Item for man of letters said to be correcting journal (7,5)

I believe the answer is:

writing paper

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'item for man of letters said to' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'correcting journal' is the wordplay.
'correcting' becomes 'writing' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'journal' becomes 'paper' (I've seen this before).
'writing'+'paper'='WRITING-PAPER'

'be' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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