Editing and Proofreading Worksheets - Free Printable

Let’s go step by step to fix the paragraph about “The United States.” We’ll look for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes — just like a detective!

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First, read the whole paragraph slowly:

> The united states is part of the North American continent. It is one of the biggest country’s in the world. In fact only Russia and Canada are more larger than the United States. Its shore is only a little bit smaller. Over 300 million people living in the united states. The country is composed of 1.8 million square miles which are broken up into 50 states! This includes two states that are not part of the Continental United States. This means they may not directly connected to the mainland. These states are Alaska and Hawaii.

Now let’s find each mistake one at a time.

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Mistake 1:
“The united states” → Should be capitalized: “The United States”

✔ Rule: Names of countries are proper nouns — always capitalize them.

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Mistake 2:
“biggest country’s” → Wrong apostrophe!
It should be: “biggest countries” (plural, not possessive)

✔ Rule: Don’t use an apostrophe to make something plural. “Country’s” means “belonging to the country.” We’re talking about more than one country — so it’s “countries.”

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Mistake 3:
“In fact only Russia and Canada...” → Missing comma after “In fact”

✔ Rule: Use a comma after introductory phrases like “In fact,” “However,” or “Therefore.”

→ Fix: “In fact, only Russia and Canada...”

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Mistake 4:
“more larger” → Double comparison! That’s wrong.

You can say “larger” OR “more large” — but never both together.

Since “large” becomes “larger” (not “more large”), we just say:

→ “larger than the United States”

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Mistake 5:
“Its shore is only a little bit smaller.” → What does “shore” mean here? Probably meant “area” or “size”.

But wait — actually, this sentence doesn’t make sense. The U.S. isn’t smaller than Russia and Canada — it’s bigger than many countries, but smaller than those two. But saying “its shore is smaller” is confusing.

Actually, looking again — maybe it’s trying to say:
“The United States is only a little bit smaller [than Russia and Canada].”

So better fix:
→ “It is only a little bit smaller.” (Remove “Its shore is”)

OR if you want to keep “shore,” it still doesn’t fit. Let’s assume it was a typo and remove “Its shore is”.

Wait — another idea: Maybe it’s supposed to say “Its size is only a little bit smaller”? Still awkward.

Actually, rereading: The original says “Its shore is only a little bit smaller.” That doesn’t make sense geographically. Shore = coastline. Coastline length isn’t being compared here — land area is.

Best fix: Delete “Its shore is” and rephrase slightly.

→ Change to: “It is only a little bit smaller.”

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Mistake 6:
“Over 300 million people living in the united states.” → Two problems:

- “living” should be “live” (present tense verb)
- “united states” needs capitalization

→ Fix: “Over 300 million people live in the United States.”

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Mistake 7:
“composed of 1.8 million square miles which are broken up into 50 states!” → Add comma before “which” because it adds extra info.

Also, exclamation mark might be too excited — period is fine.

→ Fix: “composed of 1.8 million square miles, which are broken up into 50 states.”

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Mistake 8:
“This includes two states that are not part of the Continental United States.” → Good! Just check capitalization: “Continental United States” is correct as a proper noun phrase.

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Mistake 9:
“This means they may not directly connected to the mainland.” → Missing verb!

Should be: “they may not BE directly connected”

→ Fix: “This means they may not be directly connected to the mainland.”

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Mistake 10:
“These states are Alaska and Hawaii.” → Perfect! No error here.

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Now let’s put all the fixes together into one clean paragraph.

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Final corrected version:

> The United States is part of the North American continent. It is one of the biggest countries in the world. In fact, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States. It is only a little bit smaller. Over 300 million people live in the United States. The country is composed of 1.8 million square miles, which are broken up into 50 states. This includes two states that are not part of the Continental United States. This means they may not be directly connected to the mainland. These states are Alaska and Hawaii.

Wait — one more thing: “It is only a little bit smaller.” Smaller than what? Earlier we said Russia and Canada are larger — so “it” refers to the U.S., which is smaller than those two. So the sentence makes sense now.

Also, note: Actually, the U.S. is NOT smaller than Canada — it’s very close, but depending on how you measure (including water areas), sometimes Canada is ranked #2 and U.S. #3 or #4. But since this is a school exercise, we’ll go with what the text implies — that Russia and Canada are larger, and U.S. is next.

We won’t change facts — just fix language errors.

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Final Answer:

The United States is part of the North American continent. It is one of the biggest countries in the world. In fact, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States. It is only a little bit smaller. Over 300 million people live in the United States. The country is composed of 1.8 million square miles, which are broken up into 50 states. This includes two states that are not part of the Continental United States. This means they may not be directly connected to the mainland. These states are Alaska and Hawaii.