A Quick Guide to Editing and Proofreading

Unfortunately, writers are not perfect. They will put commas in the wrong places, write fragments, and even misspell common words. You, the editor must be vigilant in finding such errors, as whatever you're trying to put out needing editing will be read by important people who would not be pleased in discovering that your publication does not respect the basic rules of the English language. In addition to spotting the basic mistakes-such as improper capitalization, subject-verb disagreement, and incorrect spelling-editors need to be on the lookout for more subtle uglies. These are a few important ones to catch:

The Comma Splice- If there is a comma where a period should be, the problem is a comma splice. The division of two distinct sentences by a comma is usually a product of confusing pauses in verbal expression with comma placement.

He ate the sandwich, it was good.

should be

He ate the sandwich. It was good.

Dangling Participles- Whenever a phrase is attached to precede the main clause of a sentence, it needs to agree with the intended subject of the sentence. Correct logical interpretation of sentences with dangling participles leads to absurd results.

Making direct eye contact with me the whole time, the stories Dr. Lindbergh told me about his adventures during the Iraq Study Abroad program were enthralling.

(The stories were not making direct eye contact with you; Dr. Lindbergh was. Though the real meaning of the sentence is implicit, it's still wrong.)

Corrected: Making direct eye contact with me the whole time, Dr. Lindbergh told enthralling stories about his adventures during the Iraq Study Abroad program.

Unclear Antecedents- "It," "which," "this," "they," etc. all require an antecedent (the noun in question), but some sentences (or multiple sentences involving pronouns) can be ambiguous. Clarify them by restructuring the sentence to make an antecedent clearer, moving the pronouns around, or eliminating the pronouns altogether. Most problems with antecedents can be spotted immediately by a careful re-read by the writer or by anyone else.

Bill, Jill, and Bob all attended the conference this year, presenting projects on cancer, space-time, and ecology. The audience enjoyed them.

(Did the audience enjoy Bill, Jill, and Bob, or the projects? Sometimes, particular sentence structures or phrases will put you in a situation where it's both difficult to clarify an antecedent and awkward to repeat a noun. In those cases, eliminate it entirely and start over.)

Corrected: Bill, Jill, and Bob all attended the conference this year. Their projects on cancer, space-time, and ecology received positive feedback from the audience.

Verb Tense Disagreement- Sentences, generally those in the past tense, require consistent use of the past (or perfect past) tense. Also, inter-sentence tense consistency generally looks nicer in narrative-type segments (children make this mistake when they write stories as they waver erratically between past-tense and present-tense narration).

Dr. Darko told us he is fixing our grades.

Corrected: Dr. Darko told us he was fixing our grades.

Apostrophe Misuse- Apostrophes are used to indicate possessive relationships, such as "the University's staff," "the interns' desk," etc. (and it is never used to show that anything is plural, including the "50s," "60s," "70s,"...) Note that in the case of using the pronoun "who," the possessive form is "whose," not "who's."

Who's great inspiration brought it all to the school? None other than the Universities Dean!

(Easy to spot, easy to apply the rule.)

Corrected: Whose great inspiration brought it all to the school? None other than the University's Dean!

Another function of apostrophes is to form contractions between two words, the most common of which are "can't" (can not), "won't" (will not), and "don't" (do not). Avoid using contractions in most articles, unless you are quoting someone else or writing an informal piece.

Stylistic Editing versus Simple Proofreading

Your duties as an editor aren't only to correct the technical errors, but to also eliminate awkward, clunky writing. This can make interest pieces, well, far more interesting, and even give merely blandly informative articles the dignity of being well-written. Problems that need time and dedication to fix come from stylistic messiness. Here is another general list of things to look for:

1) Hunt down and destroy properly, but dissonantly-constructed and coarse sentences. Accidental alliteration is always apt to annoy readers. Long sentences loaded with embedded clauses, adjective chains, and descriptors that are difficult to decipher in any way should also be marked for termination.

2) Diction counts. Some adjectives connote an idea far better than others do, and a little bit of vocabulary never hurt anyone's image.

3) Short, staccato sentences are for fourth graders. Join them together and add in more content as you see fit. Likewise, demolish and rebuild if any sequence of sentences looks something like, "Subject-predicate. Stock essay transition, subject-predicate. Subject-predicate."

4) Jargon is your enemy. Unexpressive wordiness is your enemy. "In terms of," "aspects of," and other meaningless fluffers need to go. Google Paul McHenry Roberts' "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" for a brief synopsis of unnecessary garbage.

5) Look out for the passive voice, another source of awkwardness. The passive voice involves any form of "to be" with the object, instead of the doer, of an action being the subject of a sentence, e.g. "The newsletter was put together by the interns." Sometimes, a passive construction won't even give information about who did it: "The newsletter was put together." Most of these statements are unclear in their contexts and they do not flow smoothly, so reverse them or surround them with clearer ideas.

While there are more items relevant to both lists, the vigilant editor should learn these things and more on his (obligatory: or her) own anyway. Don't fear using your stylistic judgment, which tells you that it would be good to rewrite sentences, paragraphs, or even articles in their entirety. In general, if you think you can write it better yourself, do it. Most publications are not for special and unique (read: defective) snowflakes. It demands quality of a particular kind. (Just make sure to let your colleagues know that it's nothing personal when you drastically alter their work, naturally bringing it to their attention in a constructive manner.)

Aim high: the editor's goal is to put out an error-free product. Remember, every mistake is a mark of shame on your organization, publication, or even class project for generations to come. Make everyone proud.