Bought and brought

Another source of confusion for many writers. Here's the lowdown: bought is the past participle of the verb to buy. Brought is the past participle of the verb to bring.

Consider this sentence: Jamie brought some shoes from the shop. Some authors may use sentence this in the mistaken belief that they are describing Jamie buying shoes. Actually, the sentence tells us that Jamie was bringing shoes, not buying.

Remember, bring and buy leads to brought and bought.

Lack of clarity

A problem that I frequently address in my editing work is unclear writing. For example, consider the following: Steve and Matt slipped out by the back door. He shut the door quietly. Can you spot the question this example raises? Who is 'he' in the second sentence - Steve or Matt?

Often, when you write you get caught up in the world you're depicting, and you can forget that the reader isn't inside your head, seeing exactly what you see. You know exactly who shut the door, and your mind assumes the reader does too.

The simplest remedy for such lack of clarity is to read your writing back to yourself slowly, and when you come to pronouns (e.g. he, she, it, they), think carefully whether you need to clarify who exactly the pronoun refers to.