EDITING 1.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Ensure that you can identify and explain the following editing/language terms: Abbreviations and acronyms are shortened forms of words or phrases. An abbreviation
is typically a shortened form of words used to represent the whole (such as Dr or Prof)
1. Acronyms and Abbreviations
while an acronym contains a set of initial letters from a phrase that usually form
2. Active and Passive voice another word (such as radar or scuba).
3. Ambiguity Abbreviations and acronyms are often interchanged, yet the two are quite distinct. The
4. Americanisms main point of reference is that abbreviations are merely a series of letters while
5. Antonyms acronyms form new words.
6. Apostrophe use Remember the rule for punctuation an abbreviation? If the abbreviation and the word
7. Clichés end on the same letter, NO FULLSTOP!
8. Comma Splice
9. Concord
10. Dashes
11. Degrees of Comparison
12. Direct and Reported Speech
13. Double Negative
14. Generalisations
15. Homonyms
16. Homophones
17. Hyphens
18. Inconsistent use of pronouns
19. Literal and Figurative Language
20. Malapropism
21. Misrelated Participle / Dangling Participle
22. Oxymorons and Paradoxes
23. Parentheses
24. Phrases and Clauses 2. Active and Passive voice
25. Prefixes and Suffixes Active: Subject, verb, object. (She kicks the ball.)
26. Pun Passive: Object, verb, BY object. (The ball is kicked by her.)
27. Redundancy Remember to stay in the same tense!
28. Register
29. Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences
30. Split Infinitive
31. Spoonerisms
32. Synonyms
33. Tautology
34. Tense errors
35. Verbosity

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3. Ambiguity 4. Americanisms / South Africanisms
Ambiguity is a word, phrase or statement which contains more than one meaning. An Americanism is when an American word or spelling is used in South African English.
• Humor (humour)
Ambiguous statements lead to vagueness and confusion, and shape the basis for
• Color (colour)
unintentional humour. • Barbeque (braai)
“I rode a black horse in red pajamas,” because it may lead us to think that the • Sneakers (tackies)
horse was wearing the red pajamas.
• Sign outside a petrol station café: “Kirsty’s Café – Eat Here and Get Gas” • South Africanisms:
• Newspaper headline: “Two sisters reunite after 20 years in a bank.”
• Newspaper headline: “Stolen painting found by tree.”

5. Antonyms
Words of opposite meaning. Hot/cold, up/down, crazy/sane, beautiful/ugly, day/night, young/old

6. Apostrophe use
Apostrophes are ONLY used for two reasons:
• Possession – specify singular or plural (The child’s toy, my mom’s car, the dogs’ leashes)
• Omission/Contraction (don’t, won’t, can’t, I’m, I’ll, you’re, it’s  IT IS!)

APOSTROPHES ARE NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER USED FOR PLURALS!

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 8. Comma Splice
This occurs when a comma separates two main clauses. Use a fullstop!
• This is a comma splice, the two main clauses are separated by a clause.
• I got up late this morning, I didn’t have time for breakfast.
• I have trouble with punctuation, I just don’t have any comma sense.
• Stay off the grass, it needs time to grow.

9. Concord
Agreement in a sentence, usually between subject and verb.
• I are happy. (I am happy.)
• The boys is naughty. (The boys are naughty.)
• Thabo, as well as Andrew, are handsome. (Thabo, as well as Andrew, IS
handsome.)
• They will win if the team score a goal! (They will win if the team scores a goal.)

7. Clichés
A cliché is an expression, idea or element of artistic work which has become overused to
the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being trite or irritating.
• Any of the “Keep Calm and…” posters
• Raining cats and dogs
• I am all ears
• Quit while you’re ahead
• Don’t hold your breath…
• Go the whole nine yards
• Think outside the box
• No pain, no gain!

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Correct the errors in each of the following sentences.
Questions:

