Welcome! This session focuses on improving your ability to spot and correct errors in written English, a vital skill for high scores in international exams. We’ll explore the topic of international aid. To maximize your learning, read the text below, try to correct all the errors using the checklist, and then compare your work with our detailed corrections and explanations. Engage actively with the material!
Error-Filled Text – Practice
International aid, also know as foreign assistance, is the transfer of resources—usualy financial—from one country to another with the objective to supporting development. For decades, it have been a cornerstone of global efforts for combate poverty, improve health outcomes, and promote economic stabilitys in lower-income nations. Proponents argues that aid can providing crucial funding for infrastructure projects, education system, and healthcare services what might otherwise go unfunded. They point to success stories where targeted aid have led measurable improvements in areas like child mortality or school enrollment rate.
However, the effectivity of international aid is a subject of considerable debating. Critics contend that aid can foster dependancy, distort local markets, and sometime prop up corrupt goverments. There are concerns that large influxes of aid money is not always manage efficient, leading to wastage or failing to reach the intend recipients. Furthermore, the conditions often attach to aid packages by doner countries can sometime reflect the donors’s own interests rather than the recipient countries actual needs. This raise questions about sovereignty and the true partnership nature of aid relationships.
More recently, there has been a shift towards explore alternative approaches. These include promote fair trade policies, encourage foreign direct investments, and supporting capacity-building within local institutions. The focus is increasingly on ensure that aid empowers communities for drive their own development sustainably. It mean move beyond simple handouts towards strategic partnerships builded on mutual respect and accountability. Effective aid coordination among donors and better alignment with national development plans is also seen as criticals for maximize impact and avoid duplication of effort. Ultimatly, the role of aid in development are complex, needing careful design and continuous evaluation for be truly beneficial.
Editing Prompt & Checklist
Now, edit the text above. Focus on:
- Spelling Errors: Any misspelled words?
- Grammar Mistakes: Subject-verb agreement, tense, articles, pronouns (its/it’s, their/there/they’re), prepositions, sentence structure (run-ons, fragments), comparatives/superlatives, pluralization.
- Vocabulary Issues: Incorrect word choice, awkward phrasing, wrong word forms.
- Punctuation Errors: Commas, apostrophes, etc.
- Clarity and Flow: Smoothness, logical connections, redundancy.
Attempt the corrections before checking the next section.
Corrected Text with Detailed Explanations
Original: International aid, also know as foreign assistance, is the transfer of resources—usualy financial—from one country to another with the objective to supporting development.
Corrected: International aid, also known as foreign assistance, is the transfer of resources—usually financial—from one country to another with the objective of supporting development.
Explanations:
- “know”: Incorrect verb form. The past participle “known” is needed in this passive structure (“is also known”).
- “usualy”: Spelling error. Correct spelling is “usually.”
- “to supporting”: Incorrect structure. The standard idiomatic phrase is “objective of + gerund” (“objective of supporting”).
Original: For decades, it have been a cornerstone of global efforts for combate poverty, improve health outcomes, and promote economic stabilitys in lower-income nations.
Corrected: For decades, it has been a cornerstone of global efforts to combat poverty, improve health outcomes, and promote economic stability in lower-income nations.
Explanations:
- “have”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject “it” (referring to international aid) is singular, requiring the singular verb “has.”
- “for combate”: Incorrect structure. The infinitive of purpose “to combat” is needed to express the goal of the efforts.
- “stabilitys”: Incorrect pluralization. “Stability” is typically used as an uncountable noun in this context.
Original: Proponents argues that aid can providing crucial funding for infrastructure projects, education system, and healthcare services what might otherwise go unfunded.
Corrected: Proponents argue that aid can provide crucial funding for infrastructure projects, education systems, and healthcare services that might otherwise go unfunded.
Explanations:
- “argues”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject “Proponents” is plural, requiring the base verb form “argue.”
- “providing”: Incorrect verb form. After the modal verb “can,” the base form of the verb (“provide”) is required.
- “system”: Should be plural (“systems”) to match the plural concepts of “projects” and “services” it’s listed with.
- “what”: Incorrect relative pronoun. “That” (or “which”) should be used to refer to things (funding/services). “That” is generally preferred in defining clauses like this.
