Revising and Proofreading: The Writing Process

You can find the first two steps in my archives. Steps three, and four kind of go together, so I am putting them in the same post. They are revising, and proofreading. In step two you did your rough draft. It was probably slightly messy, maybe disorganized in thought, with spelling, and punctuation errors. So now comes the time to revise your work, into your final product. To revise correct any disorganized thoughts, or themes, spelling, punctuation, and other errors. Once you have completed revising your work, you can proofread it, or better yet have someone else proofread it for you. Others can very often notice something maybe you missed. For school purposes, I teach my son to proofread sample writings, as well as his own, before turning them in. This helps him to notice mistakes, in areas he has already learned. Below is short video on proofreading for kids, but can be applied to anyone who wants to improve their writing skills.

Here are a few pointers to remember:

Do my sentences make sense, and are they in a logical order?
Is info missing, do I need to elaborate, or explain more?
Have I checked my spelling, punctuation, and grammar?
Have I used the right verb tenses.

Follow these simple rules, and you will have your writing skills down to a science.