Written in Red Proofreading

This quiz is not as easy as you might think. Are you a speller who can just look at a word and know if it’s correct, or one who reviews each letter?

I work with an adult learner who wants to pass her high school equivalency test. How sad that I can use an article from a major news source to teach her how NOT to write a sentence. What’s wrong with the sentence below? More importantly, how could the writer graduate from college with, most likely, a degree in journalism, get a job at a major news outlet, write and submit this, and then have NO ONE notice how abysmally incorrect it is? A man who pleaded guilty to beating a man to death was sentenced to prison Friday after he picked up his daughter and her friends at a Phoenix convenience store in 2018.

It’s a sad day for punctuation. Please share your examples of abuse!

Punctuation is important. What’s your pet peeve?