Original: They point to success stories where targeted aid have led measurable improvements in areas like child mortality or school enrollment rate.
Corrected: They point to success stories where targeted aid has led to measurable improvements in areas like child mortality or school enrollment rates.
Explanations:
- “have”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject “targeted aid” (singular concept) requires the singular verb “has.”
- “led”: While “led” is the past participle of “lead,” the phrasal verb “lead to” (meaning cause or result in) is needed here. “Has led to measurable improvements.”
- “rate”: Should be plural (“rates”) as it refers generally to the rates in various places or times where improvements occurred, parallel to the general concept of “improvements.”
Original: However, the effectivity of international aid is a subject of considerable debating.
Corrected: However, the effectiveness of international aid is a subject of considerable debate.
Explanations:
- “effectivity”: While “effectivity” exists, “effectiveness” is the standard and much more common noun form in this context.
- “debating”: Incorrect word form. The noun “debate” is required after “considerable.” “Debating” is a gerund or present participle.
Original: Critics contend that aid can foster dependancy, distort local markets, and sometime prop up corrupt goverments.
Corrected: Critics contend that aid can foster dependency, distort local markets, and sometimes prop up corrupt governments.
Explanations:
- “dependancy”: Spelling error. Correct spelling is “dependency.”
- “sometime”: Incorrect word choice. The adverb “sometimes” (meaning occasionally) is needed here. “Sometime” means at an unspecified time.
- “goverments”: Spelling error. Correct spelling is “governments.”
Original: There are concerns that large influxes of aid money is not always manage efficient, leading to wastage or failing to reach the intend recipients.
Corrected: There are concerns that large influxes of aid money are not always managed efficiently, leading to wastage or failing to reach the intended recipients.
Explanations:
- “is”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject is “large influxes” (plural), requiring the plural verb “are.”
- “manage efficient”: Incorrect verb form and word form. The passive voice (“are managed”) is needed, and an adverb (“efficiently”) is required to modify the verb “managed.”
- “intend”: Incorrect word form. The past participle used as an adjective (“intended”) is needed to describe the recipients.
Original: Furthermore, the conditions often attach to aid packages by doner countries can sometime reflect the donors’s own interests rather than the recipient countries actual needs.
Corrected: Furthermore, the conditions often attached to aid packages by donor countries can sometimes reflect the donors’ own interests rather than the recipient country’s actual needs.
Explanations:
- “attach”: Incorrect verb form. The past participle “attached” is needed to act as an adjective modifying “conditions” (conditions that are attached).
- “doner”: Spelling error. Correct spelling is “donor.”
- “sometime”: Incorrect word choice. The adverb “sometimes” (occasionally) is needed.
- “donors’s”: Incorrect possessive form. For a plural noun ending in “s” (donors), the possessive is formed by adding only an apostrophe (“donors'”).
- “countries”: Incorrect possessive form. It should be the singular possessive “country’s” referring to the needs of the recipient country (singular concept in this context, matching “recipient”). Alternatively, “recipient countries'” (plural possessive) could work if the context implies multiple specific countries, but singular feels more general here.
Original: This raise questions about sovereignty and the true partnership nature of aid relationships.
Corrected: This raises questions about sovereignty and the true partnership nature of aid relationships.
Explanations:
- “raise”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject “This” (referring to the situation described previously) is singular, requiring the singular verb “raises.”
Original: More recently, there has been a shift towards explore alternative approaches.
Corrected: More recently, there has been a shift towards exploring alternative approaches.
Explanations:
- “explore”: Incorrect verb form. After the preposition “towards,” the gerund form “exploring” is required.
Original: These include promote fair trade policies, encourage foreign direct investments, and supporting capacity-building within local institutions.
Corrected: These include promoting fair trade policies, encouraging foreign direct investment, and supporting capacity-building within local institutions.
Explanations:
- “promote,” “encourage”: Incorrect verb form. To maintain parallelism with “supporting,” the gerund forms “promoting” and “encouraging” are needed after “include.”
- “investments”: While “investments” (plural) is possible, “foreign direct investment” (FDI) is often treated as a singular, uncountable concept in economics. Using the singular “investment” is standard here.
