Wikipedia:WikiProject Fix common mistakes

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The goal of this project is to reduce the number of Wikipedia:common mistakes in the article space of Wikipedia. I use a program to generate a list of possible errors in an off-line copy of the database (currently used version: November 26th, 2004). The idea is that we check if the entries still contain those errors, and fix the articles if necessary.

[edit] Already done!

So as not to duplicate work, here is a list of occurrences checked so far. When you have fixed all the instances of an error found in Wikipedia, please sign and date. In general, please repeat the search that has not been performed for the longest time. If you are using google to search for instances of errors, it is probably best to wait six months before repeating a search. If you are using a Database dump to search, please specify the date of that dump.

Duplicated words:

a a: last checked 1 Jan 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
an an: last checked 8 Jan 2007 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
and and: last checked 15 Sep 2005 (Gaius Cornelius)
are are: last checked 26 Jan 2007 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
be be: last checked 28 December 2006 Sct72
by by: last checked 14 Oct 2005 (Garion96)
for for: last checked 21 Nov 2006 (BigrTex)
he he: last checked 1 Dec 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
if if: last checked 11 Dec 2006 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
in in: last checked 4 Jan 2007 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
is is: last checked 18 Nov 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
it it: last checked 15 Dec 2006 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
of of: last checked 5 Jan 2007 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
she she: last checked 1 Feb 2007 (Kisholi Mendis)
the the: last checked 18 Nov 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
this this: last checked 11 Dec 2006 (BigrTex 11302006 Database Dump)
to to: last checked 30 Apr 2006 (Cookiedog) (working it now, Jan 2008 atakdoug)
was was: last checked 16 Jan 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
were were: last checked 21 Nov 2006 (Gaius Cornelius)
when when: last checked 2 Jun 2006 (Harryboyles)
with with: last checked 19 Jul 2007 (SpigotMap)

Near duplicates:

a an: last checked 21 October 2007 Gaius Cornelius
an a: last checked 5 November 2005 Gaius Cornelius
a the: (NB: many false positives) last checked 12 June 2006 Gaius Cornelius

[edit] Instructions

Any help would be appreciated with this. Contributing is easy:

pick an entry of one of the lists given below.
check if article still contains the error pattern (e.g. 'the the')
if it is an error, fix it.
if you feel like it, return to step 1.
remove the entries that you have fixed, and the entries that do not need fixing, from the list.
thank you! add your name to the contributor list, if you like.

If you have an idea about another pattern to search for, please add it to the relevant section of the discussion page of this project.