Editing Checklist: How to Edit Your Own Writing

Whether you’re self-editing your own writing or proofreading someone else’s work, taking another look at a piece of writing can reveal errors that you didn’t notice before. Playing around with word choice and sentence structure during the revision process isn’t just about fixing grammatical errors: Looking closely at your own work line by line can help you craft clearer, more satisfying sentences.

Self-editing is a skill that requires practice. If you’re new to editing or participating in peer review, a revision checklist is a good place to start. During the editing process, ask yourself:

• Are there any run-on sentences?
• Are proper nouns capitalized?
• Are there any unnecessary capital letters?
• Are quotation marks in the right place?
• Are any sentences written in the passive voice? Change to active voice.
• Are apostrophes in the right places?
• Are there any sentence fragments? Make complete sentences.
• Are semicolons in the right places?
• Do you notice unnecessary words? Can word choice be improved?
• Are hyphens used correctly?
• Are there spelling errors or typos? Pay special attention to homophones: Sometimes a word is spelled correctly, so spell-checker won’t catch it, but it’s used incorrectly.
• Do sentences switch between past and present tense? Check subject-verb agreement and tenses.
• Does the content make sense? Is it in an order that is easy to follow?
• Are the page numbers correct and in order?
• Are the chapter numbers correct?
• Is the table of contents in the right order?
• Is the punctuation correct?

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