Chapter Review

Writing Skills

Proofreading and Editing · Faulty Sentence Structure · Subject-Verb Agreement · Errors of Function and Spelling

Proofreading vs. Editing

Proofreading is the final surface-level check for typos, spelling, and punctuation errors. Editing is a deeper structural review that fixes grammar, usage, style, clarity, and logical flow. Editing comes before proofreading.

Key Points

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    Proofreading catches surface errors: typos, misspellings, punctuation mistakes
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    Editing fixes usage errors, style errors, clarity problems, and consistency issues
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    Editing may involve rewriting sentences or reordering ideas; proofreading does not
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    Proofreading is the last step; editing is performed on an earlier draft
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    Reading aloud, reading backwards, and changing the font help catch errors your brain auto-corrects

Error Categories: Usage, Style, Clarity, Consistency

Writing errors fall into four categories: mechanical (spelling, punctuation), grammatical (agreement, tense), usage (wrong word, confused homophones), and stylistic (wordiness, redundancy, vague language). Each requires a different correction approach.

Key Points

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    Mechanical errors — spelling, punctuation, capitalisation — are quick to fix but easy to overlook
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    Usage errors involve wrong word choice: affect/effect, their/there/they're, fewer/less
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    Style errors make writing less effective even when grammatically correct: wordiness, redundancy, passive voice overuse
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    Clarity problems include ambiguous pronoun references, misplaced modifiers, and dangling modifiers
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    Consistency errors involve shifting tense, point of view, or spelling variants within a text
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    Wordy phrases to trim: "due to the fact that" → "because", "in order to" → "to", "at this point in time" → "now"

Sentence Fragments and Run-Ons

A sentence fragment lacks a subject, verb, or complete thought. A run-on sentence joins two or more independent clauses without correct punctuation or a conjunction. A comma splice is a run-on where only a comma separates the clauses.

Key Points

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    Fragments: missing subject ("Walked to the store."), missing verb, or a subordinate clause standing alone
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    Fix fragments by attaching to an adjacent clause, adding the missing element, or removing the subordinator
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    Fused sentence: no punctuation between independent clauses ("I love physics it is my favourite subject.")
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    Comma splice: only a comma between independent clauses — grammatically insufficient
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    Fix run-ons with a period, semicolon, comma + coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS), or subordinating conjunction
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    Conjunctive adverbs (however, therefore) require a semicolon before them, not just a comma

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is placed too far from the word it describes, causing confusion. A dangling modifier has no logical subject in the sentence to attach to at all. Both create ambiguity and unintentional meaning.

Key Points

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    Misplaced: "The student almost solved every problem" ≠ "The student solved almost every problem" — position of "almost" changes meaning
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    Fix misplaced modifiers by moving them directly next to the word they describe
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    Dangling: "Walking through the park, the flowers smelled wonderful" — flowers cannot walk
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    Fix dangling modifiers by making the main clause subject match the modifier's implied doer, or expand into a subordinate clause
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    Test: for every introductory participial phrase (-ing or -ed), check that the main clause subject logically performs that action

Parallel Structure (Parallelism)

Items in a list, comparison, or paired construction must share the same grammatical form — all nouns, all gerunds, all infinitives, or all clauses. Correlative conjunctions (both...and, either...or, not only...but also) are the most frequently tested parallelism markers.

Key Points

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    Lists: "hiking, swimming, and to ride bikes" → faulty; correct: "hiking, swimming, and riding bikes"
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    Correlative conjunctions require matching forms on both sides: "not only effective but also affordable"
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    Mixing gerunds and infinitives in a list is a parallelism error
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    Paired conjunctions: both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also, whether...or
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    Checklists and headings at the same level should use the same grammatical form

Subject-Verb Agreement Fundamentals

A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject takes a plural verb. Intervening phrases do not change the subject. The verb must agree with the true subject, not the nearest noun.

Key Points

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    Third person singular present tense adds -s/-es: "She runs"; plural does not: "They run"
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    Cross out prepositional phrases between subject and verb to check agreement: "The box of chocolates is..."
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    "Along with", "together with", "as well as" do not create compound subjects — verb agrees with the main subject only
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    Compound subject with "and" → plural verb, unless the nouns name a single unit ("bread and butter is my breakfast")
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    Compound subject with "or/nor" → proximity rule: verb agrees with the nearer subject

Special Subject-Verb Agreement Cases

Indefinite pronouns, collective nouns, inverted sentences, and amount expressions each follow specific agreement rules. Relative pronouns agree with their antecedent, not with "one".

Key Points

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    Always singular indefinite pronouns: each, either, neither, everyone, anybody, something, no one, nothing
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    Context-dependent (some, any, all, most, none): check the noun in the of-phrase — uncountable → singular, countable plural → plural
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    Collective nouns (team, committee, family): singular when acting as one unit, plural when members act individually
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    Inverted sentences ("There are three books"): "there" is never the subject — find the true subject after the verb
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    Distances, time, money, fractions: singular when treated as one total quantity ("Fifty kilometres is a long distance")
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    "One of the plural who/that" → plural verb (antecedent is the plural noun); "the only one of the plural who/that" → singular verb

Word Function and Form Errors

An error of function uses a real word in the wrong grammatical role (adjective where adverb is needed). A word form error selects the wrong morphological variant from a word family (noun suffix instead of adjective suffix).

Key Points

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    Adverbs modify verbs; adjectives modify nouns: "She runs quickly" not "She runs quick"
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    After linking verbs (taste, seem, become), use adjectives as subject complements: "The food tastes good" not "well"
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    Key suffixes: noun (-tion, -ness, -ment), adjective (-ful, -less, -ous), adverb (-ly), verb (-ize, -ify, -ate)
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    Position determines required part of speech: before a noun → adjective; modifying a verb → adverb; after "the/a" → noun
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    Not all -ly words are adverbs: "friendly" and "lovely" are adjectives

Commonly Confused Words

Homophones and near-homophones are a major error source because spell-check cannot catch them. The only defence is knowing each word's meaning and testing it in context.

Key Points

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    Affect (verb, influence) vs. Effect (noun, result)
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    Their (possessive) / There (location or existential) / They're (they are)
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    Its (possessive, no apostrophe) / It's (it is) — the exception to the apostrophe-ownership rule
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    Fewer (countable) vs. Less (uncountable); Among (3+) vs. Between (2)
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    Imply (speaker suggests) vs. Infer (listener deduces)
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    Lose (fail to win, one "o") vs. Loose (not tight, two "o"s)

Spelling Rules and Frequently Misspelled Words

English spelling follows patterns for ie/ei, double consonants, and suffix addition, but important exceptions exist. High-frequency misspellings must be memorised individually.

Key Points

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    I before E except after C, or when sounding like "ay": believe, receive, weigh. Exceptions: weird, their, seize, height
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    Double the final consonant before a vowel suffix in one-syllable words (run → running) and stressed final syllables (begin → beginning)
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    Words ending in silent "e": drop before vowel suffix (hope → hoping), keep before consonant suffix (hopeful)
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    Suffix -ful has one "l" (beautiful), not two; -ly after -ic becomes -ally (basically), except publicly
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    Top misspellings: accommodate (cc, mm), definitely (-ite), separate (a rat), necessary (one c, two s's), occurrence (cc, rr)