Editing, Proofreading and Accuracy
Editing, proofreading and accuracy
Editing tasks ask you to find and correct errors without rewriting the text. The skill is diagnostic: name the error type, then make the smallest correction that restores accuracy.
Method
Read the whole sentence for meaning before changing anything. Then check in this order: subject-verb agreement, tense, articles (a/an/the), prepositions, pronoun reference, word order, spelling, punctuation, redundancy.
Common error types
- Agreement: "The list of items are long" -> "is".
- Tense: "She has went" -> "has gone".
- Article: "an university" -> "a university".
- Preposition: "different than" -> "different from" (British English).
- Spelling: "recieve" -> "receive"; "definately" -> "definitely".
- Redundancy: "return back", "discuss about".
Worked example
"Each of the students have submitted there assignments." Errors: "have" -> "has" (each is singular); "there" -> "their" (possessive). Corrected: "Each of the students has submitted their assignments." Reasoning: check agreement first, then homophones. Only the two faulty words change; the rest of the sentence stays intact.
Traps that cost marks
- Over-correcting text that is already correct.
- Changing the meaning while correcting grammar.
- Missing one error per line because you stop at the first.
- Ignoring punctuation while hunting for spelling.
- Assuming every line contains an error.
- Rewriting a whole clause instead of the faulty word.