Common Mistakes

Editing and Proofreading Reminders -- If you want a guide to help you check off proof-reading problems, this is what you need.

SECOND GRADE MISTAKES

(Failure to check for and correct these errors is just laziness):

Not having the first letter of every sentence capitalized. Seriously? Yes, it's true that Google docs is not going to capitalize the first word for you (like your phone or your copy of Word might do), but come on, all you have to do is look for the periods and make sure the next letter is a capital.

Not having proper nouns capitalized. Again, baby stuff that YOU personally need to find and correct. Read EVERY WORD of your essay, slowly and carefully. If a word is the name of a person, an exact place (Paris, Nashville, Two Rivers Middle School), a corporation -- a PROPER NOUN, in short -- make sure it starts with a capital letter.

Not ending every sentence with a period. This one comes up less often, but keep an eye on it so that you're not the reason I have to keep including it next year!

Ignoring the cute, little squiggly red line under a word, also known as obvious spelling errors. While Google docs won't capitalize for you, it WILL check your spelling and mark words that it suspects are incorrect. You have to fix the words -- and that doesn't mean going in and adding words to the Google doc dictionary.

Missing words or letters and also for an the extra words that don't really belong their sentences some. Reading out loud (very quietly) can help catch these tricky. (You caught my deliberate example errors, right?)

FIFTH & SIXTH GRADE MISTAKES:

Look for sentence fragments. Since many of them start this way. Correct them.

Punctuation errors. Periods and commas are nifty. Please use them. If you need a refresher on comma rules, see the link above.

Look particularly for mistakes in there, their, and they're, because the spell-checker won't catch them. "there" (means a location) "their" (means belonging to multiple people) "they're" (means they are)

MORE COMPLICATED, BUT STILL VERY IMPORTANT DETAILS:

(ask me for help if you're not sure about these issues):

Make sure you've eliminated any use of the word "alot" or the two words "a lot" -- if those are still in your essay, you're not done yet.

Double-check for use of first person and eliminate it. "In my opinion...," "I think...," "My examples will include..." "My essay will address..." Ask me for help if you need it.

Look for run-on sentences that have too many words or address too many concepts at once because they may need more attention than just a comma or two in order to fix them and keep them from being run-on sentences which is what you were thinking about in the first place.

Check for correct format of titles. Novels should be italicized: The Crossover

Check for subject verb agreement and vague pronouns. Ask me if you don't know what either of those means.