Proofreading

The path to happiness and success with writing. A SEVEN STEP PROCESS
Credit goes to Mr. Richter and worldofteaching.com

Seven Steps
When you have completed all seven steps, you will have identified almost all the possible errors. Checking your paper sentence by sentence ensures that you are focusing on what is actually on the page, not just what you think should be on the page!

The Seven Steps

1. Check for complete sentences 2. Check for words that are left out and check for words or ideas that are repeated 3. Check all words for capitalization mistakes 4. Check for all punctuation mistakes 5. Check for subject-verb agreement 6. Check for problems in usage 7. Check for misspelled words

Step 1 Complete Sentences

A sentence is complete when it has:
A subject What or who is the sentence about A verb What is being said about the subject, or what did the subject do A capital letter at the beginning An end mark at the end It makes sense

Step 2 Are words left out or repeated?

Sometimes we start a sentence with an idea and then restate the idea at the end because we forgot what we said. Sometimes we accidentally repeat or leave out words because we know what we meant to say, but forget to actually say it.

Step 3 Check for Capitalization Mistakes

All proper nouns should be capitalized. All proper adjectives should be capitalized. Important words in titles should be capitalized. Common nouns should not be capitalized. If you arent sure, LOOK IT UP!

Step 4 Check for Punctuation Mistakes

Five Punctuation marks:
Commas Periods Apostrophes Quotation Marks Underlining

Check for each kind of mistake If you arent sure, LOOK IT UP!

Step 5 Subject-Verb Agreement

If you have a singular subject, you should have a singular verb.
The cat plays with the yarn (correct) The cats plays with the yarn (incorrect) The cat play with the yarn (incorrect)

If you have a plural subject, you should have a plural verb. Be careful in identifying the correct subject so you know which type of verb to use.

Step 6 Check for problems in usage

Pronoun usage does the pronoun refer to a specific, already identified noun within the paragraph. Double negatives two nots make a do. A/an choices An comes before a

Step 7 - Check for Misspelled Words

Keep an eye out for misused homonyms (words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings) Check each word starting from the end of the sentence and working toward the beginning. (this keeps you from assuming what the word will be because of context and helps you see what is actually on the page) IF YOU ARENT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE, LOOK IT UP!

Benefits of This Approach

ID seven types of errors you can make. The hunt and find method of proofreading is based on finding a percentage of your mistakes. This system ensures you will find almost all the errors in your text.

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