Proofreading+Strategies

Proofreading Strategies No matter how many times you read through a "finished" paper, you're likely to miss many of your most frequent errors. The following guide will help you proofread more effectively: General strategies for proofreading well. Strategies to personalize proofreading so you can identify errors you typically make. (You don't need to check for everything. It's more efficient to know your typical problem areas and make several passes through the paper for them.) Strategies for finding and correcting those errors. ** General Strategies ** Begin by taking a break. Allow yourself some time between writing and proofing. Even a five-minute break is productive because it will help you 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 Aloud** Reading a paper aloud encourages you to read every little word. **Reading with a "Cover"** 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. **Role-Playing** Playing the role of the reader encourages you to see the paper as your audience might. ** Personalizing Proofreading ** In addition to using the general strategies already listed, you'll need to personalize the proofreading 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: Find out what errors you typically make. Review instructors comments about your writing Learn how to fix those errors. Talk with your instructor—she can help you understand why you make the errors you do so that you can learn to avoid them. Use specific strategies. Use the strategies detailed on the following pages to find and correct your particular errors in organization and paragraphing, usage and sentence structure, and spelling and punctuation. To locate and correct errors in your papers, find the strategies on the following pages 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.


 * Finding and Correcting Certain Kinds of Errors **

** Organization and Paragraphing ** **Thesis** Find your paper's thesis statement. Copy it on another sheet of paper. If your thesis is not directly stated, write down a possible thesis. Locate the central idea of each paragraph and try to reduce that idea to a word or phrase. If you cannot decide on one phrase, list two or three options. List the paragraph ideas in order under your thesis. Read the thesis and the list of paragraph ideas and decide whether your paragraphs clearly relate to your thesis. If not, either rewrite your thesis to incorporate the unrelated ideas (if you do this, make sure the paper still hangs together as a whole), or eliminate the unrelated paragraphs (make sure the paper is still sufficiently developed and fulfills the essay assignment). **Paragraph Clarity** Locate the central idea of each paragraph. Reduce that idea to a word or phrase. Look at each paragraph in isolation. Consider only the information in that paragraph. Ask yourself whether you offer enough details in the paragraph to support that word or idea. Decide whether all of your details are relevant. 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? **Overall Coherence** 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. ** Usage & Sentence Structure ** **Subject/Verb Agreement** Find the main verb in each sentence. Match the verb to its subject. Make sure that the subject and verb agree in number. ** Spelling and Punctuation **

**Spelling** 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. If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled correctly. Watch out for homophones (weather/whether) and correctly spelled typos (“tot he” for “to the” and “an” for “and”) **Compound Sentence Commas** Skim for the conjunctions //and//, //but//, //for//, //or//, //nor//, //so// and //yet//. See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the conjunction. If so, place a comma before the conjunction. **Fragments** A sentence fragment is a group of words that isn’t a complete sentence, but is punctuated like one. For example: I love my cat. __A fuzzy friendly feline__. (The underlined words make up a fragment. It is only a descriptive phrase—it has no subject or verb.) Another example: I would be lonely without him. __Although he wakes me up every morning at six__. (This group of words has a subject and a verb, but the word “although” makes it into a dependent clause that must be attached to a complete sentence.) Look at each sentence to see whether it contains an independent clause. Pay special attention to sentences that begin with dependent marker words (such as “because”) or phrases such as “for example” or “such as.” See if the sentence might be just a piece of the previous sentence that mistakenly got separated by a period. For example: I love my cat. A fuzzy friendly feline. Should be: I love my cat, a fuzzy friendly feline. Check the Fragment section of the workbook for more. **Run-Together (Run-on) Sentences** A run-on, or run-together, sentence occurs when a writer joins two complete sentences without any punctuation or by using only a comma, which is also known as a comma splice error. For example: Janet opens the door __the air outside is cold__. (The underlined words make up a complete sentence which must be punctuated as such.) An Example of a Comma Splice: Janet opens the door, __the air outside is cold__. (Because the underlined words make up a complete sentence, they can not be separated from the first complete sentence by only a comma.) 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. BEST CHOICE: Using a __joining word__, a subordinator or a coordinator. Alternative Choice: Use a semicolon ONLY IF you cannot find a joining word that works. Though grammatically correct, a semicolon does not let your reader know the specific logical connection between your two sentences. Remember, semicolons join __complete__ sentences only. Least Preferable Choice: Use a period ONLY IF you cannot find a joining word that works. Though grammatically correct, //a period gives your reader __even less__ information about how sentences relate.// See the RTS section of the workbook for more. **Comma Splices** Skim the paper, stopping at every comma. See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the comma. If so, follow the advice # 2) to 5) from Run-Together Sentences, above. **Apostrophes** Skim your paper, stopping only at those words which end in "s." 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 **Left-Out Words**  Read the paper aloud, pointing to every word as you read. Don't let your eye move ahead until you spot each word.  Also, make sure that you haven't doubled any words.  It’s a good idea to make and keep handy a list of problems your teacher marks on your essays or paragraphs. See the workbook section, Personal Proofreading/Surface Issues Checklist. = Doing all this will take a while. The more you do it, though, the quicker you’ll become at doing each step of the process, and the more skillful you’ll become at seeing and then correcting errors. The payoff will be work you can feel good about, which you learn to produce only after repeated experience. =