Techniques are described for detecting error events in codewords detected from data signals transmitted via a communication system. The error events are detected with an error detection code that corresponds to one or more dominant error events for the communication system. The invention develops a class of error detection codes to detect specific error events of known types. In some embodiments, the communication system comprises a recording system. The error detection coding method may be used in conjunction with error correction processing to provide substantial performance gain compared to conventional parity-based post processing methods. For example, the error correction processing may include one or more correlation filters that correspond to the one or more dominant error events for the communication system. A correction module may correct the codeword based on a type of the detected error event and a location of the detected error event in the codeword.