Editing and Proofreading Guidelines



Editing and Proofreading Guidelines

FIRST: Read your essay aloud to a friend. As you are reading, mark anything that you notice that appears to be a problem with punctuation, spelling, or grammar.

THEN look at your PUNCTUATION:

1. Look for any words that need to be underlined or italicized. These would be titles of longer works (such as novels, newspapers, magazines, journals, movies).

2. Check for any words that need to be in quotation marks. This applies to any quotations, dialogue, and short pieces of writing (such as article titles, chapter titles, short stories, etc.)

3. Look at your end punctuation. Do you end all questions with a question mark? Do you end all declarative sentences with a period? Do you use exclamation points when it is not truly an expression that requires an exclamation point?

4. Check for commas. Do you use commas with coordinating conjunctions to separate two independent clauses (sentences)? Do you use commas between items in a series? Do you use commas when you should use semicolons to separate independent clauses that do not have coordinating conjunctions? Do you use commas after an introductory phrase? Do you need to add commas with appositives? Are commas used between dates and cities and states?

5. Do you have any other punctuation problems that need to be fixed? Do you use dashes or ellipses too often or inappropriately? Do you use the wrong type of punctuation?

NEXT do a SPELL CHECK on the computer and with your own eyes:

6. Do a spell check on the computer.

7. After doing a computer spell check, carefully read through your essay, looking at each word for any misspellings the computer did not catch.

THEN look for any GRAMMATICAL errors:

8. Do you have a variety of sentence types? Look to be sure you don’t write all simple sentences, but be sure that you have a variety of sentence types, using compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences as well.

9. Do you have any run-on or fused sentences? This is where you put two sentences (independent clauses) together without using any punctuation between them OR by putting them together with only a comma.

10. Do you have any fragments? These are only partial sentences…they are missing a subject or a verb or do not express a complete thought.

NOW it is time to check your FORMAT:

11. Do you use all one-inch margins? Is your name located at the left top of the page, with my name below that, the class name next, date below that?

12. Is your page numbered with your last name and then the page number with NO PUNCTUATION between the two…only a space at the top right side of your paper on each page of your essay?

13. Is your title centered one space below your name heading?

14. Do you double space the entire essay?

15. Do you use parentheses to cite a source (if applicable), using the source’s author’s last name, followed by the page number with NO PUNCTUATION between the two…only a space?

16. Have you printed a hard copy of the final draft once you have completed all of the above? NOW YOU ARE READY TO TURN IN YOUR FINAL DRAFT! CONGRATULATIONS!

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