Text Editing Terms

Acronyms

Words formed from the first letters of a phrase, pronounced as a word.

Abbreviations

Shortened forms of words or phrases. i.e Dr. (Doctor)

Active Voice

occurs when the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb.

Passive voice

occurs when the subject is the recipient of the action.

Ambiguity

A sentence or phrase can be interpreted in mor than one way.

Example: “I saw her duck” Is duck an animal or an action?

Antonyms

Words with opposite meanings

Apostrophe use

• Possession

• Contractions: “don’t” do not

Clichés

Overused expressions that have lost originality

Comma Splice

Occurs when two independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma.

Concord

• Subject-Verb agreement: Singular subject take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs.

• Pronoun agreement: Pronouns must agree with the noun they refer to in number and gender.

Degrees of comparison

• Positive: Describes one thing (fast)

• Comparative: Compares two things (faster)

• Superlative: Compares more than two things (fastest)

Dashes

Used to create a break in sentence, often for emphasis.

3 types of dashes:

• hyphen -

• em dash —

• en dash –

Direct and Reported Speech

• Direct speech: Exact words spoken by someone.

• Reported speech: Paraphrasing someone’s words.

Double Negative

Occurs when two negative words are used in a sentence, which leads to confusion or incorrect meaning.

Generalization

When broad statements are made without considering exceptions.

Homonyms

Words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same but have different meanings.

Homophones

Words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings.

Hyphens

Used to join words together or indicate word breaks, i.e’ mother-in-law’

Inconsistent use of Pronouns

When pronouns do not match the noun they refer to in terms of a number or gender.

Literal and Figurative language

• Literal language: words mean exactly what they say.

• Figurative language: Words are used in a symbolic or non-literal sense

Malapropism

The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with humorous results.

Misrelated Participle/Dangling Participle

A participle that doesn’t logically relate to the subject in the sentence.

Phrases and Clauses

• Phrases: A group of words without a subject and ver, acting as a single part of speech.

• Clauses: A group of words with a subject and verb that can be independent( complete sentence) or dependent( needs an independent clause).

Prefixes and Suffixes

• Prefixes: Added to the beginning of a word to change it’s meaning.

• Suffixes: Added to the end of a word to change it’s form.

Redundancy

The unnecessary repetition of ideas or words.

Register

Refers to the level of formality in language use, appropriate to the context

Spoonerisms

are accidental transpositions of sounds in two words

Simple, Compound and Complex Sentence

• Simple sentence: Contains one independent clause.

• Compound sentence: Contains two independent clauses joined by a conjunction.

• Complex sentence: Contains an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Split infinitive

An adverb is placed between “to” and the verb

Synonyms

Words with similar meanings

Tautology

The unnecessary repartition of an idea.

Tense Errors

When the verb tenses in a sentence are inconsistent.

Verbosity

The use of more words than necessary