Responding to Text: The Literary Essay

Proofreading Guide

You will make mistakes in your early drafts. You are concentrating on getting your ideas down. However, before anything can be published in written form, it must be proof-read carefully to eliminate all errors. 

 Proof-reading is a specialised skill. It requires close attention to detail. It is very easy to see what you think you wrote and not what is actually on the page, when you read over your writing.  

 Below are some tips and strategies to help you with proof-reading your final draft.  

Spelling 

 Use a dictionary. If in the slightest doubt, look it up!  The only way to be absolutely sure that you have eliminated all errors, is to check any doubtful spellings in the dictionary. Your teacher should also have alerted you to spelling errors in the comments on your first draft. 

Punctuation

Capital letters are mainly used 

·	to begin a new sentence 
·	in people's names and titles 
·	in names of places (towns, cities, countries)
·	in days of the week, months of the year 
·	in titles of books, films, organisations 
·	in titles of important historical events or periods 
·	in titles of awards or qualifications  

Full stops are mainly used to mark the end of a sentence.  Run-on sentences occur if full stops are left out, or if commas are used instead, and these can cause confusion for the reader. Smoking is dangerous for your health if you smoke more than a packet a day you will die around ten years earlier.  
This should be:    ........for your health .  If you smoke........ 

 Commas are not used to mark the end of a sentence. They are used 

·	to separate items in a list
a kind, rosy-cheeked, jolly old man
·	to separate words or phrases which are additional to the main clause of the sentence
Their grandfather, who was mean and ugly, lived with them.
·	to separate the speaker from the words spoken in direct speech or dialogue  "Go to your room,” she shouted.
 or:   	Her mother stormed at her,  "Go to your room!" 
·	to separate a person being addressed or a person's name from the rest of the sentence	    "Dad, can I borrow the car today?"
Her daughter, Lois Brown, became famous.
·	to prevent misunderstanding
 While he was cooking, the baby slept peacefully outside in the sun.
  	That boy, said everyone on the staff, should be suspended. 
 Semicolons are mainly used 

·	to separate two closely related statements which are not quite completely separate sentences. 
 The rap group from Auckland were the winners; they were polished, energetic and ambitious.
Last year he slacked around; this year he is working much harder. 

Colons are used 

·	to introduce a list 
For school camp you need: a tent, a strong pack, a PVC raincoat, strong boots, a sleeping bag, dried food and a positive attitude.
·	to introduce a statement which explains or clarifies a previous statement in the same sentence
There was only one builder who could do a decent job of it: Bill Fudd  from Waimangu. 

Question and exclamation marks
 Remember to check that you have put these in.
How long will we go on pretending there is no poverty in this country? What blindness! 

Apostrophes are not used with ordinary plurals of words. shoes,  houses, 
They are used to show 

·	ownership or possession. The apostrophe is placed directly after the name of the owner or owners. John's shoes, the aunties' gift 
·	that letters have been missed out of words it's my birthday, rockin' roun' the clock.,  I'm goin' home.
 
Note:  Possessive pronouns such as yours, hers, its,  ours, theirs   do  not have apostrophes.  

Quotation or speech marks
 These are used to 

·	show which words are actually spoken (direct speech)  
  After they had shaken hands and introduced themselves, she asked, "What is that brand of aftershave?" Notice how the final question mark, full stop or exclamation mark is placed inside the closing speech marks. If there is more than one sentence spoken by the same speaker the speech marks are not closed until that person stops speaking. Begin a new line each time there is a change of speaker 
·	indicate that the following words are a direct quotation from another writer, not your own.  

 Grammar and syntax

 Those of us who speak English as a first language have an instinctive understanding of the basic grammatical rules which govern the language, so that we can recognise that something is wrong with sentences like: What a wonderful bird the frog are or  My friend me for my birthday a CD gave,  or Last year we will all go overseas. We can tell that the grammar and syntax sound odd, even if it's hard to explain why.  

 Keeping verb tenses consistent

 If you start off using the past tense (had, went, saw), check that you haven't switched to the present tense (has, goes, sees) in the same piece of writing. It's surprisingly easy to forget which tense you started off with and to switch backwards and forwards between different tenses when you're rushing to get your ideas down in your first draft. 
  She rushed into the room and threw her bag down. Suddenly, Dave will walk in.  (should be "walked", past tense, because the verbs in the previous sentence are in the past tense.)
Decide which verb tense you want to use and keep it consistent throughout. 

 Sentences
You can add impact and interest to your writing by varying your sentence structures and lengths. Think about what kind of sentence conveys your idea most effectively. Aim for 

·	variety 
·	economy 
·	clarity 
·	precision   

A sentence can be 

·	a statement - Spring is here at last.
·	a question - Will spring never arrive?
·	a command - Go to Paris in spring. 
·	an exclamation - How I love the smell of spring flowers!
·	an interjection - Ah, yes. 

A sentence should have 

·	a subject - the person or thing that does the verb/action. 
·	a predicate - tells what action the subject does - must include at least one finite verb. 

The spider monkey	peered	sorrowfully at the zookeeper.	
subject	(verb)	predicate	

Vary your sentence openings
 Check that you haven't repeated the same word or structure too often at the beginning of your sentences.  Avoid beginning too many sentences with words such as Then or He or I.  

Avoid unnecessary repetition
 Sometimes sentences need pruning or condensing to remove unnecessary words and to streamline your expression.
 She bought the book last year. It was a really gripping book. She read the book in less than two hours.
 This could easily be condensed into one sentence. 
Last year she bought a really gripping book which she read in less than two hours. 

Avoid too many ideas in one sentence
Keep to one main idea per sentence. If you include more than this, your sentence may become rambly and it's easy to lose control of the sentence structure altogether. Some longer sentences may need splitting into two separate sentences.  

When you read over your final draft ask yourself 

·	Have all my sentences got verbs in them? 
·	Do all my sentences make complete sense? Are there any which sound incomplete?    What do I need to add to fix them up?
·	Have I used a good variety of sentence lengths?
·	Have I used a good variety of sentence structures?
·	Have I tried to vary my sentence openings?
·	Do any sentences need pruning or dividing into two?
·	Have I got rid of all ambiguity and/ or vagueness in my expression?
·	Have I got rid of any unnecessary repetition? 
 
Paragraphs

Paragraphs are helpful to the reader because they provide breaks in long stretches of text.  They also help you, the writer, to organise your thoughts and ideas into logical order.  

  A paragraph should 

·	have a clear topic sentence (usually the first sentence) which states the main idea or aspect dealt with in the paragraph 
·	between 3 - 6 more sentences which develop the topic sentence. 
·	follow on logically from the previous paragraph.  

Check that you have used paragraphs appropriately and effectively in your writing. Different genres or forms of writing have their own conventions for paragraphing.  News reports tend to use very short paragraphs, expository and literary essays use longer paragraphs to develop a logical and well-ordered argument.  

Omissions

A final proof-read, preferably aloud, will help you to "hear" whether there are any accidental omissions such as 

·	letters left off the ends of words
He went of without his scissor. 
·	words left out altogether I knew he would leave his behind.
·	punctuation missed out.   
"It was an awesome sight if you don't believe me ask Hemi."

These are often really minor errors, but they are frustrating for the reader and they must all be eliminated before the writing is ready for publication.  

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)