Editing Checklist: How to Edit Your Own Writing
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Nov 30, 2021 • 1 min read
Professional editors, who must constantly proofread others’ writing for clarity, tone, accuracy, and grammar, often use an editing checklist that helps them catch common mistakes. Read on to learn what items to add to your editing checklist.
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Why Is Editing Important?
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.
Editing Checklist for Self-Editing or Peer Review
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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