The Final Analysis:  Proofreading and Editing

  Proofreading, Proofreading Symbols and Abbreviations, and rewriting  your work: Questions to Ponder...

Have you accomplished your purpose?  Is the writing appropriate for your audience? 

Who can read your work to give you feedback for rewriting it?  Will a tutor help?

Is the essay organized appropriately?  Is your  tone suitable for the subject, purpose, and audience?

First thing...  Read your writing out loud, even to yourself!

 Then go through your paper several times, looking for different types of errors. 

 Then try clicking on the OWL logo at left and visiting  Purdue University Online Writing Lab  
 
Proofreading Strategies:

Revising/Editing/Proofreading

 after that, go through this checklist...


Use this checklist as a list of reminders while you are editing your paper.

  1. Sentence fragments
  2. Sentence sprawl
  3. Misplaced and dangling modifiers
  4. Faulty parallelism
  5. Unclear pronoun reference
  6. Incorrect pronoun case
  1. Omitted commas
  2. Superfluous commas
  3. Comma splices
  4. Apostrophe errors
  5. Words easily confused
  6. Misspellings

 

                   

Here is another possible sequence: 
 1. look for sentence fragments, run-ons, and comma splices (all sentences end in a period!)
 2.  look for verb mistakes:  verbs can be singular or plural
 ·   needless shifts in time
·   wrong past or past participle forms of irregular verbs
 ·   lack of subject-verb agreement
 ·   lack of subject, verb or object

 3.  look for capital letters and punctuation mistakes:    

     the following must begin with capital letters:

·   first word in a sentence or direct quotation  ·   the word I and people’s names
 ·   names of specific places, languages, and groups
 ·   Days of the week, months, & holidays (but not seasons)
 ·   Brand names  ·   Titles  ·  Words that substitute for names
 ·   Specific school courses
     Look for commas:
 ·   Between items in a series ·  After introductory material
 ·   Around words that interrupt the flow of a sentence
 ·    Between complete thoughts connected by joining word
 ·    With direct quotations 
·    Look for apostrophes in contractions or possessives
      Also look for quotation marks around direct quotes

 4.  look for missing words or missing –s endings
     the plural form of most nouns ends in –s
     present tense verbs for the singular end in –s
     third-person subjects (he, she, or it) end with an s
 5.  look for spelling mistakes

      pay attention to words that sound like other words

      i before e except after c

      see more rules listed below
  6.  look for each paragraph topic

      each paragraph you should have one main idea

 7.  look for your thesis and confirmation of thesis at the end of paper.
      Your thesis is found near the beginning of your paper, usually towards
      the end of the first paragraph.  This thesis, or primary argument of your
      paper, is to be restated, in different terms, near the end of your paper.
 8.   make sure that you follow the assigned format

 9.   the secret of good writing is rewriting…there are no shortcuts.. ;-)

10.  try to find someone to read your paper out loud to you
 

Four Key Spelling Rules

1.  Write "i" before "e" except after "c," or when sounding like "a"

     as in "neighbor" and "weigh."
      When the "ie/ei" combination is not pronounced "ee," it is usually spelled "ei."

                            Examples:  ie  fiery, friend, mischief, view, believe

                            Examples:  ei  reign, foreign, weigh, neighbor, weird, receive
 

2.  If a word ends with a silent "e," drop the "e" before adding a

     suffix which begins with a vowel:

                            state--stating; like--liking

     Do not drop the "e" when the suffix begins with a consonant:

                            state--statement; like--likeness; use--useful
 

3.  When "y" is the last letter in a word and the "y" is preceded by a

      consonant, change the "y" to "i"

      before adding any suffix except those beginning with "i":

                            beauty--beautiful; fry--fries; hurry--hurried;

                            lady--ladies

      When forming the plural of a word which ends with a "y" that is  

      preceded by a vowel, add "s":

                            toy--toys; play--plays; monkey--monkeys
 

4.  When a one-syllable word ends in a consonant preceded by one vowel,

      double the final consonant before adding a suffix which begins

      with a vowel:
                             bat--batted, --batting; prod--prodded,

                             --prodding
       When a multi-syllable word ends in a consonant preceded by one

       vowel, the same rule holds true:

       double the final consonant:

                              control--controlled; sum--summary;

                             god--goddess; prefer--preferred

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