Proofreading

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Proofreading

• Mr. Rickerts way to happiness and success with
  writing.
• A SEVEN STEP PROCESS

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Seven Steps

• When you have completed all seven steps you will
  have identified all the possible errors.
• Checking your paper sentence by sentence ensures
  that you are focusing on what is actually on the
  page, not just what you think should be on the
  page!

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The Seven Steps

• 1. Check for complete sentences
• 2. Check for words that are left out and check
  for words or ideas that are repeated
• 3. Check all words for capitalization mistakes.
• 4. Check for all punctuation mistakes.
• 5. Check for subject-verb agreement.
• 6. Check for problems in usage.
• 7. Check for misspelled words.

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Step 1 Complete Sentences

• A sentence is complete when it has
• A Subject What or who is the sentence about.
• A Verb What is being said about the subject, or
  what did the subject do.
• A Capital letter at the beginning.
• An end mark at the end.
• It makes complete sense.

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Step 2 Are Words left out or repeated?

• Sometimes we start a sentence with an idea and
  then restate the idea at the end because we
  forgot what we said.
• Sometimes we accidentally repeat or leave out
  words because we know what we meant to say, but
  forget to actually say it.

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Step 3 Check for Capitalization Mistakes

• All proper nouns should be capitalized.
• All proper adjectives should be capitalized.
• Important words in Titles should be capitalized.
• Common nouns should not be capitalized.
• If you arent sure LOOK IT UP!

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Step 4 Check for Punctuation Mistakes

• Five Punctuation marks
• Commas,
• Periods,
• Apostrophes,
• Quotation Marks
• Underlining.
• Check for each kind of mistake.
• If you arent sure LOOK IT UP!

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Step 5 Subject-Verb Agreement

• If you have a singular subject you should have a
  singular verb.
• The cat plays with the yarn (correct)
• The cats plays with the yarn (incorrect)
• The cat play with the yarn (incorrect)
• If you have a plural subject you should have a
  plural verb.
• Be careful in identifying the correct subject so
  you know which type of verb to use.

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Step 6 Check for problems in usage.

• Pronoun usage does the pronoun refer to a
  specific, already identified noun within the
  paragraph.
• Double negatives two nots make a do.
• A/an choices An comes before a

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Step 7 - Check for Misspelled Words

• Keep an eye out for misused homonyms (words that
  sound alike but have different spellings and
  meanings)
• Check each word starting from the end of the
  sentence and working toward the beginning. (this
  keeps you from assuming what the word will be
  because of context and helps you see what is
  actually on the page)
• IF YOU ARENT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE LOOK IT UP!

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Benefits of Mr. Rickerts approach

• There are seven types of errors you can make.
• The hunt and find method of proofreading is based
  on finding a percentage of your mistakes.
• My system ensures you will find 100 of the
  errors in your paper.

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