Proofreading & Editing Basic Proofreading 3

Question 1

Which sentence has incorrect subject-verb agreement?

Accepted Answer

Neither the manager nor the employees was informed.

Answer

With 'neither...nor,' the verb agrees with the closer subject — 'employees' is plural, so 'were' is correct.

Question 2

A document reads: 'The report was completed by John, Mary, and myself.' What error exists?

Accepted Answer

Incorrect use of reflexive pronoun — should be 'me'

Answer

'Myself' should only be used reflexively or for emphasis; 'me' is the correct object pronoun here.

Question 3

Which sentence correctly uses a hyphen?

Accepted Answer

She gave a well-known speech.

Answer

Compound modifiers before a noun are hyphenated; predicative compound adjectives after the verb generally are not.

Question 4

Which of the following is an example of a run-on sentence?

Accepted Answer

She loves proofreading it sharpens her attention to detail.

Answer

Two independent clauses joined without punctuation or a conjunction form a run-on sentence.

Question 5

What does the proofreading symbol ¶ indicate?

Accepted Answer

Begin a new paragraph here

Answer

The pilcrow (¶) is the standard symbol instructing a typesetter to begin a new paragraph.

Proofreading & Editing Practice Test