Correct each sentence, identifying errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, or usage.
1. Don Delillo’s White Noise is a work of exceptional genius, however it is not as ambitious as
some of his other novels.
Comment [1]: comma splice; the
conjunctive adverb “however” needs stronger
punctuation and a comma after it.
Comment [2]: spelling: site versus cite.
2. The critic does not site any evidence to support his case.
Comment [3]: apostrophe missing to signal
contraction of ‘it is’
3. Its about a man who refuses to do anything when he is asked.
4. The students textbook has an attractive cover.
Comment [4]: apostrophe missing to signal
possession (student’s or, if plural, students’).
In titles you may see no possessive where you
expect one: compare UVic “Native Students
Union” versus “Students’ Society”
Comment [5]: apostrophe missing to signal
possession in the plural (women’s)
5. The womens movement produced great social change.
6. I was always taught that the character’s chief fault was indecision. Reading the play,
however, Hamlet surprised me by being quick to act.
Comment [6]: dangling modifier: Hamlet is
not reading Hamlet, I am reading Hamlet
Comment [7]: spelling: then versus than
7. Milton’s Satan is more interesting then God the Father.
8. Unlike Picasso, the paintings of Matisse are full of color.
Comment [8]: faulty parallelism: the
sentence mistakenly compares a painter
(Picasso) in the dependent clause with
paintings (of Matisse) in the main clause.
Comment [9]: spelling, or wrong word:
principle versus principal
9. The principle objection he makes to religion is that it resists scientific scrutiny.
Comment [10]: run-on sentence
10. They fear the king he is a tyrant.
Comment [11]: delete apostrophe (its)
11. Michaelangelo’s David is beautiful despite its’ lack of proportion.
Comment [12]: passive voice: whose
emotion?
12. Emotion is aroused when the poet mentions the death of his beloved pet hamster.
13. At one point in the novel, the man demands full obedience at the same time that he
prevented the slave from carrying out the demands.
14. He could not sell the property; while he could rent it.
Comment [13]: shifting tense: the
description moves from present tense
(demands) to past (at the same time that he is
prevented).
Comment [14]: misuse of semi-colon
creates sentence fragment; subordinate
conjunction “while” requires main clause
Comment [15]: comma splice (and
questionable extension of a cliché!)
15. The poem is full of flower imagery, it is a veritable bouquet.
Comment [16]: comma splice
16. Mary wants to die, she feels her life is of no use and merely an act of sexual slavery.
17. For the female characters death is almost always harder on them, they either die and
nothing shows for it or they feel an extreme sense of loss.
Comment [17]: comma splice; use a semicolon
Comment [18]: missing appostrophe
18. This creates the stories mood of mistreatment and suffering.
19. Every single one of the stories ends up the same, in death. The main ending is inevitable; no
matter how the stories differed in content, each one will always end in passing.
Comment [19]: Tense inconsistent
20. Throughout the stories the author draws readers attention to specific elements, via their own
neglect.
Comment [20]: Misplaced modifier
(subordinate clause should be closer to the
thing it is modifying – stories, authors, readers,
or story elements, one cannot be sure)