Editing and Proofreading
What this domain tests
Editing and Proofreading measures whether you can find and correct errors in a draft without changing its meaning. It tests error detection across grammar, punctuation, usage, and sentence boundaries, plus control of consistency.
Core rules
- Read for structure first: Identify the subject and verb of each clause. If either is missing, suspect a fragment; if two independent clauses appear without a boundary, suspect a run-on.
- Check agreement and reference: Confirm that verbs agree with true subjects and that every pronoun has one clear antecedent. Editing one word can create a new error elsewhere.
- Track time and number: Keep tense, point of view, and singular/plural consistent unless the meaning requires a shift.
- Verify punctuation after edits: If you add or remove a clause, recheck commas, semicolons, and apostrophes. A comma that was correct before a deletion may become a splice.
- Prefer minimal correction: Choose the edit that fixes the error with the least change to meaning and tone. Do not rewrite a correct sentence because another version sounds more formal.
- Proofread for surface slips: repeated words, missing articles, wrong prepositions, homophones, and inconsistent capitalization.
Worked example
The team have completed there review, however they have not submitted it. Errors: team have (a collective noun acting as a unit takes has); there (the possessive is their); a comma splice before however; and the pronoun it is clear only if review is the referent. Edited: The team has completed its review; however, it has not submitted the review. Repeating the review removes any ambiguity about what was not submitted.
Traps that cost marks
- Correcting the obvious error but missing the one created by the correction.
- Treating however as a conjunction: it is a conjunctive adverb and needs a semicolon or period before it.
- Changing its to it's because the apostrophe looks possessive; it's is always it is or it has.
- Over-editing a sentence that is already grammatical, especially by replacing plain words with inflated ones.
- Ignoring meaning while hunting for surface errors; an edit that is grammatically tidy but changes the writer’s claim is wrong.