Get Out the Red Pen; It’s Time to Edit!

By Kyle Cushman, Vermont College of Union Institute and University

When we were young, many of us dreaded getting papers back full of circles and slashes and symbols, which our teacher delivered by red pen. The red pen was the notorious harbinger of errors. However dreaded, though, editing is a vital part of the writing process and should not be skipped over or neglected. Readers are quick to doubt a writer’s authority and lose interest if they have to stumble over misspelled words, funky syntax, incorrect punctuation, and questionable word choice.

When editing doesn’t happen, it’s usually because students have not left enough time before the deadline, or because they have a lack of confidence in catching their own errors, or because they don’t know what errors to look for. There are many approaches to editing and a writer often has to experiment with different methods to find the best ones that fit with his or her particular learning style.

Approaches to Editing

For the visual learner: Print out the document in a large font (14 pt or larger) with double spaced lines. Read through the document silently looking for grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. Highlight the errors. Then read through again to look for word choice issues and confusing sentence construction (syntax issues). Highlight those as well.

For the auditory learner: Print out a large font version of your paper and read the paper out loud to yourself or to someone else so that you can hear the errors. When we read aloud, our inner critic pays attention and often notices things we don’t see when we read silently. Highlight the errors and correct.

For the learner who does not feel comfortable editing his/her own work: Try pairing up with a classmate or a mentor and work through the paper together. Or swap papers and edit each other’s papers. Sometimes we need a fresh pair of eyes and ears when reviewing our writing.

Proofread a section at a time: Since it’s easy to get fatigued when editing, try dividing your paper up into sections. Edit the first section, then take a short break. Edit the next section, then take another short break, and so on.

Look for patterns in your errors: Are there particular errors you make over and over? Do you routinely mix up “their” and “there?” Are you unsure when it’s appropriate to use a comma? Keep an editing notebook and write down your error patterns. When you have time, do some research on the rules with a good grammar handbook.

Common Editing Issues

1. Misspelled words. When in doubt, look it up in the dictionary or use your computer spell check. Remember, spell check will not catch word choice mistakes.
2. Vague nouns (it, stuff, things). Replace with specific nouns: (balsam fir, the Victorian Age, spinach enchiladas.)
3. Passive verbs (the bread was sliced – the action happens in a vacuum). Replace with active verbs (the cook sliced the bread – an entity is doing the action).
4. Repetitious ideas, phrases or words.
5. Incorrect or inappropriate word choice. “Threw” when you meant to say “through.”
6. Run-on sentences (more than one complete sentence strung together with incorrect punctuation, or several sentences connected with commas or conjunctions like “and” or “but”).
7. Sentence fragments (incomplete sentences). “When the cat ran up the stairs.” Replace with “When the cat ran up the stairs, he left muddy paw prints.”
8. Missing quotation marks or apostrophes.
9. Capitalization errors.
10. Missing or incorrect citations.
11. Subject-verb agreement. (“Lack of sleep make me tired.) Replace with, “Lack of sleep makes me tired.”
12. Replace any racist or sexist language.

Questions or comments? Contact the author at kyle.cushman@tui.edu.