Become a Subeditor. You KNOW you want to. Put your perfectionism to work.

How well did you do? Here are the mistakes, with suggested corrections.

1. The dog scratched unhappily at it's fleas. Try its. Remember: 'it's' is a contraction.
2. The bad weather was a terrible disappointment to Mary and I. It's to Mary and me
3. I didn't know what the true story was, so I made discrete inquiries. The word is discreet. It means 'careful and circumspect'. 'Discrete' means individual, like 'a discrete entity'.
4. Be on the lookout for things to write about for the Post if possible take a camera with you. Run-on sentence. Try making two sentences out of it. Be on the lookout for things to write about for the Post. If possible, take a camera with you.
5. We can all remember sitting around the campfire and sing this famous song. There's such a thing as staying parallel. Say, 'sitting...and singing...'
6. Looking out at the horizon, the moon was seen to rise over the hill. The moon wasn't looking. You were. Say so.
7. Jean Valjean was a convict who couldn't find a job. Then a kindly priest helps him, and he becomes a respected citizen. Then a police inspector found him and caused trouble. You've switched tenses. Write the whole paragraph in the present tense, or the past tense. Don't mix and match.
8. My favourite books are Lord of the Rings, 'Harry Potter and the Ugly Dragon', and Ender's Game. Even online, you need to decide: italics or quotes? Standard usage is to put book titles in italics. Okay, okay – give yourself an extra half-point if you knew that wasn't a real Harry Potter title. At least, we don't think it is.
9. Jane was so popular in the beauty contest, she was voted Miss. Congeniality. No full stops after 'Miss'. Ever. And yes, it's politically incorrect, but so are beauty pageants.
10. The electric food selection includes examples of European and Indian cuisine. The right word is eclectic. That means 'varied'. A shocking mistake.

Did you find them all? Do you want to argue about it? There's plenty of room below. Or list your favourite typos.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

20.05.13 Front Page

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