Name:
COM 2600 (Introduction to Journalism)
AP Style and Copy editing Practice Exercise #9 (Week 14)
A. Cross out and correct the style errors in the sentences below. Make the correction above the
error. Indicate page references in the AP Stylebook or Writing and Reporting News, when
appropriate. For punctuation errors, use the correct copyediting mark from the back cover of
WRN. The number in parentheses indicates the number of errors in the sentence. Lowercase
“p” beside a number indicates a punctuation error. DUE: IN CLASS ON WEDNESDAY.
1.
United States deaths from chickenpox dropped to the lowest level ever after a vaccine
to prevent the childhood disease was introduced in 1995 a study shows. (1, 1p)
2.
In the 5 years before the vaccine, chickenpox caused or contributed to an average of
one hundred forty-five deaths each year. (2)
3.
That dropped to sixty-six in just a few years, researchers at the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention reported in today's new england journal of medicine. (3)
4.
The death rate was slashed by as much as 92 % among children ages one to four. (3)
5.
Until the vaccine became available nearly everyone got chickenpox. (1p)
6.
Healthy children and adults can die from complications that include viral pneumonia
infection of the brain and bleeding. (1p)
7.
Now, with eighty-five percent of young children in the U. S. getting a vaccine shot,
chicken pox cases have dropped from four million a year to 800000. (3, 1p)
8.
The vaccine is considered about eight per cent affective.
9.
Authorities have discovered a ten- to fifteen-acre pot farm near Pioneer City, valued in
the millions of dollars and considered the area's biggest marihuana bust in recent memory. (3)
10.
Detectives from Sunrise City searched property owned by Desmond Lynch at 316
Vickers Rd., in Horizon, and recovered two John Deere farm tractors stolen from the Pioneer
City area, valued at nearly $35,000.00, and tractor attachments valued at $2,700.00. (3)
(Continued on back)
©2008 Calvin L. Hall
4/12/08
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B. For the selection below, identify the sentence-skills mistakes at the underlined spots.
From the list below, choose the letter that describes the error and write it in the space
provided beneath the paragraph. (Some mistakes may appear more than once.) For any
error you don’t understand, refer to Working With Words, the grammar section of the AP
Stylebook or any Grammar Review handouts for assistance.
1.
6.
2.
7.
3.
8.
4.
9.
5.
10.
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