Editing
Editing is worth 5 points of the twenty in Language in Use, and it is the one task on the exam where the right answer is sometimes a tick rather than a word.
Three worked examples
On the real sheet three lines come solved for you, before the first scored one. The extra word goes into the right-hand column, exactly as it is printed. This is what that looks like.
| Line | Answer |
|---|---|
| 0. Every Saturday she set up a small stall behind the old fountain. | ✓ |
| 00. She soon developed the confidence, one sale at a time. | the |
| 000. She mentioned about the sale to everyone waiting near her stall. | about |
- 0: ✓, nothing to strike out, the line stands exactly as it is.
- 00: the is the extra word, because confidence here takes no article.
- 000: about is the extra word, because mention takes its object directly.
The trainer prints no worked examples. Its ten lines are numbered 0 to 9, and line 0 is a scored line like all the others, so there it can hold an extra word too.
The first line
From here on it is your text. Mira has been selling second-hand clothes at the Saturday market for almost a year.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Below exam level- 01
The rule and the table
The clean line. A line with no extra word scores exactly as much as a corrected one, and there are two to four of them in every ten. What it looks like: subject and predicate occur once each, every article and preposition has work to do, and there is nothing to strike out.
The rule behind the first line is already worked through above. You will meet the other five one line at a time, each with its own account right where you miss it. Here is only a summary, to have something to check against along the way:
| What you see in the line | What to strike out |
|---|---|
the before an abstract idea nothing points at | the |
| the subject named twice, the second time by a pronoun | it, he, they |
which, who or that, but only one verb in the line | which |
| a preposition right after the verb, the object already there | about, on, to |
because or although at the front, so in the second half | so, but |
been next to was or were | been |
| none of the above | nothing, answer ✓ |
Lines 2–3
Two more lines of the same text, and in each of them the extra word hides somewhere else in the sentence.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 02
So much for the article. The next line breaks nearer the end of the sentence, not beside the noun.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 03
Lines 4–7
You spotted the fragment with no predicate. Four more lines of the same text, and the next mistake sits in a pair of neighbouring words rather than in the sentence as a whole.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 04
That is the word pair dealt with. Next, the extra word hangs on the link between two halves of the sentence rather than on a pair.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 05
You recognised one link. Now comes a deceptively familiar word again, except that this time it is not in the way.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Above exam level- 06
You have told the familiar word apart twice. Next comes the verb form itself, not a conjunction or a pronoun.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Above exam level- 07
Lines 8–10
The passive form is settled. Six of the last seven lines had a mistake in them, and after a run like that the hand itches to strike something out in the next one too.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 08
That is the second clean line in this text. Next comes a resumptive pronoun again, now in the plural.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 09
You caught the pronoun a second time. The last line of this text returns to the abstract noun, only in a different construction.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 10
Ten lines done: eight mistakes, two clean lines, and three of the rules came up twice, each time with the account right after the answer. Next comes a check with none of that support.
The last pass, on a different text
Ten lines behind you, and most of them sounded close enough to normal when read aloud: the ear did not find the mistakes, the rules did. Now comes the real sheet: another ten lines of one text in a row, with no account after each line. The line-by-line account comes after you check. The text is new: neighbours are putting a garden on the roof of their building. Three of its lines break rules the table above does not hold; the section after this one names them.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam level- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07
- 08
- 09
- 10
What to take with you
| Points for the text | 5 |
| Lines in the exam | 10 scored + 3 unscored examples (0, 00, 000) |
| Lines in the trainer | 10, numbered 0 to 9, all scored, no examples |
| Clean lines | 2 to 4 out of ten |
| What you write | the extra word exactly as printed, or ✓ |
A line with no extra word is neither a trap nor a rarity: on the exam two to four of the ten are clean. You write the extra word exactly as printed, or else you put a ✓.
The table in this article holds the patterns the lines above were built on. Real texts plant other extra words as well, and each of them is a rule you can check, not a guess:
| What you see in the line | What to strike out |
|---|---|
more before an -er form, most before an -est form | more, most |
both in front of three or more things | both |
each right before a plural noun | each |
of between most or many and a bare plural noun | of |
do or to between can, will, must and another verb | do, to |
have or has beside a finished time (last spring, in 2019) | have, has |
been between have, has, had and a third form, when the subject does the action | been |
been right after is or are | been |
up or out after a verb that needs no particle | up, out |
a or an before a noun you cannot count (advice, news) | a, an |
a sentence that opens with Although or Because and has no second half | Although, Because |
or after a list already closed by and | or |
Two of these need a second look before you strike. A line that opens with Because and ends at
the full stop is a fragment only when nothing else in it could be the main clause: Because the bus was late. is one, Because the bus was late, we walked. is not. And of after most is extra only before a bare plural noun: most of days loses it, most of the days and most of them keep it.
The articles today’s lines led to:
Articles: when a noun needs no the at all Relative clauses: one subject, and a which with work to do Prepositions after a verb: when the object already holds the slot Connectors: one clause, one master The passive: where been sits on the ladder of tenses Tenses: the present perfect takes no date Adjectives: one marker of comparison, not twoWas this article helpful?