1. September 26-29 When you come in… – Get out your book and begin reading Today we are … – Taking notes on editing strategies – Editing our “This I Believe” essays HOMEWORK: – Revise/finish your essay. PLEASE have a completed draft next class. You need to have it printed BEFORE class and submitted to Turnitin.com – Study Vocabulary – test next class

2. Editing Editing is NOT revising. Revising is changing significant portions of a paper. It may mean adding, deleting, or rearranging ideas. Editing is polishing the paper. It is fixing any grammar, spelling, punctuation or formatting errors. Today we are going to EDIT our papers. FINAL (I promise this is the last draft for this paper) is Due Tuesday/Wednesday

3. Check Format! Heading (Goes in the “header”) – Your name – Ms. Wolfe – English III 1 st Period – 2 October 2013 (single spaced; left margin IN HEADER) NOTE – Proper MLA format is double spaced. If you want to use that format, please be sure you have at least 500 words in your paper. – Title centered; capitalized correctly; not underlined; no italics; 12 font (same as the rest) – Margins should be 1” (this is usually the default setting) – Font should be 12 point (use either Times New Roman or Arial) – Essay should be double spaced and there should NOT be any extra spaces between paragraphs

4. Paragraphs Every time there is a shift in plot, tone, subject, speaker… you MUST have a new paragraph. This paper should have at least three paragraphs.

5. Capitalization Please re-read your paper carefully. The following should be capitalized – – Beginning of each sentence – Proper names – “I”

6. Punctuation End punctuation – please make sure EVERY sentence has end punctuation Apostrophes – – If there is possession or ownership, there must be an apostrophe: Mike’s, girl’s, school’s… Exception – there is NO apostrophe in “its”, unless you are using the contraction for “it is” – It’s getting late. – The dog lost its collar. – There needs to be an apostrophe in contractions: don’t, wasn’t, isn’t, can’t…

7. Spelling and Grammar Check Do not rely on the computer to catch all your errors. You need to read your paper SLOWLY and out loud. When the computer catches an error, don’t rely on autocorrect. You need to make sure the correction the computer suggests is actually the word you intended. Pay particular attention to your use of there, their, they’re; its, it’s; threw, through; effect, affect; your, you’re; where, wear, were

8. Diction Use a thesaurus properly to find the most precise words to express our ideas. – Do NOT simply pick the most difficult word – Look for a word you would naturally use and are familiar with, but it just didn’t come to mind Go through your paper and find at least 5 weak words and use a thesaurus to pick a stronger word. Another note: Try to eliminate the use of “said” and “that” whenever possible. “That” is usually unnecessary and “said” is very non-descript. Instead, use whispered, chatted, questioned, yelled, stuttered, exclaimed…

9. Point of View Eliminate 2 nd person point of view – In other words, take out the word “you” when it is referring to the reader. Example: Have you ever wondered about your purpose in life?  What is the purpose of life? You may be wondering what happened next.  What happened next was unexpected.

10. Active Voice Circle of your “to be” verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) Try to change some of them to active verbs Before: I was taught to love football. After: My dad taught me to love football. Passive Voice  The village was bombed. The village was bombed by the CIA. Active Voice The CIA bombed the village

11. Repetition and Fluency Read your paper slowly ONE MORE TIME. Or have someone else read your paper. Is there anywhere you catch yourself having to re-read because the sentence makes you stumble? If so, is there another way to word the sentence so it flows more easily? Is there anywhere you repeated words, phrases, or ideas? Do you tend to start all your transitions the same way? Can you change some of them? – Therefore, furthermore, in addition, secondly, likewise, similarly, accordingly, however, generally, above all, after all, comparatively, meanwhile, by and large…

12. Run-ons and Fragments Please do your best to make sure EVERY sentence is a complete sentence that can stand alone. Try reading each one individually. If run out of breath while reading it, it’s probably a run-on. The most common run-on is a comma splice. You CANNOT glue two sentences together with a comma. It is WRONG! Comma Splice – this is WRONG – I believe people should have an open mind, they shouldn’t base their opinions on outward appearance.  Three ways to correct it: Break it into two sentences with end punctuation – I believe people should have an open mind. They shouldn’t base their opinions on outward appearance. Use a comma and a conjunction – I believe people should have an open mind, and they shouldn’t base their opinions on outward appearance. Use a semicolon. However, a semicolon is like a very expensive dessert. It should only be served on special occasions. – I believe people should have an open mind; they shouldn’t base their opinions on outward appearance.