Kids Corner: KS3 - Prose Pirate or Professional Proof-reader?

Welcome to years 7, 8 and 9 of Secondary School English in the UK. This is Keystage 3 chaps and chapettes, and this means we need to up our game! How you say? Stop being a Prose Pirate, and learn to proofread our work so we edit out all those little mistakes before we submit our work. This will make you a professional proof-reader.

Most people make mistakes when they handwrite and type texts (prose) and if we do not take the time to check for these mistakes (proofread) we will leave them in. The most common mistakes are missing a/an/the, and forgetting an s or putting too many s’s in. We often miss spaces, forget capital letters, or repeat words. To illustrate this point I have taken an excerpt from “Captain Silverhook’s Symbol of Strength”.

Check what the Prose Pirate has submitted and see how many mistakes they made. Then check your answers against the professional proof-reader

Prose Pirate: “The Dark Wave was a symbol of strength among pirateships. each ship had a unique carving standing boldly on the front of it. Captain Longswords ship had a lion, Sir swell's was outfitted with an open-mouthed shark head, and Captain Saltbeard known by the mermaid leading he ship. These figurehead not only helped other identify the captain from afar, but it also expressed power he held”.

Professional Proof-reader: “The Dark Wave was a symbol of strength among pirate ships. Each ship had a unique carving standing boldly on the front of it. Captain Longsword's ship had a lion, Sir Swell's was outfitted with an open-mouthed shark head, and Captain Saltbeard was known by the mermaid leading his ship. This figurehead not only helped others identify the Captain from afar, but it also expressed the power he held.”

So what’s it going to be buccaneer? Are you a Prose Pirate or a Professional Proof-reader?