Editing Toolbox

 Read Backwards

Read your paper backwards, sentence by sentence. Reading backwards lets you look at your paper as a list of sentences and keeps you from getting caught up in the story of your paper.

 Look for Your Usual Suspects

Look for your usual mistakes, one at a time. In other words, if you know that you often confuse “from” and “form,” go through your paper looking just for these two words.

 Let it Sit 

Let the paper sit for a while, and then look over it again.

 Read Aloud

Read your paper aloud, preferably to someone else or into a tape recorder. Writers frequently notice mistakes when they orally present their papers. If you are reading aloud to just one other person, give them a copy of your paper and ask them to make sure that the words you read are the words on the page. Doing this will help you know if you are verbally correcting grammar mistakes without realizing you are doing so. This often happens with common problems like possessive constructions, adding –d or –ed to a verb and subject-verb agreement. Finally, when you read, note where you trip over words. These reading slips often, but not always, indicate awkward constructions.

Always Proofread

“Proofreading Strategies” from Purdue shares some strategies for proofing your own work effectively.

“Proofreading for Common Surface Errors: Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar” from Indiana University is also very useful and includes suggestions on what kinds of things to look for as you proofread.

 Use Technology

Use spell check consistently and grammar check cautiously.

Except with proper names, spell check is almost always right. However, spell check will not catch misspellings if the word you spelled is another word, like “principle” for “principal.”

Grammar check is getting better, but is not perfect. Note that newer additions of grammar check give you an explanation of the problem. Using this feature is a good way to make sure you agree with grammar check and to learn more about writing.

Another Pair of Eyes

Get someone else to look at your paper, a friend or family member, or take or e-mail your paper to DePaul's Writing Centers.