1. Insert the missing comma and correct the error of apostrophe.

20 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT YOUR BODY
2. Correct the homophone error.
1. Scientists say the higher you’re IQ the more you dream. 3. Correct the conjunction error.
4. Correct the noun error.
2. You use 200 mussels to take one step. 5. Correct the concord error.
6. Correct the spelling error.
3. The average woman is 12,7cm shorter then the average man.
7. Correct the pronoun error.
4. Your big toes have two bone each while the rest have three. 8. Correct the punctuation error.
9. Correct the concord error.
5. A pair of human feet contain 250 000 sweat glands. 10. A common mistake has been made. Write down the incorrect word and its
correction.
6. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to disolve razor blades. 11. Correct the spelling error.
12. Replace the infinitive with a present participle. Do not change the meaning of
7. It takes food seven seconds to get from one’s mouth to your stomach. the sentence.
13. Correct the comma splice.
8. The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds
14. Correct the conjunction.
9. There is about two trillion bacteria on your feet. 15. Correct the spelling error.
16. Remove a redundant word.
10. Your body gives of enough heat in 30 minutes to boil 1,8 litres of water. 17. Correct the preposition.
18. Replace one word of negation with a contraction. Do no change the meaning of
11. The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substanse in your body. the sentence.
12. Your teeth start to grow 6 months before you are born. 19. Rewrite the last 5 words in more formal register.
20. Explain the function of the hyphen.
13. When you look at someone you love, your pupils dilate, they do the same when
you look at someone you hate.
14. Blondes have more hair then dark-haired people.

15. Your thumb is the same lenght as your nose.

16. You cannot lick your own elbow.

17. Your foot is the same size as the distance from your wrist and elbow.

18. One cannot sneeze with your eyes open.

19. Human beings are the only species that allow their kids back in2 the nest.

20. Your body contains the same amount of lead as an average-sized HB pencil.

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 g. Enclose numbers or letters in a list
10. Dashes / Brackets • Prepositional phrases function as (1) modifiers, (2) complements, (3) adjuncts, (4)
Like all punctuation marks, dashes/brackets ensure the clarity of writing by setting adverbials, and (5) subjects.
apart words, phrases, and clauses that are not part of the grammatical structure of • The department is looking for a new manager who (1) can work any shift, (2) will
the main clause but provide additional information. Parentheses indicate more work multiples shifts per day, and (3) is willing to work overtime.
emphasis than commas; dashes indicate more emphasis than parentheses.
11. Degrees of Comparison
a. Separate appositives that contain commas Adjectives have three forms – positive, comparative and superlative.
Appositives are nouns, pronouns, or noun phrases that modify or explain another You cannot use the superlative when only two things are being compared. (I am the
noun, pronoun, or noun phrase. richer of us two, not the richest. She is the prettier of the two sisters, not the
• My cousins—Oliver, Harry, and Lyra—cannot attend my birthday party. prettiest.)
• The teacher wrote the titles of the books—The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife,
and The Amber Spyglass—on the board.
b. Introduces emphasis
• I am afraid to fly – although I know riding in an airplane is safer than driving a car.
• Many employees – mostly recent graduates with student loans - must ride the bus
to work.
• The idea that women are inferior to men is ridiculous – even preposterous.  That
many children go hungry every day in American is sad – possibly tragic.
c. Enclose clarifications
• We owe the bank thirty thousand dollars ($30,000).
• Books in IRMA (Infrequently Requested Materials Area) are still available for patron
use.
d. Enclose asides and additional information
• Many patrons (mostly freshmen and transfer students) will need a tour of the
library.
• My boss finally answered (after ignoring me for an entire week) that she could not
12. Direct and Reported Speech
transfer me to another department. Use the ‘leading’ verb, in direct speech, as the indicator of tense. (She said, he stated,
• Your neighbours (the people who left their broken truck in the middle of the road)
they yell, I say, etc.)
are quite annoying. Remember to change pronouns and adverbs– I/me, me/her etc, today/that day,
• My puppy - he was completely potty-trained in less than a day - needs to go
tomorrow/the next day, here/there, this/that etc.
outside at least three times a day.
e. Introduce explanations
• The Fourth Amendment—protection from unreasonable search and seizure—
prevents the police from entering my house and taking my belongings on a whim.
• The first law of motion (every object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by
an outside force) explains why a ball dropped from the top of a roof will not stop in
mid-air but will continue to fall until it hits the ground.
f. Introduce an explanation of a preceding series
• Reliability, trustworthiness, diligence—this company only hires employees with all of
these traits.
• Male and female, old and young, short and tall—people of all shapes and sizes can
participate in activities at the community centre.
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 14. Generalisations
A written or spoken statement in which you say or write that something is true all the
time when it is only true some of the time: Generalisation can be dangerous.
• Blondes have more fun.
13. Double Negative • Lawyers are crooked.
A double negative uses two negative words in the same clause to express a single • Teachers have no life… 😉
negative idea: • Rugby players are not clever.
• We didn't see nothing. [ = We saw nothing.] • Politicians are corrupt.
• She never danced with nobody. [ = She didn't dance with anybody.]
15. Homographs
The rules dictate that the two negative elements cancel each other out to give a A homograph is a word that is spelled identically to another word but none the less
positive statement instead, so that the sentence ‘I don’t know nothing’ could literally be has a different meaning and probably a different origin. You will doubtless be
interpreted as ‘I do know something’. annoyed if you tear your trousers while climbing over a fence. Indeed, you may be
so upset that you shed a tear. As you can see, 'tear' and 'tear' are spelled identically,
but they are pronounced differently and have entirely different meanings. They are
good examples of a homograph. Many homographs are not even pronounced
differently. Thus the word 'hide' sounds exactly the same whether you are talking
about the skin of an animal, a measure of land or the verb meaning to conceal or
keep out of sight.

