Mr. Rickert’s way to happiness and success with writing. Proofreading Mr. Rickert’s way to happiness and success with writing. A SEVEN STEP PROCESS

Seven Steps When you have completed all seven steps you will have identified all the possible errors. Checking your paper sentence by sentence ensures that you are focusing on what is actually on the page, not just what you think should be on the page!

The Seven Steps 1. Check for complete sentences 2. Check for words that are left out and check for words or ideas that are repeated 3. Check all words for capitalization mistakes. 4. Check for all punctuation mistakes. 5. Check for subject-verb agreement. 6. Check for problems in usage. 7. Check for misspelled words.

Step 1 – Complete Sentences A sentence is complete when it has: A Subject – What or who is the sentence about. A Verb – What is being said about the subject, or what did the subject do. A Capital letter at the beginning. An end mark at the end. It makes complete sense.

Step 2 – Are Words left out or repeated? Sometimes we start a sentence with an idea and then restate the idea at the end because we forgot what we said. Sometimes we accidentally repeat or leave out words because we know what we meant to say, but forget to actually say it.

Step 3 – Check for Capitalization Mistakes All proper nouns should be capitalized. All proper adjectives should be capitalized. Important words in Titles should be capitalized. Common nouns should not be capitalized. If you aren’t sure LOOK IT UP!

Step 4 – Check for Punctuation Mistakes Five Punctuation marks: Commas, Periods, Apostrophes, Quotation Marks Underlining. Check for each kind of mistake. If you aren’t sure LOOK IT UP!

Step 5 – Subject-Verb Agreement If you have a singular subject you should have a singular verb. The cat plays with the yarn (correct) The cats plays with the yarn (incorrect) The cat play with the yarn (incorrect) If you have a plural subject you should have a plural verb. Be careful in identifying the correct subject so you know which type of verb to use.

Step 6 – Check for problems in usage. Pronoun usage – does the pronoun refer to a specific, already identified noun within the paragraph. Double negatives – two ‘not’s make a do. A/an choices – An comes before a …

Step 7 - Check for Misspelled Words Keep an eye out for misused homonyms (words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings) Check each word starting from the end of the sentence and working toward the beginning. (this keeps you from assuming what the word will be because of context and helps you see what is actually on the page) IF YOU AREN’T ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE LOOK IT UP!

Benefits of Mr. Rickert’s approach There are seven types of errors you can make. The hunt and find method of proofreading is based on finding a percentage of your mistakes. My system ensures you will find 100% of the errors in your paper.

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