Proof-reading
Spot the Mistakes
Try to find all of the mistakes in the following passage, then compare your
findings with the answers commentary further on. How sharp is your
grammar - did you spot everything?
Supermarket giant, Acme, supply all the food products,
chilled items and fruit and vegetables, for their stores in
the South West of England, from one huge warehouse
in Weston Super Mare. Almost one-and-a-half million
cases of stock move though the warehouse. In Acmes
'groceries' section just over two weeks stock is carried,
in total 650000 cases. The…
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Answers and Commentary
Supermarket giant1, Acme2, supply3 all4 the food products, chilled items5 and6 fruit
and vegetables, for their7 stores in the S8outh W9est10 of England, from one huge
warehouse in Weston11 S12uper
Mare.
13
stock move though18 the warehouse19.
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20
Almost one-15and-16a-17half million cases of
In Acme21s '22groceries'23 section24 just over
two weeks25 stock is carried, in26 total27 65028000 cases29.
30
The…
1. Because the subject of this sentence is ‘Supermarket giant Acme’, the commas are wrong. They have
been put there from confusion with phrases like this one: ‘Alison, director of the department, is aware of
poor grammar.’ Here, the main phrase is clearly: ‘Alison is aware of poor grammar.’ Therefore, the
commas are right in this one, to form the subordinate clause. The sentence in question, though, is not
the same as this grammatically.
2. See note 1.
3. This is a company (collective singular noun) which ‘supplies’, not the people in it who ‘supply’. We
should always say: ‘WHSmith is’ and not ‘WHSmith are’; ‘BP has’ and not ‘BP have’.
4. We need to insert the word ‘of’ here.
5. This is a serial list, so we need the punctuation to show this: ‘food products, chilled items, fruit and
vegetables’
6. This ‘and’ is wrong here – see note 5.
7. This is a company (collective singular noun) which supplies for ‘its’ stores and not the people in it who
supply for ‘their’ stores. We cannot use ‘their’ when referring to a singular company: ‘The company and
its products.’
8. Lower-case ‘s’ here for this word.
9. Lower-case ‘w’ here for this word.
10. This is seen written many ways in English: South West; south west; South-West; south-west; Southwest;
southwest. We have to choose one, based not on what ‘feels’ right, but on which one has the best
backing from a language point of view.
11. This needs a hyphen for its correct spelling.
12. This needs a lower-case ‘s’ for its correct spelling.
13. This needs a hyphen for its correct spelling.
14. Only one space after marks of punctuation.
15. There is no hyphen required in this number spelling, but there is with numbers from ‘twenty-one’ to
‘ninety-nine’ and when these are used as part of greater numbers: ‘three hundred and forty-two’; ‘six
thousand seven hundred and thirty-six’ – many people are unaware of this.
16. See note 15.
17. See note 15.
18. through
19. You cannot state that a quantity of stock moves through the warehouse, without giving the time
qualifier for that.
20. Only one space after marks of punctuation.
21. This requires an apostrophe.
22. This appears to be an opening single quotation mark, but it is not. The mark in the text is a
mathematical character known as a ‘foot mark’, correctly used for when you need to say: “I am 5'9" in
height.” You can see the correct opening single quotation marks around the words ‘foot mark’. Each font
has its own type designed for it, but the ones which look like a vertical brick are not right.
23. This appears to be a closing opening single quotation mark, but it is not. The mark in the text is a
mathematical character known as a ‘foot mark’, correctly used for when you need to say: “I am 5'9" in
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24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
height.” You can see the correct closing single quotation marks around the words ‘foot mark’. Each font
has its own type designed for it, but the ones which look like a vertical brick are not right.
A comma is required here, as this sentence does not begin with the subject. Whenever your sentence
does not begin with the subject, you must have a comma before the subject – just as in this very phrase
which you are reading now. Other examples: In 1977, we were…; After playing football for 2 hours,
they…; Evenly shared, the sweets would…
A temporal genitive apostrophe is required here.
Word order change required here.
Word order change required here.
We use a comma separator in thousands as standard, to emphasise the difference between the number
2,005 and the year 2005 (where there is no comma used). This helps readers to see quickly what was
meant.
Word order change required here.
Only one space after marks of punctuation.
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