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We Catholics really enjoy our pre-written prayers; and we should. Knowing that someone holier than us has taken the time carefully to prepare words that are presented unto God is an encouragement that our prayers will be heard. Most protestants want to pray everything "off the cuff", as though a lack of preparation is somehow more holy. Yet, there is a drawback that shows up once in a while, and that is praying merely from memory and not from the heart.
Just looking at an average for my almost thirteen years as a Catholic priest, I would say that I have heard about six to seven thousand confessions. Really; do the math. In all those times people will make various mistakes in confession (most of which do not really matter at all). Sometimes people start out with the Act of Contrition before saying their confession; sometimes people will say the Act of Contrition before they are given their penance to do (it is supposed to be after the penance is given and before the priest says the absolution). Occasionally, people will just stop listing their sins without letting the priest know they are done (we do not like to interrupt, so it is helpful to end with "for these and any other sins I cannot remember I ask for forgiveness).
Out of those thousands of confessions I have heard, it is amazing how common it is for people to recite the Act of Contrition as fast as they can. When this happens, it is common for people to mix up a word or two and say something that if you pointed it out to them they would realize the mistake. If I were to combine the most common errors in praying the Act of Contrition all into one instance, it would read like this:
Oh my God, I am heavily sorry for having offered thee, and I desire all my sins because I read the lost of Heaven and the pace of Hell, but most of all because they offered thee, my God, who art great and good and deserving. I firmly will solve with the help of my grace, to confess thy sins, do the penitents and amend my life. Amen.
No, I never heard one person make all those mistakes at one time. But, I have heard all those mistakes in various instances. If you just now realized that you make one of these mistakes, take heart, I do not remember who said what (that is one of the graces of the sacrament of confession--God enables priests to forget what they hear!) This is definitely not to pick on anyone, or make anyone feel ashamed, but rather to encourage everyone to work harder on actually "praying" the Act of Contrition and not just rattling it off to get the confession over with.
The point of the Act of Contrition being required in one's Confession is to help show that the person is genuinely repentant of his sins. That means that a quick and careless recitation of one of the most wonderful prayers in our liturgical practices, does not show true repentance; and it may even show the opposite!