Coursework: Planning, Drafting and Redrafting: Question 4
Syllabus W4, W5
Before submitting her coursework reflective account for final marking, a candidate is proofreading this draft paragraph. It contains five errors of spelling, punctuation or grammar.
"Last month I completed a week of work experience at a veterinary clinic for my coursework reflective account. Its a really valuable experience, and I definately learnt a lot about how a busy clinic runs. On the first day, I arrived at eight o'clock, the receptionist was not expecting me until nine. The other trainees was very nervous on the first morning, although they relaxed once the vet explained the daily routine. By the end of the week I felt confident enough to explain simple procedures to worried customer's."
Find each of the five errors, name its type (spelling, punctuation or grammar) and give the correction. [5]
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Worked solution
Assessment focus
This question isolates the accuracy check that should happen at the final redrafting stage of a coursework portfolio: not rereading for content or structure, but proofreading closely enough to catch specific, nameable errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar before submission.
The five errors and corrections
- “Its a really valuable experience” (grammar/punctuation. Missing apostrophe): “Its” is the possessive determiner; the sentence needs the contraction “It’s” (it is). Correct: “It’s a really valuable experience.”
- “I definately learnt” (spelling): “definately” is a common misspelling. Correct: “definitely”.
- “I arrived at eight o’clock, the receptionist was not expecting me until nine.” (punctuation. Comma splice): two complete sentences are joined by a comma alone. Correct, for example: “I arrived at eight o’clock, but the receptionist was not expecting me until nine.” (a full stop in place of the comma would also be correct).
- “The other trainees was very nervous” (grammar. Subject–verb agreement): “trainees” is plural and needs a plural verb. Correct: “The other trainees were very nervous.”
- “worried customer’s” (punctuation. Apostrophe misuse): “customers” here is a simple plural, not a possessive or a contraction, so it takes no apostrophe. Correct: “worried customers.”
Fully corrected paragraph
“Last month I completed a week of work experience at a veterinary clinic for my coursework reflective account. It’s a really valuable experience, and I definitely learnt a lot about how a busy clinic runs. On the first day, I arrived at eight o’clock, but the receptionist was not expecting me until nine. The other trainees were very nervous on the first morning, although they relaxed once the vet explained the daily routine. By the end of the week I felt confident enough to explain simple procedures to worried customers.”
Common pitfalls specific to this task
- Correcting “definately” and “customer’s” (the two most visually obvious errors) but missing the comma splice, since a punctuation error joining two grammatical sentences is easy to read past.
- Fixing “Its” to “It’s” but not explaining why, so the correction cannot be told apart from a guess.
- Introducing a new error while correcting another, for example writing “trainee’s were” instead of “trainees were”.