Proofreading, Revising, & Editing Skills Success

1 Proofreading, REVISING, & Editing Skills SUCCESSIN 20 MINUTES A DAYNEW YORKPROOFREADING,REVISING, &EDITINGSKILLS SUCCESSIN 20 MINUTESADAYB rady Smith Copyright 2003 LearningExpress, rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:Smith, , revising, and Editing Skills : Success in 20 minutes a day / Brady Smith. 1st 1-57685-466-31. Report writing Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Proofreading Handbooks,manuals, etc. 3. Editing Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. 2003808'.02 dc212002013959 Printed in the United States of America987654321 First EditionISBN 1-57685-466-3 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at:55 Broadway8th FloorNew York, NY 10006Or visit us the AuthorBrady Smith teaches English at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. His work has been pre-viously published in textbooks, and this is his first complete book.

2 He would like to dedicate this book to Julie,Gillian, and Isabel, with to Use This BookixPRETEST1 LESSON 1 Understanding the Writing Process13 LESSON 2 Writing Sentences21 LESSON 3 Avoiding Awkward Sentences33 LESSON 4 Creating Sentence Variety41 LESSON 5 Shaping Paragraphs49 LESSON 6 Using Transitions57 LESSON 7 Establishing a Writing Style63 LESSON 8 Turning Passive Verbs into Active Verbs75 LESSON 9 Making Sure Subjects and Verbs Agree83 LESSON 10 Making Sure Nouns and Pronouns Agree91 LESSON 11 Using Modifiers99 LESSON 12 Checking Capitalization and Spelling109 LESSON 13 Punctuating Sentences121 LESSON 14 Using Commas127 LESSON 15 Using Semicolons and Colons137 LESSON 16 Using Apostrophes in Plurals and Possessives143 LESSON 17 Using Quotation Marks147 LESSON 18 Using Hyphens, Dashes, and Ellipses153 ContentsviiLESSON 19 Checking for Commonly Confused Words and Clich s161 LESSON 20 Putting It All Together169 POST-TEST179 APPENDIX AProofreading Symbols189 APPENDIX BAdditional Resources191viiiSince you are reading this right now, let us assume you have at least one draft of your writingthat you want to proofread, revise, and edit in order to present a well-written and clear fin-ished piece.

3 As all good writers know, a first draft needs to be cleaned up, trimmed down, andorganized. This book is designed to help you do just that in 20 short lessons in just 20 minutes a book stands alone as a teaching tool. You can pick it up and learn a new skill at any point duringthe writing process. Whether you are prewriting, drafting, Editing , revising, or working on a final copy, thisbook will become a useful reference guide. You may find it helpful to turn to this book as you finish differ-ent sections of your writing because it can help you correct as you write. Or you can read the lessons in thisbook and then go back to your own piece of writing just to reinforce important writing Skills . No matterwhich method you choose, you will accomplish what you set out to do: master the Skills you need to proof-read, revise, and edit your , Revising, and Editing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Daybegins with a discussion aboutthe steps to create a piece of writing, and then gives you the coaching you will need to correct any errorsyou find in your work.

4 It walks you through the revision process by showing you how to transform yoursentences from awkward and choppy sentence fragments and run-ons to clear, concise expressions. It showsHow to Use This Bookixyou how to organize paragraphs and how to use tran-sitions skillfully. You will also learn the fundamentalrules of noun/pronoun agreement as well as sub-ject/verb agreement. When you are finished with thisbook, you will find that your writing has improved,has style and detail, and is free of cluttered sentencesand common writers think that once a word has beenwritten, it is sacred. Successful writers know thatchange is an important part of the writing drafts that may seem finished can most likely beimproved. Since writing is a process, you have to bewilling to change, rearrange, and discard material toachieve a well-crafted final product. Very few writerscreate the perfect draft on the first try.

5 Most writerswill tell you that writing the first draft is only thebeginning and that the majority of the work comesafter the initial drafting process. You need to look veryclosely at your writing, examine it sentence by sen-tence, and fine-tune it to produce writing is a reflection of you. The proof-reading, revising, and Editing processes provide a mirrorin which you can examine your writing. Before yourwriting goes public, you must iron out the transitionsbetween ideas and make sure your paragraphs are struc-tured correctly. You need to clean up your writing andpick out the unnecessary auxiliary verbs from your sen-tences, perfect your tone, and polish your verbs. Yourefforts will if you are not currently working on a pieceof writing that you need to hand in, present to an audi-ence, or send to a client, this book will teach you theskills that will improve your everyday writing.

