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Editing and reviewing checklist
Editing, reviewing and proofreading your work will likely to involve working through several stages. Some of the
‘editing’ process can be addressed quite early by looking at planning strategies. This can help avoid writing too much,
or focusing on aspects that are not crucial to the question. Use marking criteria to guide writing your assignment
wherever possible and do make use of feedback on previous assessments.
To address… Strategy Explanation/method
Structural
issues
Check back to
your
plan/outline
If you had a plan at the start, look at it again. Did anything change? Think about
why changes may have happened – did your writing lose focus or did you
intentionally change focus? Does the order of your paragraphs need reviewing to
add clarity?
Reverse outlines
and
retrospective
plans
Go through your draft and summarise each paragraph using keywords / short
phrases. Create an outline plan of what you have written.
If you did a plan before you started writing, how does your outline compare?
For more tips on using reverse outlines, see
http://explorationsofstyle.com/2011/02/09/reverse-outlines/
Visual
overviews:
Mind-mapping,
coloured ‘PostIts’©
or index
cards
Remember mind-mapping can help create more visual plans
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/documents/hullunihowtomindmap.pdf
You can also create visual overviews of your keywords / paragraph summaries by
using Post-Its© or index cards to lay out on a table or the floor. Using colour
coding, you could maybe re-group material on the same topic in more effective
paragraphs, and minimise repetition or contradictions in your writing.
Digital photographs of mind-maps and visual overviews can help in reviewing plans.
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To address… Strategy Explanation/method
Paragraph
length
Use show/hide
to see hard
returns in your
text
The Show/Hide button in Microsoft word will identify wherever you have hit the
‘return’ / ‘enter’ key (‹—).
This will usually be at the end of a paragraph.
Do you have lots of very short or long paragraphs? There are no strict rules on
paragraph length, but two lines of text is probably too short, and more than a page
of double-spaced text is probably too long. Think about focus and clarity.
View two pages
to a screen
Go to the View tab and select ‘Two Pages’. This allows you to see where a
paragraph may straddle two pages of text.
 Think about the impact of spacing: single, 1.5 or double line spacing.
 Have you included any indented quotes?
(Longer quotes, over 40 words in length, are usually indented but avoid using too
many in assignments unless specifically advised to include them).
Paragraph
links
Connecting
words and
starting your
sentences
Connecting words can make relationships between paragraph topics clearer.
 Are you making an additional point or pointing out similarities? (and)
 Is it a contrast? (not)
 Are you pointing out a consequence? (so)
 Or are you identifying a sequence of events? (time)
Avoid over-using connecting words.
For examples for starting your sentences, see
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/
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To address… Strategy Explanation/method
Sentence
structure
Reading aloud Hearing text read aloud can often identify errors in phrasing that are missed when
reading silently – especially when you are familiar with the material [we read what
we want/expect to read].
 Read aloud yourself
 Get a friend or family member to read it aloud to you
 Use assistive software such as ‘TextHelp Read&Write Gold’ – the University has
recently updated to version 11
Sentence
length
Control + F key
(‘Find’)
Search for full-stops. In Microsoft Word 2010, anything searched for using ‘Find’ will
be highlighted so you can see how many lines of text are in each sentence.
Anything four (4) lines of text or longer should be reviewed and can probably be
edited/revised into being two sentences.
Spellings,
mistyping and
homophones
Identify a
checklist of your
own easily
misspelt words,
typing errors
and
homophones
Some words in English can easily be misused: check our ‘Choosing your words’
handout for some examples. Remember some errors can be caused by mistyping
e.g.
 of/off
 an/and
 from/form
There are also lists and quizzes about homophones (words that sound similar but
which are spelt differently) that are available online e.g.
http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/spell/homoph.htm
Assistive software such as ‘TextHelp Read&Write Gold’ includes a ‘Sounds alike and
confusable words’ checker, to identify possible homophones. The University has
recently updated to version 11.
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To address… Strategy Explanation/method
Spellings,
mistyping and
homophones
Control + F key
– check the
Options for
‘Sounds like
[English]’
If you do not have access to software such as ‘TextHelp Read&Write Gold’, then you
can instead identify a checklist of common homophone errors. Using this checklist,
use ‘Find’ in Microsoft Word 2010 to search for each homophone in turn. For
example, searching for ‘their’ will also highlight
 there (location)
 they’re (they are – contraction)
 three (often a typing error)
 theory (auto-correct or spelling suggestion)
Looking at each word in context may help you think about whether you have the
right word.
Grammar –
subjects and
verbs
Grammar –
tenses
Grammar –
adjectives and
adverbs
Review
sentence
structure – read
each sentence
in turn starting
at the end of
the draft
assignment
Reading sentences in reverse order means that you focus on the individual
grammatical clarity of each sentence, rather than contextual meaning.
Has every sentence got a subject and a verb?
 Is it clear who/what is doing something (subject)?
 Is it clear what the action is (verb)?
Are the verbs the right tense (present, past, future)?
 When is the action happening?
Are adjectives and adverbs used correctly? Do you use too many?
 adjectives describe nouns (things)
 adverbs describe verbs (actions)
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To address… Strategy Explanation/method
Punctuation Develop a
checklist of your
common errors
Use Control + F
key to ‘Find’
each use
Review your writing and especially any feedback/comments on coursework to
identify errors you may commonly make e.g.
 missed commas
 comma splices
 mis-used/unused semi-colons
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/briantest/web/aries/ - the ARIES project includes
advice on spelling and punctuation
There are many examples of grammar, punctuation and style guides taking you
through common errors and also how to use punctuation effectively. Be aware
there can be style differences between US/Canadian and UK guidance. Aim to be
consistent e.g.
 http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/style-and-editing/hit-parade-of-errors
 http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/toc