Exercise your editing skills

Exercise your editing skills It is not enough to understand grammar… to know how to spell… to be able to define a misplaced modifier…

Exercise your editing skills Writers and editors must be able to quickly spot errors in copy and know how to fix them. This is easier said than done – even if you are a proficient editor. Mistakes are often overlooked because you mentally fix the error while reading to yourself.

Exercise your editing skills It takes awareness and practice to turn your knowledge of grammar, spelling and clarity in writing into a practical set of skills. Each of the following sentences contain an error in punctuation, word choice, spelling or grammar. Spot the error, then decide how you would correct it.

Exercise your editing skills At the championship football game, the cheerleader yelled so much she became horse.

Exercise your editing skills At the championship football game, the cheerleader yelled so much she became hoarse. Watch out for homophones, which are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. A horse is a large mammal. A hoarse voice has a husky, grating tone. There are lots of homophones in the English language. If you are in doubt, pull out a dictionary and check.

Exercise your editing skills The Student Council passed out flyers to advertise its annual bake sale.

Exercise your editing skills The Student Council passed out fliers to advertise its annual bake sale. Homophones pop up all the time. You might consider making a list to hang in your yearbook room so editors and writers can quickly check the words they are using. In this sentence, the word should be “fliers.” According to Associated Press style, a “flier” is an airman or a handbill; a flyer is the proper name of some trains and buses.

Exercise your editing skills Quarterback Jayson Jenks had been playing football for seventeen years, he was very talented.

Exercise your editing skills Quarterback Jayson Jenks had been playing football for 17 years; he was very talented. This sentence actually contains two errors. The first violates AP Style; numbers greater than nine should not be spelled out. However, a serious violation of punctuation rules also has occurred. The comma after years creates what is called a “comma splice.” This comma joins two complete sentences and should be replaced with either a semicolon or a period and a capital letter.

Exercise your editing skills Caitlyn laughed at how her puppy kept trying to catch it’s tail.

Exercise your editing skills Caitlyn laughed at how her puppy keeps trying to catch its tail. A spell check can only tell you if the word you typed is spelled correctly. It cannot tell you if it is the correct word choice. In this case, spell check would not know that the writer really wanted the possessive “its” instead of the contraction for it is.

Exercise your editing skills Junior Bailey Reimer and her best friend, junior Molly Glenn, were very compatable.

Exercise your editing skills Junior Bailey Reimer and her best friend, junior Molly Glenn, were very compatible. Programs with automatic spell check, like Microsoft Word, often fix the spelling in stories as you type. Sometimes this is great. Other times, like when you are typing in a story in a program that does not have this feature, it’s not so great. Writers learn to rely on programs to automatically fix spelling, so when a program does not, they fail to catch the error.

Exercise your editing skills At the Spirit Club car wash, a freshman girl washed a car wearing a dress.

Exercise your editing skills At the Spirit Club car wash, a freshman girl wearing a dress washed a car. Unless the car was wearing a dress, the modifying phrase “wearing a dress” needed to be moved to right after “a freshman girl.” This is an example of a misplaced modifier. Always make sure you put information modifying a noun as close to that noun as possible. Otherwise, you end up with sentences that may confuse some readers.

Exercise your editing skills “I’m not sure I can give my speach today, Mrs. Hoopes,” sophomore Alex Sisson said. “I forgot to write it on my calender, so I am not prepared.”

Exercise your editing skills “I’m not sure I can give my speech today, Mrs. Hoopes,” sophomore Alex Sisson said. “I forgot to write it on my calendar, so I am not prepared.” Always, always, always spell check! Take the time to make sure every word in every story is spelled correctly. It is difficult to ask a reader to trust that your facts are right if you cannot be trusted to fix the spelling.

Exercise your editing skills The captain of the wrestling team is a senior with black hair weighing 215 pounds.

Exercise your editing skills The captain of the wrestling team is a 215-pound senior with black hair. The information about the captain’s weight MUST touch the noun it modifies (senior). Otherwise, the sentence tells us this guy has really heavy hair! Fixing a misplaced modifier like this one is not always as easy as moving the words. In this sentence, the best option uses the same information, but it is rewritten to flow better.

Exercise your editing skills Always be on the lookout for errors in editing; misplaced modifiers, misspelled words, poor word choice and incorrect uses of punctuation are everywhere. The more aware you are of these errors in your life, the more likely you will be to spot the mistakes in your writing. Like any skill, editing takes practice!