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16. Homonyms 18. Hyphens
Homonyms are two or more words that have the same sound or Hyphens are used to link words and parts of words. They are not as common today
spelling but differ in meaning. as they used to be, but there are three main cases where you should use them:
"Your children need your presence more than your presents." (Jesse Jackson) • To create compound words: a pick-me-up, mother-in-law, good-hearted, accident-
I enjoy bass fishing and playing the bass guitar. prone, computer-aided, good-looking, sugar-free, power-driven, quick-thinking.
The group's lead singer carried a lead pipe for protection. REMEMBER TO SPECIFY WORD CLASS!
• To join prefixes to other words: pre-2018, post-Apartheid, multi-talented, mass-
produced
• To show word breaks when you hyphenate a word at the end of the line. PLEASE
REFRAIN FROM DOING THIS!

17. Homophones
Words that sound the same but have different meaning.

19. Inconsistent use of pronouns

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20. Literal and Figurative Language • Having one wife is called monotony. (monogamy)
Literal language uses words exactly according to their conventionally accepted • The flood damage was so bad they had to evaporate the city. (evacuate)
meanings or denotation. • Dad says the monster is just a pigment of my imagination. (figment)
Figurative (or non-literal) language uses words in a way that deviates from their • Flying saucers are just an optical conclusion. (illusion)
conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complicated meaning or
heightened effect. Figurative language is often created by presenting words in such a
way that they are equated, compared, or associated with normally unrelated meanings.

21. Malapropism
Malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in place of a similar sounding word that
results in a nonsensical and humorous expression.
• Mrs Malaprop said, “Illiterate him from your memory.” (obliterate)
• Rainy weather can be hard on the sciences. (senses)
• Alice said she would not eat crabs or any other crushed Asians. (crustaceans)
• You lead the way and we will precede. (proceed)
• My affluence over my brother is very small. (influence)

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EDITING EXERCISE 2: (Please note: the numbers of the questions relate to the whole
sentence)
THE AFRICAN RATTLE AND ROLL 1. Correct the misrelated participle.
1. Being too poor to afford their own cars, local taxi networks are heavily replied on 2. Identify an Americanism and rewrite the word in Standard English.
for transport in the urban and rural areas. 3. Correct the malapropism.
2. Drawing on his trans-African experiences, Hamilton Wende tells us how to tell our 4. Correct the tautology. Write our only the affected words.
matatus from our tro-tros – and how to survive the colorful journey from A to B. 5. Write the correct form of the verb.
3. Anybody who has travelled in Africa will know what minibus taxis mean to the 6. Name the error.
people on the content. 7. Supply a more suitable synonym for “stuff”.
4. In each and every city from Cairo to Cape Town you will see minibuses crammed 8. Supply the missing conjunction. Write out only the affected words.
with travellers rushing through the choking traffic, stopping unexpectedly to pick 9. A word has been used incorrectly. Rewrite it in its correct form.
10. Correct the double negative. Write out the whole sentence.
up another fare-paying customer, or swerving madly to avoid a pothole in the
11. Correct the concord error.
road.
12. Correct a misspelt word.
5. They are also use to carry people from the cities to the smaller towns and
13. Insert an apostrophe in the correct place. Write only the affected word.
villages.
14. Correct the split infinitive.
6. On the bush and savannah roads.
15. A preposition has been used incorrectly. Write down the incorrect preposition with
7. The minibuses are piled high with stuff strapped to the roof.
the correct one next to it.
8. “In Ghana,” a friend told me, “you will find suitcases, jerry cans of petrol,
16. Correct the comma splice. Write out the whole sentence.
chickens, guinea fowl, goats tied to the roof.
17. Rewrite the sentence removing any ambiguity.
9. Many minibus taxis are badly maintenanced, and accidents, when they happen,
18. Write the correct form of the well-known proverb.
can involve a large number of people.
19. Rewrite this verbose and clichéd sentence more concisely. Do not exceed fifteen
10. So nobody does not want to travel in them.
words. (This question is worth 2 marks.)
11. In South Africa, there are a complex set of finger signs that prospective
passengers have to learn before they can be sure of getting to the correct
destination.
12. If you stand on the side of the road with you’re index finger held upwards that
means you want to head for the centre of the city.
13. People say the upraised finger represents the tall buildings of Johannesburgs
skyline.
14. If you are just travelling locally, you hold your finger pointing downwards – but no
one seems to exactly remember why.
15. Anyway, as somebody told me, “the signs differ in town to town”.
16. On many of these taxis, the sides and windows are painted with bright colours
and slogans, some are sponsored by businesses and sport flashy advertising
catchphrases on their doors.
17. As a result of the rough roads, most taxis in Africa suffer from severe gravel rash
and, thus, need to be resprayed badly.
18. Often they have short passages from the Bible sprayed onto the rear windows: at
other times there are simple messages aimed at the passengers like “go well” or
even “There’s no use crying over spilt ink”.
19. At the end of the day, these rainbow-coloured taxis that would stick out like a sore
thumb in first world countries, when all is said and done, prove that the taxi
industry in Africa is the best thing since sliced bread – and this is the bottom line.
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22. Misrelated Participle / Dangling Participle
Misrelated participles (also called dangling participles) occur when a participial
phrase is attached to the wrong noun, or the participial phrase is not attached to a
noun at all.
• Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on. (Did the TV finish the
assignment?)
• Walking down the street, the streetlights came on. (Did the streetlights walk down
the street?)

