Part of the writing process is editing. Most of us find this stage of writing to be the least favorite, but it is necessary to make sure we’ve done our best, find and correct mistakes, and polish up anything that’s out of place.

Today we’re going to cover a simple checklist you can use to make sure you’ve covered everything in the editing process. This checklist is by no means, set in stone, and you may have your own system.

Editing Checklist:

* Check your sentences for errors in grammar and usage.
* Are all words spelled correctly?
* Have you capitalized the correct words?
* Did you use proper punctuation?
* Are your paragraphs in order?
* Is point of view consistent?

Some writers check for all these mistakes at once, but that can still leave mistakes uncovered. It’s a good idea to check off each part seperately. Read through the material looking for grammar and usage mistakes. If a spelling error is obvious you’ll see those too and can correct them, but your focus at this point is on grammar and usage.

Read through it again and look for spelling errors that weren’t obvious while you were checking the grammar.

Read through the article several times to find each of these common mistakes. We don’t always catch obvious mistakes when we’ve written the material. I’ve had people proofread my work after I’ve done several edits and have them discover simple little errors that I missed, like using there for their. Spell check doesn’t catch those mistakes, human eyes do. But it’s very easy for our human eyes to miss these because in our mind the word we meant to use is implanted in the brain so we miss the obvious.

In a recent article at BloggingTips, Dot Your “I’s” and Cross Your “T’s”, Patricia suggested:

Print out what you’ve written for better proofreading. This may seem like something that just takes up extra time along with paper and ink, but you will be able to see your mistakes more clearly if you have a printout in front of you.

In light of today’s technology and the use of computers, this is still the best way to edit your work. Mistakes jump out at you from paper so much easier than they do from a computer screen.

Print your work out and use basic proofreading symbols to mark your mistakes.

I’m having trouble with the Image feature.  Just click the link below for a visual image of proofreading symbols

http://www.umw.edu/policies/style_guide/proofreading_guidelines/common_proofreading_symbol.php

 You may also want to double space for a print-out to make it easier to mark. You can always switch back to single spacing when all edits are complete.

Getting back to the basics of writing will make you feel better about your skills, impress your readers and show professionalism. We all make mistakes, we are human, and I’ve seen novels by top authors contain mistakes. The problem occurs when we consistently make mistakes or make the same mistakes over and over.

Always check your work!

Please share any suggestions or tips you use when proofreading and editing your work. We’d love to hear from you.

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