10 Quick And Easy Proofreading Ideas To Improve, Revise And Polish Your Writing

10 Quick and Easy Proofreading Ideas to Improve, Revise and Polish Your Writing. Updated on June 8, 2013 Carly Sullens moreContact Author Our current way of written communication depends on our ability to be quick and efficient through instant messages and text writing. Words written for instant messages, phone texts, on a forum, or impersonal e-mail seem to have relax the writing rules. However, when writing a paper for school, a publication, or information to be read on the Internet, it is important that basic writing rules are upheld so your information is read coherently and you are taken seriously. Below are ten easy proof reading ideas to improve and polish your writing. Look at your writing as a whole picture. At first glance notice if any of the following occur and make corrections. Make sure you have paragraphs. Reading a large block of text is difficult to track with your eye and gather important information. Make sure all punctuation marks are next to the last letter of the last word in the sentence.

Just “I just thought you would like wine with your dinner.” Taking out the word ‘just’ makes the sentence stronger. Really ” I don’t really want to spend any more time on this.” Using the word ‘really’ can make it seem like you are unsure of your intentions or patronising the other person. Quite ” I would quite like you to do ten jumping jacks.” Can make the sentence unclear. Perhaps “Perhaps I can make it for lunch today.” Makes your writing sound uncertain. The intention is unclear. That “This is the room that I painted.” You can often cut this word out and not lose the meaning of your sentence. Cutting out unnecessary words makes your writing stronger and clearer. Most often it is helpful to cut words out of writing rather than add words. Read your work out loud. This will activate your whole brain and you will ‘hear’ your writing. What does not make sense will be caught from the ears if the eyes do not.

When you read your writing out loud also pay attention to the rhythm. You want your readers to engage in something that is not boring or has a monotone of long sentence after long sentence. Alternate the length of sentences. Break up some of those longer sentences and join some of the smaller sentences together to give the writing better rhythm and interest. Use a period at the end of a sentence that makes a statement. There is no space between the last letter and the period. Use question mark at the end of a question. “What do you like to read on hub pages? Use exclamation point at the end of a sentence to indicate a strong emotion. Chose only one punctuation. Rarely, would a sentance have more than one punctuation. After the punctuation you will type one space and start the next word for the next sentence with a capital letter.

Comma , Use a comma to set off an interruption in the main thought of a sentence, after each item in a series that list at least 3 things, before direct quote using quotation marks and when separating two adjectives. Dash – A dash is a strong comma, only should be used to add extra emphases to important information. Colon : Is used in a sentence when you are going to list information. The beginning of the sentence before the colon is placed needs to sound like a complete sentence. Semicolon ; Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses. Parentheses ( ) Use parentheses around a word or phrase (added in a sentence) that makes an idea more clear. Double Quotation Marks ” ” Use quotation marks around a: direct quote, titles, and words that are slang. Single Quotation Marks ‘ ‘ Use single quotation marks for quotation marks within a direct quote. Passive voice sentences add more words that make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning. A sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier to understand. In an active sentence, the subject is doing the action.

Example sentence, “Carly writes hubs.” Carly is the subject, and she is doing the action: she writes hubs, the object of the sentence. In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, “Carly writes hubs,” you would say, “Hubs are written by Carly.” The subject of the sentence becomes hubs, but hubs are not doing anything. Rather, the hubs are the recipient of Carly’s words. The focus of the sentence has changed from hubs to Carly. On hub pages, experienced and expert hubs are written from authors. On hub pages, authors write from their own experiences and expertise. To change a sentence from passive voice to active voice rearrange the wording. Put the doer of the action first in the sentence followed by the action and then the receiver of the action. Start at the end of your writing piece. Read backwards, beginning with the last sentence of the last paragraph (of course read the sentence from first word to punctuation). This exercise is not for comprehension. This exercise is to make sure each sentence is coherent on its own.