23. Oxymorons and Paradoxes

An oxymoron is a combination of two words with almost opposite meanings, to
describe a peculiar condition: bitter sweet, false truth, big baby, well-known secret,
deafening silence, minor crisis, civil war
A paradox describes a situation that seems very strange or impossible because of two
opposite qualities or facts.
• The more you fail, the more likely you are to succeed.
• The more something scares you, the more you should probably do it.

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 26. Prefixes and Suffixes
24. Parentheses Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to the beginning or end of
There are 3 types of parentheses – dashes, brackets and commas. Mostly used to another word. They are not words in their own right and cannot stand on their own in
add extra information to the main clause of the sentence. a sentence: if they are printed on their own they have a hyphen before or after them.
• The girl, who is wearing a red dress, is pretty. Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create a new word
• I am (despite not sleeping well last night) alert in class today! with a different meaning. Happy/unhappy, cultural/multicultural, work/overwork,
• GHS’s English teachers are – without a doubt – the coolest teachers in the world. space/cyberspace, market/supermarket
Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word. Child/childish, work/worker,
taste/tasteless, like/likeable

27. Pun
A play on words. When a word has been used deliberately to have more than one
meaning in a sentence.

25. Phrases and Clauses

Both are parts of a sentence. A clause contains a finite verb, a phrase does not. (It
may contain a non-finite verb!)

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28. Redundancy
Words, phrases or ideas that are included unnecessarily in sentences are redundant. 30. Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences
• It is a new innovation. Simple sentence – one clause
• My friend likes to watch suspense thrillers. Complex – main clause and subordinate clause joined by a subordinating conjunction
• I heard it with my own ears. Compound – two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS)
• I earn a salary and an added bonus. Compound-complex – sentences consist of two or more verb clauses and one or more
• I never make predictions about the future. adverb clauses. In other words, compound-complex sentences are combinations of
• This is indeed a sad misfortune. one or more compound sentences and one or more complex sentences.
• Thanks to the joint collaboration, the archaeologists found the manuscript in the
dilapidated ruins.
• Sign up and win free gifts!

31. Split Infinitive

The split infinitive is a construction un which one or more words come between the
participle to and the verb. Remember to show where the adverb must be placed!
• ‘To generously donate’ should read ‘to donate generously’.
• ‘To boldly go where no man has gone’ should read ‘To go boldly…’
29. Register
Formal, colloquial, informal.
Remember to use the correct register in all of your writing!

