disrespect for ellipses (...). Ellipses are a very important form of punctuation that have become really popular in the last couple years. People like to use them when writing and being upset. Do they think they're firing a machine gun with the three dots? I mean, come on, get real! (I could have put ellipses there, but I chose a coma instead.) Let's go over ellipses.
As a writer, ellipses are probably one of the most sacred tools of creativity. I love those little three dots! Especially in fictional mystery stories. Why is that? Because ellipses, when used in character quotations serve to omit information and doing so, it creates "suspicion."
"Professor Plum, I beg you to please reconsider publishing his mystery novel. I'm certain...Well, absolutely positive he payed attention in grammar class!"
See how that statement is written above? Did he pay attention in grammar class? As a writer, you can have a lot of fun with ellipses because they can stir up suspicion. Seriously, it was one of Ernest Hemingway's greatest tools and part of his "Iceberg Principle": a way to introduce information and draw the reader much closer to his story with the unknown.
Anytime you see ellipses...Like that, it's supposed to mean you're leaving something out, ommited, not included, or withheld. Except in titles and subject lines, they're acceptable. However, when people use ellipses to write like they're talking; it's the most distracting thing in the world because I always want to think the author is trying to state or say something...but this crap with the three dots...makes me think they're withholding information but I have to remind myself the author is trying to write as if they're talking...and the ellipses...Yeah, I get the point: hard pauses between sentences like you're talking authority Clint Eastwood style!
What's worse than abusing ellipses? A mass onslaught of multiple ellipses combined with all caps and an ugly font color. For the sake of viewer discression, I've chosen not show an example.