Editing Guide
No matter how many times you read through a "finished" paper, you're likely to miss many of your most frequent errors. This guide will help you edit more effectively . . .
Begin by taking a break. Allow yourself some time between writing/revising and editing. Even a five-minute break is productive because it will help get some distance from what you have written. The goal is to return with a fresh eye and mind.
The following strategies will help you s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n as you read through a paper and will therefore help you catch mistakes that you might otherwise overlook. As you use these strategies, remember to work slowly. If you read at a normal speed, you won't give your eyes sufficient time to spot errors.
Reading a paper aloud encourages you to read every little word.
Sliding a blank sheet of paper down the page as you read encourages you to make a detailed, line-by-line review of the paper.
Playing the role of the reader encourages you to see the paper as your audience might.
In addition to using the general strategies already listed, you'll need to personalize the editing process.
You won't be able to check for everything (and you don't have to), so you should find out what your typical problem areas are and look for each type of error individually. Here's how:
To locate and correct errors in your papers, find the strategies below which correspond to your typical problem areas and follow the step-by-step instructions provided for you. Each strategy is designed to focus your attention on only one particular error, so to be most effective, use only one strategy at a time. (Ask your instructor or a Writing Lab tutor about any terms you don't understand.)
1. Locate the central idea of each paragraph. Reduce that idea to a word or phrase.
2. Look at each paragraph randomly. Consider only the information in that paragraph.
3. Ask yourself whether all of the information is related enough to be in the same paragraph. Should you create another paragraph or move some of the details to another paragraph?
1. See whether you have clear transitions between paragraphs. If not, clarify existing transitions, add new ones, and/or rearrange your paragraphs to make transitions clearer.
2. Make sure the ideas in each paragraph are fully developed and that the ideas and explanations flow without any gaps that might confuse the reader.
1. Find the main verb in each sentence.
2. Match the verb to its subject.
3. Make sure that the subject and verb agree in number and case.
1. Skim through your paper, stopping at each pronoun. Look especially at "it," "this," "she," "he," "they," "their," and "them."
2. Search for the noun that the pronoun replaces. If you can't find any noun, insert one beforehand or change the pronoun to a noun. If you can find a noun, be sure it agrees in number and person with your pronoun.
3. If there are more than one possible noun that the pronoun might refer to (remember to think like a reader), then clarify the idea by using the appropriate noun.
1. Skim your paper, stopping at key words that signal parallel structures. Look especially for "and," "or," "not only...but also," "either... or," "neither...nor," "both...and."
2. Make sure that the items (adjectives, nouns, phrases, etc.) connected by these words are in the same grammatical form.
1. Examine each word in the paper individually. Move from the end of each line back to the beginning. Pointing with a pencil helps you really see each word.
2. If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled correctly. Pay particular attention to words that you don't use regularly in your everyday communication or that you have rarely seen written down previously.
3. Be especially careful of the words listed as spelling nightmares: "ei" and "ie" words, words which add "-ing" and "ed," and words with one or more sets of double letters.
4. Make sure that proper nouns are properly spelled.
1. Skim for the conjunctions "and," "but," "for," "or," "nor," "so," and "yet."
2. See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the conjunction. If so, place a comma before the conjunction.
1. Skim your paper, looking only at the first two or three words of each sentence.
2. Stop if one of these words is a dependent marker, a transition word, a participle, or a preposition.
3. Listen for a possible break point before the main clause.
4. Place a comma at the end of the introductory phrase or clause (which is before the independent clause).
1. Skim the paper, stopping at every comma.
2. See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the comma. If so, add a coordinating conjunction after the comma or replace the comma with a semicolon.
1. Look at each sentence to see whether it contains an independent clause.
2. Pay special attention to sentences that begin with dependent marker words (such as "because" or "although") or phrases such as "for example" or "such as."
3. See if the sentence might be just a piece of the previous sentence that mistakenly got separated by a period.
1. Review each sentence to see whether it contains more than one independent clause. Start with the last sentence of your paper, and work your way back to the beginning, sentence by sentence.
2. Break the sentence into two sentences if necessary.
1. Skim your paper, stopping only at those words which end in "s."
2. See whether or not each "s" word needs an apostrophe. If an apostrophe is needed, you will be able to invert the word order and say "of" or "of the":
Mary's hat
the hat of Mary
1. Read the paper aloud, pointing to every word as you read. Don't let your eye move ahead until you spot each word.
2. Look for words that may have been omitted while revising, such as articles and helping verbs.
3. Also, make sure that you haven't doubled any words.
1. Have you ended every sentence with a period, question mark, or exclamation point?
2. Are your thoughts within sentences broken up correctly by commas for easier understanding?
3. Have you broken up series with commas?
4. Have you used a period after abbreviations?
5. Look at each semicolon you have used. There should be a complete sentence on both sides of the semicolon.
6. Look at each colon you have used. There should be a complete sentence to the left of the colon and what follows the colon should directly amplify the idea in front of the colon.
Quotation Marks
1. Did you remember to place exact quotes within quotation marks? Use quotation marks at eh beginning and end of all directly quoted material.
2. Did you place all periods and commas inside the quotation marks while placing semicolons and colons outside them?
Sentence Variety
1. Have you varied the length of the sentences in each paragraph?
2. Have you used a mix of simple, compound, and complex sentence structures?
Verb Tenses
1. Have you incorrectly jumped about in different tenses?
2. Have you used the correct form of the verb to express the tense you want?
Capitalization
1. Have you capitalized names of persons, cities, countries, streets, and titles?
2. Have you capitalized a quotation according to the original and according to the needs of your sentence?
This guide does not address every possible editing error that you might encounter. That's why it is important for you to develop your own personal editing plan for your writing. As you practice and get more and more experience, you will discover which errors you make more frequently than others. Be sure to develop a plan for locating and correcting the errors you are most likely to make.
Here is a simple Grammar Guide that you can begin with until you develop your own editing guidelines: Grammar Guide