Proofreading and identifying errors

Narrator: So you think you’ve finished your latest spooky story do you Frank?

Have you checked it matches your original purpose?

That your sentences flow nicely, the words are in the right order, and double-checked your facts?

Frank, Frank, Frank.

Imagine the errors you might’ve made. Does it even make sense? Here, let me take a look.

'A witch that casts a terrible smell.'

There’s a spelling mistake!

'A werewolf that howls moonlight.'

Couple of words missing there Frank!

'A vampire wakes up in the sunlight.'

Vampires during the day!?

Clearly you haven’t checked your vampire facts!

'The vampire got a steak to her heart.'

You won’t be defeating any vampires with that kind of steak!

And it’s not just your spelling… have you checked your grammar?

'Stop scaring, little children.'

You don’t need that comma. Let’s remove it.

Spot on Frank, checking your writing before you show it to anyone is as important as watching where you’re going.

FRANK: ARGH!

[MUSIC]

MRS. HUDSON

Hello, I’m Mrs. Hudson and here are my top tips to help check your sentences to see if they make sense.

When you’re busy writing, there’s so much to think about: spelling, grammar, punctuation – it’s very easy to make a mistake. But with a bit of practice, it’s also very easy to correct. When you check your writing to see if it makes sense, you are proof-reading. It’s a bit like having your teacher in your head. Here are my three proof-reading tips.

1. Take a break before you proof-read. You need to see your writing with fresh eyes.
2. Read your writing out loud. That’s often when you spot a mistake or find it doesn’t make sense.
3. Before you put down your pen or pencil, do a last check just on the punctuation.

There are two mistakes in this sentence.

The waves crashed as the alien dragged itself out of the see and onto the sure.

Can you work out the two mistakes? to relax and read the sentence out loud. That’ll help you find the mistakes.

Spotted them? Let’s find out. There are two spelling mistakes in this sentence: ‘see’ and ‘sure’ are sneaky homophones, words that sounds like the ones you want, but have different spellings and different meanings. So with our corrections, the sentence will still sound the same, but the spelling will be correct.

The waves crashed as the alien dragged itself out of the sea and onto the shore.

Awesome work, team. Let’s try another sentence.

It’s long tentacles was sticky with slime?

This time, there are three mistakes to find, so take your time. Read it out loud and check the punctuation.

, you can press pause if you need a little more time.

Feeling confident you spotted the mistakes? Excellent.

First, an apostrophe here sneaked into “its”. It’s with an apostrophe is short for “it is”. When its shows belonging as it does here, the tentacles belonging to the alien, there’s no apostrophe. Also, its long tentacles were sticky, not its long tentacles was sticky. And last of all, this sentence isn’t a question, so it should end in with a full stop, not a question mark.

Its long tentacles were sticky with slime.

Eugh! Sticky and slimy? Thanks to you, we’ve cleaned up that sentence. Over to you for the next bit of our awesome alien story.

I need you to use your proofreading superpowers to find the mistakes in these paragraphs.

Oozing with slime, the crawled up the cliff

In the darkness above, a voice scream, “Its coming!”

Take your time and pause if you need to.

How many mistakes can you find? One? Three? Four? Five?

That’s right, there are a super scary five mistakes in these two paragraphs!

First up, the word “alien” is missing from the first sentence. What else is missing from this sentence?

That’s right, we need a full stop after cliff.

Next up, there’s a terrifying tense error. A voice screamed, not a voice scream.

Mistake four: “Its coming!” is short for “it is coming”, so it needs… that’s right! It needs an apostrophe this time.

And finally, we’re missing the speech marks at the end of what is said. , speech marks go at the start and at the end of the words someone in the story says.

Super work! Your proof-reading skills are… out of this world!

So where will the alien go next? And who screamed “Its coming!” Why not continue the story yourself?

And now you know how, check it using your proof-reading superpowers!

Take a break, read it out, and check the punctuation.

Good luck earthlings!

For more help, challenges and games on this subject, visit BBC Bitesize.