carefullyblockquote

ProofreadingStrategiesWhatisitProofreadingistheprocessoflookingverycloselyatyourwritingtofindmistakessuchaserrorswithtyping(typos),spelling,orgrammar.
Itisnotsimplyreadingyourpaper—youwon'tfindmanyerrorsthatway.
HowdoIdoitConcentrate!
Thisisthekeytosuccessfulproofreading.
Belowareseveralstrategiesyoucantrytoimproveyourconcentrationandthusproofreadingskills.
Tryavarietyofthemandseewhichonesworkbestforyou.
StrategyExplanationTakeaBreakTakeatleasta5-minutebreakbeforeyoustarttoproofread.
Thiswillhelpyourmindbemorefresh.
A24-hourbreakisevenbetter!
SlowDownSlowdownasyoureadthroughapaper.
Youmissmanymistakeswhenyoureadfast.
PrintitOutPrintyourpapertohelpyourbrainreallyseewhat'swrittenandnotpassovererrors.
ReadOutLoudReadingoutloudforcesyoutoslowdownandhelpsyoutofindmistakes.
ReadinChunksForlongpaper,proofreadshortportionsatatime(e.
g.
,read2pages,takeabreak,read2morepages,takeabreak,etc.
).
Yourbrainneedsbreakswhenproofreading.
CheckforSpecificErrorsCheckseparatelyforeachkindoferror(forexample,subject-verbagreement).
Seethestrategieslistedonthenextpage.
UseaCoverMoveapieceofpaperdownthepageasyouread.
Thishelpsyouconcentrate.
ReadfromEndtoBeginningReadthewholepaperbackwards—fromendtobeginning.
Thismeansreadthelastsentencefirst,thenthe2nd-to-thelastsentence,etc.
FindaFriendHaveafriendwhoyoutrustreadthepaperforspecificthings.
Tellthereaderwhattoreadfor(forexample,forvocabulary,grammar,mainidea,flow,etc.
).
UseaGrammarCheckerUsegrammarcheckinthewordprocessorasaguideforwhatMIGHTbewrong.
Remember,grammarcheckersarenotalwayscorrect,soonlyusethemassuggestions.
UseMicrosoft's"Find"featureUsethe"Find"functioninMicrosoftWordtofindmistakesyou'relikelytomake.
Forexample,ifyouconfuse"its"and"it's,"searchfor"it"andcheckeachoneyoufindcarefully.
UseaSpellCheckerEndwithaspellingcheck,usingacomputerspellingcheckerorreadingbackwardswordbyword.
Rememberthataspellingcheckerwon'tcatchmistakeswithhomonyms(e.
g.
,"they're,""their,""there")orcertaintypos(like"he"for"the").
Youneedtofindthosemistakesyourself!
ELIPEnglishLanguageImprovementProgramStrategiestoCheckforSpecificErrorsOnceyouknowyourcommonmistakes,youcancheckyourpapersforthemspecifically.
Herearesomestrategiestohelpyouout—onlyusetheonesthatyouneed.
Thekeytosuccessisconcentrating.
Verbtense:1.
Checkyourliteraturereviewespeciallytobesureyourtensesareconsistent.
Findverbswhereyouarediscussingtheliterature.
2.
Besureyouareconsistentwithyourtenses.
Don'tstartbyusingthepasttensewhendiscussingtheliterature,forexample,andthenswitchfornoreasontousingthepresent.
Parallelstructure:1.
Skimyourpaper,stoppingatkeywordsthatsignalparallelstructures.
Lookespeciallyforand,or,notonly.
.
.
butalso,either.
.
.
or,neither.
.
.
nor,andboth.
.
.
and.
2.
Makesurethattheitemsconnectedbythesewords(adjectives,nouns,phrases,etc.
)areinthesamegrammaticalform.
Fragments:1.
Lookateachsentencetomakesurethatitcontainsanindependentclause.
2.
Payspecialattentiontosentencesthatbeginwithsubordinatingconjunctions(because,while,since,etc.
)orphrasessuchasforexampleorsuchasasthesentencemightbejustapieceofthepreviousone.
Incorrect:Iliketoski.
BecauseIlikethesnow.
Correct:IliketoskibecauseIlikethesnow.
Commasconnectingtwoindependentclauses(completesentences):1.
Skimyourpaperforcommas.
2.
Seewhetherthereisacompletesentenceoneachsideofthecomma.
Ifso,revisebyeitherchangingthepunctuationtoaperiodorsemicolonorbyrewritingoneclausetobedependent(e.
g.
,addaconjunction).
