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STEPS TO BETTER WRITING 32: PROOFREADING THE PARAGRAPH
By now you have learned how to plan and write a good paragraph carefully so that it says what you mean clearly and completely. But the job of writing a good paragraph does not end there. One more very important step must be taken: checking for mechanics (grammar, punctuation, and spelling). There are two parts to proofreading: making sure that your ideas are clearly presented and checking closely for specific errors missed while you were focused on saying things clearly.
First, read your paragraph aloud in order to hear how it sounds. This will help you find gaps in your thoughts, ideas that are not explained clearly, and words that were left out of the writing because your brain was moving quickly, and obvious errors in grammar. If you are embarrassed by the thought of reading your own paper aloud, find somewhere where you are by yourself, turn your music up to drown out the sound of your voice, and read quietly to yourself. If reading your own work aloud doesn’t bother you, it is often helpful to read to someone else – someone who can tell you if your writing makes sense and if you have any obvious things to fix up.
Then, (aloud or silently) read the paper again several times looking for a different type of error with each reading. Except for people who have been trained in proofreading and who have considerable experience doing it, it is not humanly possible to spot everything that needs to be fixed in just one going over. you must read your work a number of times in order to catch them all. Here is a list of the most common types of errors in people’s writing:
| POOR ORGANIZATION | Do you have a good topic sentence with supporting specifics? Do you need a clincher? |
| UNRELATED SPECIFICS | Do all of the specific details help explain or prove the topic sentence? |
| POOR ORDER OF SPECIFICS | Are your specifics arranged in some appropriate logical pattern? |
| SIGNAL WORDS | Have you provided the proper signal words and linking expressions to connect your ideas? |
| GRAMMAR ERRORS | Are all of your sentences complete? Have you combined shorter sentences or sentence parts correctly? Do your subjects and predicates agree? Are pronouns in the proper person, number, and case? |
| PUNCTUATION ERRORS | Have you used commas where needed to set off or to separate items? Have you used apostrophes correctly? Have you used commas and semi-colons correctly when you combined sentences? |
| SPELLING ERRORS | Have you used spell check to find the correct spelling of difficult words? have you looked up any words you aren’t sure of? |
After you proofread your work and marked any errors, make a clean and correct copy before turning it in. (Remember, the easier it is for someone to read your work, the less cranky they will be when thinking about giving you what you want.)
Proofread the paragraph below, which contains many of the errors outlined in this lesson. You should read the paragraph through once for each type of error. Correct the error in the paragraph itself by crossing it out and writing the correction above it.
The student should first of all find a quiet – well-lighted place with no detracting noises. the place they choose should be level and large enough for all the books, papers, and materials that they need. All these material’s should be gathered before beginning to work. Since it is a waist of time to constantly have to stop and go running after a book or a ruler. The time one chooses to study is important. Generally it should be at a time convenient to the student, but it should not begin to late in the evening. Breaks in study time is very necessary; since one cannot be expected to concentrate for long periods without a rest. In fact, research studies show that ones study is ore efficient if the work for about forty-five minutes and takes a ten-minute snack break. One should be careful, though, that his “break” time does not exceed the amount of time he spends actually studying. Once the student has found the proper environment for their study and have established a time to begin, the real work starts. Studying is a complex process that requires concentration. If one has textbook assignments to read, this reading should be done actively; with an attempt with an attempt to remember the main points of the assignment. Watching a serious television play also requires this same sort of active involvement. If one has lecture notes to review, he should do more than skim over them half-heartedly. The good student will be thinking of possible test questions based on these notes, by doing this, he is usually not totally surprised when he reads the examination questions. If one takes care to follow these steps when studys – he will find that the effort pays off in better grades, and more free time.
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