Editing and Proofreading

When you complete a draft of your paper, review it for possible areas of improvement.

Edit Details

1. Are names, dates, and quotes accurate?
2. Are facts and statistics clearly stated?
3. Are there missing details or irrelevant material that could be deleted?

Edit Words

1. Have you chosen the correct word? Do you want "accept" or "except"?
   Is the service "continuous" or "continual"?
2. Have you eliminated wordy phrases such as "round in shape" for "round" or "summer months" for "summer"?
3. Is your word choice suitable for your subject and audience?
   Do some of your words have connotations that may weaken your paper or offend readers?

Edit Sentences

1. Is your paper free of fragments and run-ons?
2. Do subjects and verbs agree?
3. Do nouns and pronouns match in number?
4. Are modifiers clearly placed? Are there sentences that could be misinterpreted such as "She wore a ribbon in her hair which was red"?
5. Are there awkward shifts from first to third person or from past to present tense?
6. Are ideas stated in a parallel fashion?
7. Are the rules of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation followed?
8. Do you avoid mixed metaphors -- awkward statements like "She got into hot water when her excuses didn't cut any ice with the faculty."

Edit The Whole Composition

1. Does the introduction grab attention and announce the topic?
2. Does the body support your thesis?
3. Does the paper conclude on a strong point?

Proofread Details

1. Have you double checked spellings, facts, statistics, and numbers for accuracy?
2. Have you reviewed the text for grammar, punctuation, and capitalization?

Proofread The Whole Document

1. Have you followed the prescribed format -- using the expected font size, spacing, and margins?
2. Have you created the proper title page or heading and included needed information such as the date and your name?
3. Are pages properly numbered?

Because it is easy to overlook errors in your own writing, use peer review if possible.

KEEP A COPY OF YOUR PAPER