Incorrect:Harry'sfathercametotownlastweek,hereallyenjoyedseeingtheStates.
Correct:Harry'sfathercametotownlastweek;hereallyenjoyedseeingtheStates.
Correct:Harry'sfathercametotownlastweekandreallyenjoyedseeingtheStates.
Commaseparatingsubjectandverb:1.
Skimyourpaperforcommas.
2.
Seewhetherthereisacommabetweenyoursubjectandverb.
Ifthecommaisn'tforanadjectiveclause,considerremovingit.
Don'tseparateyoursubjectandverbwithacomma.
Incorrect:Harry'sfather,cametotownlastweek.
Correct:Harry'sfathercametotownlastweek.
MissingCommainAdjective/RelativeClause:1.
Skimyourpaperforcommas.
2.
Seewhetheryouhaveacommatoshowthebeginningofarelative/adjectiveclause.
Ifso,makesureyouhaveaclosingcommafortheclause.
Incorrect:Harry'sfather,whocametotownlastweekworksatthePentagon.
Correct:Harry'sfather,whocametotownlastweek,worksatthePentagon.
Apostrophes:1.
Skimyourpaper,stoppingonlyatthosewordswhichendin"s.
"2.
Seewhetherornoteach"s"wordneedsanapostrophe.
Ifanapostropheisneeded,youwillbeabletoinvertthewordorderandsay"of"or"ofthe.
"Incorrect:Mybrotherswifeisverynice.
Correct:Mybrother'swifeisverynice.
Left-outorDoubledwords:1.
Readthepaperaloud,pointingtoeveryword.
Don'tletyoureyemoveaheaduntilyouspoteachword.
2.
Also,makesurethatyouhaven'tdoubledanywords.
Incorrect:EverydayMarkgoesthemallwithhisbrother.
Correct:EverydayMarkgoestothemallwithhisbrother.
Capitalizationintitlesandothernecessaryplaces:1.
Skimyourpaperforallnamesofpersons,cities,countries,streets,andtitles.
Aretheycapitalized2.
Beconsistentwithcapitalizationandcapitalizenecessarypropernouns.
Incorrect:Michellejustfinishedreadingthearticle"HowtoHelpStudentslearn.
"Correct:Michellejustfinishedreadingthearticle"HowtoHelpStudentsLearn.
"Quotationmarks:1.
Findallquotationmarks(useWord's"Find")andbesureeveryopeningquotationmarkhasacloser.
2.
Makesurethatyouplaceexactquoteswithinquotationmarks.
3.
Placeallperiodsandcommasinsidethequotationmarks,butplacesemicolonsandcolonsoutsidethem.
Incorrect:Michellejustfinishedreadingthearticle"HowtoHelpStudentsLearn.
Correct:Michellejustfinishedreadingthearticle"HowtoHelpStudentsLearn.
"References:Checkallthepartsofreferencesseparatelyanddeliberatelyinsteadofjustreadingthroughyourpaper.
1.
Checkthatallparagraphshaveatleastonecitation.
Forparagraphswithnocitations,arealltheideasyourown,ordoyouneedtoaddcitations2.
Makesureallcitationboundariesareclear.
Thereadershouldbeabletotellwhichideasinaparagrapharefromwhichsourceandwhichideasareyours.
3.
Checkthatanywordsyoucopiedfromasourceareeitherinquotationmarksorinablockquote.
Besuretoincludethecitationandifnecessaryinyourcitationstyle,besuretoincludethepagenumber.
4.
Checkthatallparaphrasesarewritteninacompletelynewsentencestructure,differentwords,andincludeacitation.
5.
Checkallin-textcitations.
Besuretheyfollowyourcitationstyle(e.
g.
,APA,Chicago,IEEE).
Checkcommas,pagenumbersifneeded,spaces,capitalization,etc.
Allin-textcitationsshouldbeconsistent.
6.
Checkyourreferencelist.
Makesureeachsourceisformattedaccordingtoyourcitationstyle.
Checkallpunctuation,spelling,spacing,capitalization,italics/bold,etc.
Makesurethelistisintherightorder.
7.
Checkthatallreferencesinyourtextmatchthereferencesinthereferencelist.
8.
Considerrunningyourpaperthroughanonlineplagiarismdetectiontool(e.
g.
,DocCop,SafeAssign,PlagiarismDetect,etc.
)andcheckforwordingthatmightbecopiedincorrectly.
Dr.
DawnBikowskibikowski@ohio.
eduEnglishLanguageImprovementProgramOhioUniversityhttp://linguistics.
ohio.
edu/ELIP/