You have written a draft of your paper. Your work is done, so you should turn it in, right? No, WAIT! Step away from the computer, take a deep breath, and do not submit that assignment.

You should always proofread and revise your paper. A first draft is usually a very rough draft. It takes time and at least two (or more!) additional passes through to make sure your argument is strong, your writing is polished, and there are no typos or grammatical errors. Proofreading will always give you a better paper in the end.

 

After You Finish Writing the First Draft, Your Process Should be Something Like This:

  • Take a break! Try to wait a day or two before looking back over your paper. If you are on a tight deadline, take a walk, grab a snack, drink some coffee, or do something else to clear your head so you can read through your paper with fresh eyes. The longer you wait, the more likely you will see what is on the page and not what you meant to write.

  • Print out your paper, read through it, and mark it up using some brightly colored pen (so you will not miss any corrections later on). See below for suggestions on what to look for when doing this step.

  • Take another break.

  • Open your computer file and make changes to your paper based on your marked-up copy. These changes could be major (for example, reordering your ideas, cutting sections, or adding more information) or minor (fixing subject-verb agreement or other grammatical issues, adding missing words, correcting typos, etc.).

Make sure you leave yourself enough time to complete your draft and proofread it as many times as necessary (for major assignments, you will want to go through the process described above at least twice). It can help to give yourself smaller deadlines leading up to a major deadline (and some teachers even build this in for you). For example, if your paper is due in four weeks, make a deadline to complete your research by the end of week one, write your thesis statement and create an outline by the end of week two, finish the first draft by the end of week three, and spend the last week making multiple passes at proofreading and revising your paper.

 

What to Look for in the First Proofreading Pass(es): Higher-Order Concerns

Typically, early proofreading passes a paper should focus on the larger issues known as higher-order concerns. Higher-order concerns relate to the strength of your ideas, the support for your argument, and the logic of how your points are presented. Some important higher-order concerns are listed below, along with some questions you can ask yourself while proofreading to see if your paper needs work in any of these areas:

  • The Thesis Statement: Does your paper have a clear thesis statement? If so, where is it? Does the introduction lead up to that thesis statement? Does each paragraph directly relate back to your thesis statement?

  • The Argument: Is your thesis statement supported by enough evidence? Do you need to add any explanations or examples to improve your case? Is there any unnecessary or irrelevant information that should be removed?

  • Large-Scale Organization: Could your paper be easily outlined or tree diagrammed? Are your paragraphs presented in a logical order? Are similar ideas grouped together? Are there clear transitions (either verbal or logical) that link each paragraph to what came before?

  • Organization within Paragraphs: Is each paragraph centered around one main idea? Is there a clear topic sentence for each paragraph? Are any of your paragraphs too short or too long? Do all the sentences in each paragraph relate back to their respective topic sentences? Are the sentences presented logically so each grows out of what came before?

  • The Assignment Instructions: Does your paper answer all aspects of the writing prompt? Have you completed all of the tasks required by the instructor? Did you include all necessary sections (for example, an abstract or reference list)? Are you following the required style for formatting the paper, the reference list, and/or citations? (That last question is technically a lower-order concern, but it falls under the assignment instructions and is something where you could easily lose points if you do not follow instructions.)

When reading through your paper's early draft(s), mark up your paper with those concerns in mind first. Keep proofreading and revising until you have fixed all of these larger-scale issues. Your paper may change a lot as you do this – that is completely normal! You might have to add more material, cut sentences, paragraphs, or even whole sections, or rewrite significant portions of the paper to fix any problems related to these higher-order concerns. This is why you should be careful not to get too bogged down with small-scale problems early on: there is no point in spending a lot of time fixing sentences you end up cutting because they do not fit in with your topic!

 

What to Look for in the Later Proofreading Pass(es): Lower-Order Concerns

Once you have fully addressed the higher-order concerns, you can focus on more local fixes or lower-order concerns in your subsequent proofreading passes. Lower-order concerns include writing style, wording, typos, and grammar issues. Yes, it is true: grammar is a lower-order concern! Even though students are often very concerned that their grammar needs to be fixed, it is more important to focus on the quality of your ideas and the logic of how they are presented first. That is not to say you should not worry about grammar; it is just that you should not make it the main focus until closer to the end of the writing process. Some typical lower-order concerns are listed below, along with some questions that can help you recognize aspects in need of revision:

  • Style: Are you using an appropriate tone? Are you following the conventions that are typical of your discipline? Are you using the required style for formatting?

  • Wording: Are you always picking the word with the precise meaning you want? Are there any places where your wording is confusing or your sentences are long and hard to follow? Are there any awkward phrases? Are you writing as simply and concisely as possible? Are there any redundant words or sentences that should be removed?

  • Grammar: Do you have any sentence fragments or run-on sentences? Are your subjects and verbs in agreement? Are you handling your plurals and possessives correctly? Are there any punctuation errors?

  • Typos: Are there missing words? Are any words misspelled (be especially careful to watch out for words that spell-check will not catch, for example, typing "can" when you meant "van")? Are there any extra spaces that need to be removed?

Cleaning up these local issues is the final stage in the writing process. Think of this as polishing up your writing so that your prose matches the quality of your ideas.

 

Other Tips for Proofreading

  • Always read slowly and carefully when proofreading. Do not rush! You will probably miss errors you would otherwise catch if you go too fast.

  • Read your paper out loud. This can be very helpful for catching typos, missing words, awkward phrasings, and overly long or confusing sentences.

  • Pretend you are the reader, not the author of the paper. Try to look at what you wrote from the perspective of someone who does not know everything you know. Would a reasonably intelligent audience be able to understand your prose and be convinced by your argument?

  • Keep track of errors you consistently make (within a single or multiple papers).

  • Get feedback on your paper from your teacher, a classmate or friend, a writing fellow, or all of the above.

Source: City University of New York, https://bacwritingfellows.commons.gc.cuny.edu/proofreading/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Last modified: Friday, 26 April 2024, 1:18 PM