Error identification and error marking
This domain tests whether you can locate faults in a typed English text and mark them using accepted typewriting conventions. The examiner is checking both detection and correct marking, not literary editing.
Fault types
- Omission: a character, word or punctuation mark is missing. Mark with a caret at the point of insertion and write the missing item above.
- Addition: an extra character or word. Strike it through once.
- Substitution: a wrong character or word. Circle or underline it and write the correction in the margin.
- Transposition: two characters reversed, such as “recieved” for “received”. Mark the pair once; do not count each letter separately.
- Spacing, punctuation and capitalization faults are marked where they occur and counted under their own heading.
Marking discipline
- Mark the original fault, not only the correction.
- Keep marginal notes on the same line as the fault; use line numbers if the paper provides them.
- Count a misspelt word as one fault unless the rubric says otherwise; do not inflate the count by marking every wrong keystroke.
Worked example
The typed line “The clerk recieved the letter .” should read “The clerk received the letter.” There are two faults: the transposition in “recieved” (one fault) and the space before the full stop (one spacing fault). The reasoning: “received” is one word fault even though two letters are reversed; the stray space is a separate spacing fault, not part of the spelling fault. Mark the transposition at the word and the spacing fault at the gap.
Traps
- Marking a correction but leaving the original unmarked.
- Counting a whole line as one fault.
- Missing a space before punctuation because the sentence still reads correctly.