CONTENT WRITING AND PRODUCTION

LESSON 3: PROOFREADING, EDITING, AND REVISING

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iNTRODUCTION

Welcome to the third lesson for the Content Writing and Production module!

The early drafts that may appear finished can most likely be improved as even the most professional writers can make mistakes in their writing. This is why they should undergo a writing process to ensure that publications are clear, organized, and effective (EWU, 2021).

This writing process entails that writers like you should be eager to make some alterations on your writing to achieve a well-crafted final product.

Lesson Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the participants should be able to:

Identify the foci of revising, editing, and proofreading;
Differentiate the four levels of editing;
Identify the common errors writers make according to Purdue University.

Study Hour/s: 1.5 hours

Lesson Assessment: Quiz via Google forms

WHAT IS REVISING?

Revising pertains to the continuous “re-seeing” of your writing. It is concerned with larger issues such as audience, focus, organization, and content.

Here are some tips when doing revisions:

If possible, clear your head by setting aside your writing for a few days or hours. This will help you approach your writing with fresh eyes.
Assess the overall content, focus, and organization of your work.
Think about the bigger picture. Evaluate whether your topic is understandable and if the content of your document is in line with it.
Ask yourself these questions: who are my readers/audience? what are their needs and expectations? am I effectively communicating my ideas?

WHAT IS EDITING?

Editing focuses more on the technical aspects of the writing, including the improvement of style, transitions, textual consistencies, flow or paragraph unity, and documentation.

Four Levels of Editing

Development Editing
- - Evaluating the organizational patterns, missing and inaccurate information or any confusing parts to assess the overall development of the document.
Substantive Editing
- - Assessment of the document’s sections by adding new necessary information and removing the unnecessary ones to ensure that there is a logical flow between paragraphs and sentences.
Copyediting
- - A major part of editing that addresses sentence-level issues (e.g., style inconsistencies, subject-verb agreement, confusing or wordy phrasing, missing words, inaccurate citations, and grammar)
  - To learn about the copyediting symbols, you may click this link.
Proofreading
- - This is the final stage of the editing process that takes place before the work is published. Proofreaders are the “final set of eyes” who focus on the following: spelling, punctuation, format, and typographical errors or typos.

Here are some proofreading tips as adapted from Purdue University (n.d.) and the University of Nevada, Reno (n.d.).

Read your paper aloud.
Examine the overall construction of paragraphs, including length, supporting sentence/s, and topic sentence or lead.
Track frequent errors that you frequently make and keep an eye out for them.
Read the text backwards.
Read slowly and carefully.

FINDING COMMON ERRORS

Here are the most common errors in writing that you can look out for according to Purdue University (n.d.). For a more practical application of these concepts, you may view the examples in the module provided.

Spelling

Do not depend solely on your spelling checkers. They are useful instruments in editing, but they are not entirely foolproof. Your spelling checkers may not recognize misspellings that are technically valid words such as your/you’re, to/too/two, and there/their/they’re.

Left-out and Doubled Words

Read your document slowly to ensure that you have not missed or repeated any words. You may also opt to read your paper backwards (i.e., starting from the last word of the last page until the first word of the first page) to help you concentrate on each word.

Sentence Fragments

Sentence fragments pertain to the sections of a sentence that are not grammatically considered as whole sentences.

Ensure that every sentence has a subject.
Ensure that every sentence has a complete verb.
Each sentence should have an independent clause. A dependent clause cannot stand alone, which is why it should be paired with an independent clause.

Run-On Sentences

Run-on sentences occur when two or more independent clauses are not properly connected.

A run-on sentence can be fixed by connecting the independent clauses using a comma and the appropriate conjunction.
- FANBOYS is a mnemonic device that represents the coordinating conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So (SHSU, n.d.).
Another way to fix a run-on sentence is by simply separating the independent clauses into individual sentences using capitalization and a period.

Comma Splices

If you have two independent clauses in a sentence, they should be connected using a comma and a conjunction.

Remember, commas are not necessary when using some subordinating conjunctions such as because, for, since, while, etc. as they are appropriate for combining dependent and independent clauses.
You may also opt to use a semicolon instead of a comma.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Making subjects and verbs agree is highly important to make your sentences grammatically correct. To do this, find the subject of the sentence and the verb that goes with it. You must then consider matching these two based on the number, which means that if the subject is singular, then the verb should be singular as well.
- One tip that you can apply is to indicate all subjects by highlighting them. Afterwards, you should encircle the verbs or also highlight them with a different color one at a time to check if they match the subject.
- You may review the guidelines for making subjects and verbs agree on this link.

Mixed Construction

This happens when you combine incompatible elements that start with one type of structure and then shift to another, resulting in confusion.

Parallelism

Ensure that the series of items separated by commas are parallel in nature (i.e. they all use a similar form or grammatical pattern).

Pronoun Reference/Agreement

Ensure that the pronoun used matches the noun that it is referring to.

Apostrophes

An apostrophe is a punctuation mark that is used to indicate the following: possession and contraction.

Additional Editing and Proofreading Tips

Here are some additional tips when editing and proofreading according to The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (n.d.)

Get some distance from the text.

- It is hard to edit or proofread a paper that you have just finished writing because it is still too familiar. Try to set aside your paper for a few days or hours so you can take a look at it again with fresh eyes.

Use a medium that lets you revise most effectively.

- Decide whether you would like to use an electronic platform or a printed copy when editing or proofreading.

Alter your document’s appearance.

- Try to change some features of your document, including the colors, size, and style of the text, to trick your brain into thinking that it is viewing an unfamiliar paper.

Find a quiet workplace.

- Avoid editing or proofreading in noisy places (e.g., listening to loud music and watching TV) to increase your focus and lessen unnecessary distractions.

Edit and/or proofread your document in several short blocks of time

- If you are not procrastinating, you may divide your document into parts and decide how much time are you going to allocate to each. Your concentration may be affected if you try to edit and/or proofread your paper in one go.

If you are short on time, you may prioritize.

- If procrastination is inevitable, you may just edit or proofread the most important parts of your work.

To summarize, the table below shows the main points to focus on when revising, editing, and proofreading:

Great job on finishing the Lesson 3 of Content Writing and Production!

Now, let's put your knowledge to the test. For this lesson's Assessment Activity, you will be answering a short quiz. Click the button below to start your quiz. Good luck!