Original: The focus is increasingly on ensure that aid empowers communities for drive their own development sustainably.
Corrected: The focus is increasingly on ensuring that aid empowers communities to drive their own development sustainably.
Explanations:
- “ensure”: Incorrect verb form. After the preposition “on,” the gerund form “ensuring” is required.
- “for drive”: Incorrect structure. The infinitive of purpose “to drive” is needed to express the goal of the empowerment.
Original: It mean move beyond simple handouts towards strategic partnerships builded on mutual respect and accountability.
Corrected: It means moving beyond simple handouts towards strategic partnerships built on mutual respect and accountability.
Explanations:
- “mean move”: Subject-verb agreement error (“It means”) and incorrect verb form after “means.” The structure “It means + gerund” (“It means moving”) is required to explain what the focus entails.
- “builded”: Incorrect past participle. The correct past participle of “build” is “built.”
Original: Effective aid coordination among donors and better alignment with national development plans is also seen as criticals for maximize impact and avoid duplication of effort.
Corrected: Effective aid coordination among donors and better alignment with national development plans are also seen as critical to maximizing impact and avoiding duplication of effort.
Explanations:
- “is”: Subject-verb agreement error. The compound subject (“coordination and alignment”) is plural, requiring the plural verb “are.”
- “criticals”: Incorrect word form. The adjective “critical” is needed.
- “for maximize,” “[for] avoid”: Incorrect structure/parallelism. “Critical to + gerund” is a common structure here. “Critical to maximizing impact and avoiding duplication…” uses parallel gerunds after “to.”
Original: Ultimatly, the role of aid in development are complex, needing careful design and continuous evaluation for be truly beneficial.
Corrected: Ultimately, the role of aid in development is complex, needing careful design and continuous evaluation to be truly beneficial.
Explanations:
- “Ultimatly”: Spelling error. Correct spelling is “Ultimately.”
- “are”: Subject-verb agreement error. The subject “the role” is singular, requiring the singular verb “is.”
- “for be”: Incorrect structure. The infinitive of purpose “to be” is needed here.
Assignment
Now, apply your editing skills to this new text about international aid. Correct all the errors you find. We will provide only the corrected version afterward.
Assignment Text (Error-Filled):
Despite decades of international aid flows, the impact remain intensely debated. Some analysis suggests that aid corellated with improved social indicators, such childrens health and literacy level. Humanitarian aid, especialy in response to natural disaster or conflicts, are widely seen as indispensable. It provide lifesaving resources like food medicines and shelter to vulnerable population in imediate need. Development aid, on other hand, aim to address systemic issues and foster long term growth. Projects focused on infrastructures, agricultur, and governance capacity has potential to create sustainable change.
However, chalenges persist. Aid effectiveness is often hampered by poor coordination between diferent donor agencies leading to fragmented efforts. Local ownership is crucial; projects are less likely succeed if they dont align with the priorities and contexts of the recipient communities. Corruption too remain a significant problem, diverting resource away from they’re intended purpose. Critics also point out that aid flows can be volatile, influence by political considerations in donor countrys, making long-term planing difficult for recipients. Finding ways to make aid more predictable transparent and accountable are key to enhance its positive contribution for global development.
Corrected Assignment Text – No Explanations
Despite decades of international aid flows, the impact remains intensely debated. Some analyses suggest that aid correlates with improved social indicators, such as children’s health and literacy levels. Humanitarian aid, especially in response to natural disasters or conflicts, is widely seen as indispensable. It provides life-saving resources like food, medicine, and shelter to vulnerable populations in immediate need. Development aid, on the other hand, aims to address systemic issues and foster long-term growth. Projects focused on infrastructure, agriculture, and governance capacity have the potential to create sustainable change.
However, challenges persist. Aid effectiveness is often hampered by poor coordination between different donor agencies, leading to fragmented efforts. Local ownership is crucial; projects are less likely to succeed if they don’t align with the priorities and contexts of the recipient communities. Corruption, too, remains a significant problem, diverting resources away from their intended purpose. Critics also point out that aid flows can be volatile, influenced by political considerations in donor countries, making long-term planning difficult for recipients. Finding ways to make aid more predictable, transparent, and accountable is key to enhancing its positive contribution to global development.
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