Saya Wadood (100421667)

COMM 1715-Proofreading and Editing Assignment #3 –THE MOON—5%

Instructions: The paragraph below contains 15 errors of various types: pronoun use/form,
subject-verb agreement, verb form and tense. Please note that the paragraph may also contain
some errors pertaining to earlier material we have covered in class. On the page provided,
identify the line in which the error is located, print the existing error, and then print the
correction.

The Moon*
The Earth’s moon is over-sized. It stands out as an anomaly when compared to 1
other moons. The Earth when compared to all the other planets in our solar system 2
has an over-sized moon. By comparison, Jupiter’s many moons, which have different 3
physical and orbital characteristics, seems much smaller. It seems as though the Earth 4
and its moon were a binary planet, with two objects orbiting around each other. Our 5
planet-sized moon is unique in the solar system. For us, the battle-scarred moon serves 6
as the Earth’s guardian angel. Its vast gravitational pull raise the tides and breathes life 7
into the Earth’s oceans. The moon also stabilizes the tilt of our planet and regulating the 8
climate and seasons. Without the moon, humans may never have evolved. Despite the 9
importance of our moon, us humans have long questioned how it evolved. For 10
centuries, the moon has hid the secrets of its beginnings. There are many ideas 11
regarding the origins of our super-sized moon, but they all began around the same 12
time—roughly 4.6 billion years ago. Ultimately, this search for clues as to the origins of 13
the Earth’s moon have led to two different theories. One idea is simply that the moon is 14
wandering around in our solar system, and it captured it. According to this theory, the 15
early moon passed a little too close to the Earth, and our planet’s immense gravity 16
captured a hold of him. However, if the moon was really a “captured” planet, scientists 17
expected that its constituents will be different from the Earth. In essence, if the moon 18
came from another place in the solar system, scientists would have expected it to be 19
made of different material. In the 1970’s, Apollo astronauts collected samples of some 20
of the moons’ rocks and brought them back for comparison. The results shocked the 21
scientific world. What they found is that the composition of the moon is almost exactly 22
the same as the composition of the crust of the Earth. This finding debunked the theory 23
Saya Wadood (100421667)

that the moon was a “captured” planet from elsewhere in the solar system. The second 24
theory of the moon’s origins suggest a catastrophic collision took place about 4.5 billion 25
years ago. This theory suggests that a Mars-sized planet impacted the Earth with a 26
glancing blow and the impact threw molten debris far into space. The debris created by 27
the impact coalesced into a ball and eventually formed into the moon we know today. 28
This would explain why the moon’s crust is almost identical to Earth’s; them share a 29
common origin. As strange as the impact theory sounds, it actually serves to explain 30
everything we know about the moon today. 31

Answers to Proofreading and Editing- Assignment— The Moon

Line # Error Correction

1. 2 when compared to all the other planets ,when compared to all the other planets
in our solar system in our solar system,
2. 4 seems seem
3. 5 were are
4. 7 raise raises
5. 8 regulating regulates
6. 10 us we
7. 11 hid hidden
8. 12 began begin
9. 14 have had
10. 15 it the solar system
11. 17 him it
12. 18 will would
13. 21 moons’ moon’s
14. 25 suggest suggests
15. 29 them they

*Adapted from “Secret History of the Moon” in How the Universe Works (2015) on the Discovery Channel, Discovery Science. Episode: 5043
Original Air Date: 18-08-15; Record Date: 04-09-16