6 Eachskill outlined in this book is an important part of agood writer s toolbox. While you will not use everytool for each piece of writing, you will have them readywhen you need to apply you are job hunting, perhaps you need torevise a draft of a cover This piece of writing isthe first impression your employer will have of you, soit s important to submit your best effort. Perhaps youare working on an essay for school. Your teacher sassessment of your abilities will certainly improve ifyou turn in a composition that shows thoughtful revi-sion, attention to detail, and an understanding ofgrammatical your ideal final draft,Proofreading, Revising, and Editing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Dayhas nofiller or fluff. It is a book for people who want to learnthe editorial Skills needed to revise a piece of writingwithout doing a lot of busy work. Each lesson intro-duces a skill or concept and offers exercises to practicewhat you have each lesson is designed to be completedin about 20 minutes, the pace at which you approachthe lessons is up to you.

7 After each lesson, you maywant to stop and revise your own writing, or you maywant to read several lessons in one sitting and thenrevise your work. No matter how you use this book,you can be sure that your final drafts will by taking the pretest to see what you alreadyknow and what you need to learn about Proofreading, revising, and Editing . After you have completed the les-sons, you can take the post-test to see how much youhave learned. In the appendices, you will find a list ofproofreading marks to use as you write, as well as a listof additional resources if you find you need a littleextra you apply what you have learned in this book,you will find that your writing gets positive , employers, friends, and relatives will allnotice your improvement. It is certain, though, thatyouwill be the most satisfied of all. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK xPROOFREADING,REVISING, & Editing Skills SUCCESSIN 20 MINUTES A DAYB efore you begin the lessons in this book, it is a good idea to see how much you already knowabout proofreading, revising, and Editing andwhat you need to learn.

8 This pretest is designedto ask you some basic questions so you can evaluate your needs. Knowing your ownstrengths and weaknesses can help you focus on the Skills that need questions in this pretest do not cover all the topics discussed in each lesson, so even if you cananswer every single question in this pretest correctly, there are still many strategies you can learn in order tomaster the finer points of grammar and style. On the other hand, if there are many questions on the pretestthat puzzle you, or if you find that you do not get a good percentage of answers correct, don t worry. Thisbook is designed to take you through the entire proofreading, Editing , and revising process, lesson is designed to take 20 minutes, although those of you who score well on the pretest mightmove more quickly. If your score is lower than you would like it to be, you may want to devote a little morethan 20 minutes of practice each day so that you can enhance your Skills .

9 Whatever the case, continue withthese lessons daily to keep the concepts fresh in your mind, and then apply them to your answer sheet is provided for you at the beginning of the pretest . You may mark your answers there,or, if you prefer, circle the correct answer right in the book. If you do not own this book, number a sheet ofPretest1paper from 1 50 and write your answers there. Thisis not a timed test. Take as much time as you need,and do your best. Once you have finished, checkyour answers with the answer key at the end of thistest. Every answer includes a reference to a corre-sponding lesson. If you answer a question incor-rectly, turn to the chapter that covers that particu-lar topic, read the information, and then try toanswer the question according to the instructiongiven in that chapter. pretest 2 ANSWER SHEET of the following is a complete sentence? night ate the a tree-lined our neck of the of the following sentences is correctlypunctuated?

10 The dead of night. The van pulled would not, give Jaime the coffee and toast, Kelly told me abouther new My favorite of the following sentences correctlyuses a conjunction? cannot play in the game until I hid in the basement my brother was madat erased the answering machine mes-sage Nora would not find scored a goal won the of the underlined words or phrases inthe following sentence could be deleted with-out changing the meaning?Various differentcompanies offer incentiveplansto their of the underlined words in the follow-ing sentence is an unnecessary qualifier orintensifier?Many expertsconsider the stainedglass in thatchurch to be the whether the italicized phrase in thefollowing sentence is a participial phrase, agerund phrase, an infinitive phrase, or anappositive missed the bus,Allen knew he would be late for the best conjunction to combine thissentence can ask directions.