Writing, Error Correction, and Register
The writing, error correction, and register domain tests whether you can produce clear, accurate, and appropriately formal English, and whether you can spot errors in sentences. Tasks may include editing, sentence correction, short responses, and register adjustment.
Core rules and concepts
- Correct errors by category: agreement, tense, word form, preposition, pronoun, parallelism, punctuation, and register.
- Formal writing avoids contractions, slang, and vague fillers; it uses precise verbs and clear transitions.
- A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma. Fix it with a period, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction.
- Keep register consistent: an academic essay should not switch to "you guys" or "a lot of stuff."
- In error correction, change only what is wrong; unnecessary rewrites lose marks.
Worked example
Sentence: "Despite of the rain, the outdoor event continued as planned." Correction: "Despite the rain, the outdoor event continued as planned." Reasoning: "Despite" is a preposition and takes a noun phrase directly. "Despite of" is not standard English. "Although" would require a clause: "Although it rained, the event continued." The error is preposition choice, not tense or agreement.
Traps that cost marks
- Fixing one error while creating another.
- Using "although" and "but" in the same clause.
- Mixing formal and informal vocabulary in one paragraph.
- Misplacing modifiers so the sentence attributes an action to the wrong noun.
- Overusing memorized templates that do not answer the specific task.