Editing Guide for Proofreading Stories Mrs. Fogelsong’s 7th Grade Language Arts

Editing for Word Choice Check the dialog for repetition. Do they over-use the word said or any other words? Let them know, by circling repeated words and writing “Rep.” above the circle. Is there an area of the story that’s hard to imagine? Could they use a little bit better description there? Write some of your ideas in the margin, so they can improve their description when they revise.

Editing for Voice Read the story aloud. “Listen” to the dialog. Do any of the characters sound phony? What can the writer do, to make the characters more believable? Write your ideas in the margin. What kind of story is this? Does the story-teller make it sound mysterious? Child-like? Funny? Write some comments about how this story makes you feel.

Editing for Fluency Read the story out loud. If you think a word might be missing, use the caret to insert the missing word. If you see a repeated word, delete the extra word or words. If the writer’s penmanship is hard to read, circle the difficult-to-read word, and put “SP?” near the circle If punctuation is missing or incorrect, fix it, using proofreading symbols.

Edit for Organization Did the writer make a new paragraph each time a new person starts to speak? If not, use the paragraph symbol to fix this problem. Does the descriptive part of the story have paragraph breaks? If not, again, use the paragraph symbol where needed. Does the story sound done at the end? If not, let the writer know that the ending needs work, in a written statement.

Editing for Organizational Basics If they forgot to put a title, tell them they need a title or offer your advice for what would make a good title. If they’re not staying in the margins (including top and bottom, as well as side margins) draw the margin lines in, and write “margin” there. Are they writing on the back of the paper? If so, tell them this is not acceptable. Did they forget to double-space? Explain to them that this was required.

Edit for Conventions Circle any misspelled words and label them with SP or SP? Add missing punctuation. Correct any grammatical mistakes using delete/caret or other proofreading symbols, as necessary. Check for capitalization errors and especially errors in the title. Make sure there are no run-on sentences or sentence fragments; correct them using proofreading symbols.