Editing for Articles

Copy this file and paste it into your word processor. Using the following symbols, show how the errors should be edited.

\-aaa\ = omit the word or phrase aaa

\+aaa\ = add the word or phrase aaa

\aaa > bbb\ = change the word or phrase aaa to bbb

Refer to Correction Symbols, as necessary. After editing the paragraphs, check the answer key.

Exercise 9A: The Sundial

Seventeen articles (the) are missing from the following paragraph.

1 Sundial is probably most ancient of scientific instruments. 2 This instrument tells time by measuring passage of sun through sky. 3 Ancient men measured time by placing a stick in ground and by watching movement of its shadow. 4 Egyptians and Greeks constructed first sundials, which divided each day into equal intervals called hours. 5 By A.D. 150, Greek mathematicians used trigonometry to plot hour lines. 6 Sundials were used from sixteenth to nineteenth centuries as primary way of telling time. 7 Because sundial time (or solar time) is not same as clock time, development of mechanical clock and adoption of standard time in nineteenth century caused sundial to lose its practical value. 8 Nonetheless, sundials are sometimes still used today.

Exercise 9B Diamonds

Ten articles (a or the) are missing from the following paragraph.

1 Diamonds, most precious of all gems, and graphite, mineral that is used in pencils, are both composed of element carbon. 2 What makes diamonds different from graphite is way that its carbon atoms are bonded together. 3 In diamond, each carbon atom is bonded with four neighboring carbon atoms under extreme heat and pressure. 4 0ctahedron crystal that is formed is hardest known mineral. 5 Diamonds have been valued for centuries because of their rarity and their exceptional hardness. 6 Because only about 20 percent of all diamonds mined are suitable for cutting into gemstones, rest are used for industrial purposes. 7 Today, diamonds have become most important industrial abrasive, and they are almost indispensable as a grinding material in wide range of industrial applications.

From Improving the Grammar of Written English: The Editing Process, Beverly Benson and Patricia Byrd

[Answer Key] [Go to class at cvc.blackboard.com] [marsha_chan@wvmccd.cc.ca.us]