Part 4 of First Certificate Paper 3 Use of English is an error correction exercise. In this type of exercise you must study the lines of a text very carefully because many of the lines will have an extra word in them, a word which should not be there and so is actually incorrect. However, there are some lines which are correct. You must find the extra word, or decide if the line is correct.

Here is a short text which contains examples of the prepositions for, of, and to, some used correctly and some incorrectly. For each example, decide if it is correct, or if it should not be in the text. Cross it out if it is wrong. E.g. I went to home.

When I was a child, I used to collect of sugar wrappers. My mother asked to everyone she worked with for to keep any wrappers they got, especially of when they were travelling for abroad. Soon I had lots of sugar wrappers, and for a while I was very proud of my collection. However, as I grew older I got bored with it, but for at least the next ten years, people still kept giving to me sugar wrappers.
Here is another short text with some errors, this time with errors in using articles. Again, decide if each article is necessary.

Although lots of the people go straight to the university after leaving the school, nowadays a 'gap year', i.e. a year off, is a quite usual. The people spend the year travelling round the world, or doing a voluntary work.
Error correction 1
The types of extra words that are often tested in this part include:
Prepositions:
 at, by, for, from, in, of, to etc.
Articles: a, an, the, some
Pronouns: he, she, it, me, my etc.
Reflexives: myself, itself etc.
Auxiliary verbs: be, been, do, has, was etc.

Here is a text which contains a variety of errors, not just prepositions and articles. Read the text and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct and some have a word which should not be there.

If a line is correct, put a tick () in the space. If a line has a word which should not be there, write the word in the space. Remember, the word should be wrong and not just unnecessary. There are two examples at the beginning of the text.

Error correction 2
Look at the title of the text first, it will help prepare you for the text.
Read the whole text quickly to get an idea of what it is about.
Before you decide whether a line is right or wrong, you should read the whole sentence to make sure it makes sense.
For Questions 1-19, read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there.
If a line is correct, put a tick () in the space by the number. If a line has a word which should not be there, write the word in the space. There are two examples at the beginning (0 and 00).


For Questions 1-20, read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there.
If a line is correct, put a tick () in the space by the number. If a line has a word which should not be there, write the word in the space. There are two examples at the beginning (0 and 00).
In this lesson you have:
Gained familiarity with the error correction task
Seen what kinds of words are likely to be included as extra words
Developed a strategy to help you do this task
The next lesson focuses on part 5 of the Use of English paper. It develops your familiarity with the word building exercise through a series of graded activities.