Question

The main claim of the passage is that the most important step to avoiding colds is to wash your hands. The passage supports this claim by saying that the flu and colds are spread commonly through your hands. The author lists multiple surfaces like doorknobs, handles, and phones, that can carry germs. The author also warns the reader that rubbing your eyes or touching your nose lets the germs go into your body. The irrelevant detail is the rhinovirus behind the most common cold virus. Although the fact is true, it was not needed to explain why washing your hand prevents you from getting sick.

pls proofread this and keep my wording and list all errors

Answer 1

Corrected paragraph (kept your wording as much as possible):

The main claim of the passage is that the most important step to avoiding colds is to wash your hands. The passage supports this claim by saying that the flu and colds are commonly spread through your hands. The author lists multiple surfaces like doorknobs, handles, and phones that can carry germs. The author also warns the reader that rubbing your eyes or touching your nose lets germs enter your body. The irrelevant detail is that the rhinovirus causes the most common cold. Although this fact is true, it was not needed to explain why washing your hands prevents you from getting sick.

List of errors (each shows the original phrase, the correction, and a short explanation):

1. Original: "are spread commonly"
Correction: "are commonly spread"
Reason: Adverb placement — "commonly" is more natural before the verb phrase.

2. Original: "doorknobs, handles, and phones, that can carry germs."
Correction: "doorknobs, handles, and phones that can carry germs."
Reason: Do not use a comma before a restrictive "that" clause.

3. Original: "lets the germs go into your body."
Correction: "lets germs enter your body."
Reason: Remove unnecessary definite article "the"; "enter" is more concise/formal than "go into."

4. Original: "The irrelevant detail is the rhinovirus behind the most common cold virus."
Correction: "The irrelevant detail is that the rhinovirus causes the most common cold."
Reason: Original phrasing is awkward and redundant ("cold virus"). Use "that ... causes" for clarity and remove redundancy.

5. Original: "Although the fact is true,"
Correction: "Although this fact is true,"
Reason: "This fact" is clearer and more natural than "the fact" in this context.

6. Original: "washing your hand"
Correction: "washing your hands"
Reason: Number agreement — use plural "hands."

7. (Stylistic) Original: "the flu and colds"
Suggestion: "the flu and the common cold" or "flu and colds"
Reason: Slightly inconsistent phrasing; not strictly an error but could be smoother.

8. (Stylistic/repetition) Two sentences start with "The author..."
Suggestion: Vary sentence openings for flow (not required).
Reason: Repetition doesn't produce a grammatical error but affects style.

If you want, I can produce a tighter rewrite that fixes these issues while keeping your meaning, or mark the exact changes inline in your original text.