Transcript How to Edit’ - Mohawk College

“Quick-Fix Workshop”
Communications Centre
It isn’t over yet…
• Don’t finish when you
finish your first copy.
• Editing is hard work
because it demands a
committed and
meticulous attitude.
• Good, thorough
editing should take as
long as it took you to
write your first draft.
Eeeks.
Make Life Easier:
Resist the Evils of Procrastination
• Learn that Writing is a Process and give
yourself enough time to complete the entire
writing and editing process.
The Writing Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Planning/ Gathering Information
Shaping/Outlining: organizing your ideas and,
using point form, constructing the framework of
your paper.
Drafting: writing your ideas in sentences and
paragraphs.
Revising/Getting Feedback: evaluating your
draft, and adding, cutting, replacing, and
moving material.
Editing
Proofreading: checking your final draft for
typos.
When is it time to Edit?
• After you are confident that the
content and organization of your
paper are set, begin editing.
Editing Means:
• Finding and fixing errors in grammar, spelling,
punctuation, capitals, numbers, italics, and
abbreviations.
What do I Need?
• A Writing Handbook
• An Editing Checklist
• Time and Patience
* You may also want to enlist another pair of
eyes to look at your work. Make sure this
other pair of eyes uses the checklist and
handbook.
Writing Handbooks
• Process and Practice by Ronald Conrad
Writing Handbooks
• Checkmate or Fit to Print
by Joanne Buckley
Writing Handbooks
• Quick Access by Lynn Quitman Troyka
The Editing Checklist
Focus Your Attention on the following
questions.
This checklist is taken from the Owl On-Line
Writing Centre at:
www.owl.english.purdue.edu
1. Run-on Sentences and
Sentence Fragments
 Check each sentence to make sure it
has a subject, a verb, and complete
thought.
 Have you run two sentences together
incorrectly without a period,
conjunction or semicolon separating
them?
2. Punctuation
 Have you ended every sentence with a
period, question mark, or exclamation point?
 Are your thoughts within sentences broken up
correctly by commas for easier
understanding?
 Have you broken up series with commas?
 Have you used a period after abbreviations?
3. Quotation Marks
 Did you remember to place exact quotes
within quotation marks?
 Did you place all periods and commas inside
the quotation marks while placing semicolons
and colons outside them?
4. Subject-Verb Agreements
 Check every subject and verb to make sure
that if you have used a singular subject, you
have also used a singular verb.
 Similarly, a plural subject needs a plural verb.
5. Sentence Length
 Compute the average number of words per
sentence. How close is that number compared to
the average of 22?
 Have you varied the length of sentences in each
paragraph?
 If your sentences are too long, break them into
shorter units.
 Sentences that are very short tend to produce a
jerky style of writing.
 Does each sentence follow clearly and logically
from the one before it? Have you used some type
of transitional device between each sentence?
6. Apostrophes
 Have you used them correctly to indicate
possession? If you're unsure, check a
grammar book.
7. Tenses
 Have you incorrectly jumped about in different
tenses?
 Have you used the correct form of the verb to
express the tense you want?
8. Capitalization
 Have you capitalized names of persons,
cities, countries, streets, and titles?
 Have you capitalized a quotation according to
the original and according to the needs of
your sentence?
9. Spelling
 Check any word you have doubts about.
 If you are unsure of the spelling of a certain
word, look it up.
 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.
10. Paragraphing
 Does each paragraph have a topic sentence
which states the main idea?
 Have you used examples and vivid specific
details to describe your topic?
 Have you used explanatory sentences to give
your opinion or judgment on the topic?
 Have you included sentences which pertain only
to that idea?
 Are transitions used between sentences and
paragraphs?
 Is there a concluding sentence?
11. Omissions
 Have you left out any words in your
sentences?