Misconception: Students add the numbers for ordered list items inside the HTML list item tags.

  • Since this was correctly tagged as an ordered list, the list items will be numbered by the list item tag and by the hard coded text, resulting in double numbers.
    • <ol>
        <li>1. Item one</li> <li>2. Item two</li>
      </ol>
      • Below is the correct code for this error:
        • <ol>
            <li>Item one</li> <li>Item two</li>
          </ol>
  • This type of error is called a rules-based error. It occurs when the student is familiar with the basic rules and constructs of a language, but comes up against an unknown exception, edge case, rule, etc.
    • This may be the result of incorrect research or assumptions about what is valid, or it can simply be the result of not knowing all the rules, exceptions and edge cases for programming with HTML and CSS.

More about this tip

External Source
"Towards a Taxonomy of Errors in HTML and CSS" by Thomas Park, Ankur Saxena, Swathi Jagannath, Susan Wiedenbeck, and Andrea Forte.