Editing, proofreading and transformation of sentences and texts
What the domain tests
This domain tests your ability to correct errors and rewrite sentences or short texts without changing meaning. Tasks may involve concord, tense, spelling, punctuation, word order, register and sentence transformation.
Core rules
- Proofread in passes: first concord and verb forms, then spelling and word division, then punctuation and capitalisation.
- When transforming a sentence, keep the original meaning, time frame and emphasis unless the task asks otherwise.
- For direct-to-indirect speech, adjust pronouns, time words and verb forms.
- For active-to-passive transformation, make sure the object becomes the subject and the concord changes correctly.
- Remove redundancy and ambiguity, but do not rewrite more than the task requires.
- Check that any replacement word fits the surrounding register.
Worked example
Incorrect: “Ovana u-ra-lesa embo, nangarire ovo va hapa okurira.” Correct: “Ovana va-ra-lesa embo, nangarire ovo va hapa okurira.” Reasoning: The subject “ovana” is class 2, so the verb needs “va-”, not “u-”. The second clause already has “va-”, which shows the correct class. Do not change “nangarire” unless the contrast is wrong; the error is concord, not vocabulary.
Traps that cost marks
- Correcting one error and creating another.
- Changing the original meaning during transformation.
- Forgetting to adjust pronouns in reported speech.
- Leaving punctuation unchanged after reordering clauses.
- Over-editing a text that only needs one correction.
- Replacing a word with a synonym from the wrong register.