Crossword Genius

After error in speech, dodge dealing with grammar (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

syntactic

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'dealing with grammar' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'after error in speech dodge' is the wordplay.
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'error' becomes 'sin' (a sin is a moral error).
'in speech' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'dodge' becomes 'tactic' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sin' sounds like 'syn'.
'syn' put next to 'tactic' is 'SYNTACTIC'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for syntactic that I've seen before include "following the rules of grammar" , "dealing with arrangement of sentences" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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