ClearTips: Edit yourself
Checklist
You should check the use and usefulness of each word,
phrase, sentence, paragraph, and section. If you do not have time for such
a task, at least check a few basic things.
- Check all spelling, hyphens, capitals, numbers, and important
names and terms against your style sheet.
- Make a contents page to identify problems of organization
and to help your readers.
- Underline and try to rectify long sentences, awkward
sentences, passive verbs, and constructions that should
be parallel but are not.
- Check that subjects and verbs agree in number.
- Check that all who and which clauses are
correctly punctuated.
- Check that all introductory clauses beginning with an
-ing word relate to what immediately follows.
- Check that pairs, series, and compound subjects and predicates
are arranged from short to long, from simple to compound.
- Cut what is of little use.
- Proofread everything you send out. A list of proofreader's
marks is under proofreader in Merriam-Webster's
Dictionary.
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