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The Guide to Proofreading and Editing

October 1, 2008

Editing is not the same thing as proofreading. Editing works on a larger scale. When you edit, you look at the overall document and what it is trying to say. You may add or remove entire paragraphs, or drastically change the way the document is organized. You might ask the following questions: What is the purpose of the document? Is that purpose achieved? Does the organization of the document make sense? Is it clear and easy to understand?

Proofreading works on a much smaller scale. When you are satisfied with the basic structure of the document, confident that it says what you wanted to say, then you proofread to check the small details. Look at each sentence by itself. Is the sentence grammatically correct? Is it punctuated properly? Look at each word. Is it the best word you could have chosen? Is it spelled correctly? Did you use the correct word, or did you use a word that sounds the same but is spelled differently?

Editing

Editing is primarily concerned with four things: content, structure, clarity, and style.

Content

What is the purpose of your document? What is it that you need to communicate? As you edit the paper, ask yourself if you have included all of the information that needs to be there. Does the document say what it needs to say?

Have you clearly communicated all of the necessary facts? How about opinions? If you were trying to convince someone of something, does the document show what your opinion is, and why your choice is better?

Is your content accurate? Is it clear which parts are fact, and which parts are opinion? Have you included anything irrelevant or confusing that should be left out? Is there anything offensive, or anything that your readers could misunderstand and find offensive?

Structure

How is the document organized? Different kinds of documents should be organized in different ways. A business letter has a very different structure from the memo or an essay.

Often you will start with an introduction, followed by a description of your main points, followed by a conclusion. This basic structure can work for anything from a long paragraph to a textbook. The introduction could be a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or a chapter, depending on what you are writing.

As you edit, check that your topics are in a logical order. Now that you can see the whole document, you may want to reorganize it.

Clarity

This is a tricky area. The document will seem clear to you. You wrote it, so you know exactly what everything means. You must learn to watch for things that your readers could misunderstand.

Are you using slang, technical terms, jargon, or obscure words? Do you refer to people, places, or things, without explaining who or what they are?

Check your pronouns. If you use “he,” “they,” or “it,” is there any chance of creating confusion?

Look at each sentence by itself. Have you written any sentences that can’t stand on their own?

Have you used any ambiguous words? Did you say “proceeding down the street” instead of “walking,” “driving,” or “sliding?” Did you say “vehicle,” leaving people to wonder if it was a car, truck, or bus?

Style

Editing for style will not help people to understand your writing. It will, however, make it more likely that people will keep reading to the end of the document. A poor writing style is like chewing with your mouth open. It doesn’t make you harder to understand, but it gives a bad impression and makes it less likely that people will pay attention to what you write.

Editing for style means removing things that are clumsy, repetitive, or unnecessary. It means putting variety in your sentences and paragraphs, and making your writing pleasant to read.

As you edit, watch for a repetition of words or phrases. Maybe you use the word “nevertheless” several times in every paragraph. Take it out. It’s distracting.

Watch for unnecessary words. Instead of “right now, sales are down,” just say “sales are down.” Instead of “due to the fact that,” just say “because.”

Whenever possible, use the active voice rather than the passive voice. Instead of “a decision was made by the committee,” say “the committee made a decision.”

Proofreading

You probably need more proofreading than you realize. Your brain will correct things for you unconsciously as you read. If you go through the document a couple of times and don’t see any errors, you should not assume that the errors aren’t there.

You may want to make several passes through the document, looking for a different kind of error each time. Check your grammar. Check your punctuation. Make sure you haven’t used an adjective to modify a verb (“He is quick. He moves quickly.” Not, “He moves quick.”) Check your spelling, and give extra care to homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). “You paid to much” is an example of using the wrong homonym.

If you are going to proofread for someone else, you will have to learn standard proofreading marks. These are symbols used by professional editors to indicate when text should be omitted, inserted, capitalized, transposed, and so on.

Tips

Don’t try to edit or proofread right after you finish writing the document. You need distance to get perspective. Leave it alone for a while, and come back with a fresh eye.

Consider asking someone else to look at the document. Things that seem perfectly clear to you may not be clear to other readers. Often, one person will catch errors that another person will miss.

Read the document out loud. This will help you notice clumsy phrasing or passages that don’t quite make sense.

For meticulous proofreading, try reading the document backward. This gives you a new perspective and helps you to focus on one word at a time and one sentence at a time.

Watch for errors that you commonly make. Consider keeping a list of your own most common mistakes. This will help you keep from repeating them.

Posted by white smoke | Filed Under Accurate Spell Checker, Correct Grammar Software, Error Explanations, Grammar Correction, Grammar Software, Intelligent Style Checker, Writing Software, editing, grammar checker, proofreading, white smoke, white smoke review, whitesmoke, whitesmoke review, writing 

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