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32. Spoonerisms
A spoonerism is an error in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or 34. Tautology
morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Tautology is the unnecessary repetition of the same idea, using different words.
Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner, who was famous for • Without shoes, the couple strolled barefoot on the beach. (barefoot means without
doing this. shoes!)
An example is saying "The Lord is a shoving leopard" instead of "The Lord is a loving • I am feeling sleepily sleepy today.
shepherd." While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue, and getting • The dress cost me R500 rands.
one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words.
• ATM machine
• PIN number
• GPS system
• ISBN number
• HIV virus

33. Synonyms
Opposite of antonyms. Words with similar meaning.

35. Verbosity
Verbosity or verboseness is speech or writing that uses more words than necessary.

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EDITING EXERCISE MEMORANDUM FOR LANGUAGE
Correct the errors in each of the following sentences.(p 7)
1 Good morning, first aiders.
1. … IQ, the more…
2 I have been asked to briefly tell you about the basics of Coronary Pulmonary Resucitasion.
2. mussels – muscles
3 If there has been an accident which could, in any way, have injured the persons spine, they
3. then – than
4 should never be moved – specifically, their head should be kept very still. There is a risk of
5 snapping the spinal column completely if you move the victim without stabilizing him. 4. bones
6 Ideally, you should not try C.P.R. unless you have been trained to do so, so do that course 5. contains
7 soon! but, of course, accidents do happen, as the saying goes. 6. dissolve
8 If you are comforted with a victim who is not breathing, having at least some idea of how to help 7. your/one’s
9 to do it would help. 8. fullstop at end
10 Open up the airway by tilting the head and chin. Never do this if you suspect that there has been 9. are
11 a neck injury as it could aggravate the injury. You need to feel for obstructions if you have 10. of – off
12 reason to believe that the patient has swallowed something. 11. substance
13 Listen and feel for breathing for ten seconds. count the seconds one zambezi two zambezi three 12. growing
14 zambezi. If there is no breathing, place your mouth over the patients then breathe into the mouth 13. … dilate. They do the same…
15 hard twice. 14. than
16 Feel for a pulse for ten seconds. The easiest place is on the jugular vain in the neck. If there are
15. length
17 no pulse, start chest compressions. For adults, do fifteen compressions followed by two mouth-
16. own
18 to-mouth breaths four times before you feel for a pulse again. Press to a depth of about 4-5
17. between
19 centimetres. For children, do five, followed by one breath, 20 times over. Press to a depth of
18. can’t
20 about 2,5-3,5 centimetres.
21 Having listened to my talk, the subject of C.P.R. should now be a little clearer to you all. 19. back into the home
20. creates compound adjective
1. Name and correct the error in line 2. (2)
2. Correct the spelling error in line 2. (1)
EDITING EXERCISE 2: (p 18)
1. Because people are too poor… ava
3. Insert the missing punctuation mark in line 3. (1)
2. Colourful
4. State the function of the punctuation mark inserted in question 3. (1) 3. Continent
5. Correct one personal pronoun in line 3. (1) 4. Each and every
6. Correct one personal adjective in line 4 to continue the sequence of case in your answer to 5. (1) 5. Used
6. Not a complete sentence
7. Rewrite lines 6-7, removing all asides. Rewrite with the correct tone. (2)
7. Luggage/baggage
8. Correct the malapropism in line 8. (1) 8. …fowl and goats…
9. To eliminate ambiguity, substitute the underlines pronoun in line 9 with an appropriate noun. (1) 9. Maintained
10. State the redundant preposition in line 8. (1) 10. So nobody wants to travel in them.
11. Is a complex set
11. Rewrite the sentence in lines 13-14 (count one zambezi…three zambezi) with the necessary
12. Your
punctuation. (2)
13. Johannesburg’s
12. Rewrite the sentence fragment, “place your mouth over the patients then breathe into his mouth 14. No one seems to remember exactly why
hard twice” (lines 14-15), correcting the apostrophe error and placing the adverb of manner in the 15. In – from
correct position. (2) 16. Slogans; some are…
17. Taxis badly need to be resprayed.
13. Correct the homophone error in line 16. (1)
18. Split milk
14. Correct the concord error in lines 16-17. (1) 19. These multi-coloured taxis prove that the taxi industry is fantastic. AVA
15. Correct the misrelated participle in line 21. Rewrite the sentence correctly. (2)
(20) 28
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EDITING EXERCISE (p 27)

1. Split infinitive – I have been asked to tell you briefly…

2. Resuscitation
3. Person’s
4. Singular possession
5. He/she
6. His/her
7. You should not try C.P.R, unless you have been trained to do so.
8. Confronted
9. C.P.R.
10. Of how
11. Count the seconds: one Zambezi, two Zambezi, three Zambezi.
12. Patient’s – breathe hard
13. Vein
14. Is no pulse
15. Now that you have listened to my talk…

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