Proofreading

Way to happiness and success with writing.

A SEVEN STEP PROCESS
Seven Steps
• When you have completed all seven steps you will
have identified 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 complete 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 aren’t 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 aren’t 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 ‘not’s 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 AREN’T ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE LOOK IT UP!