A Personal Editing
Log
Learning to recognize grammar errors and knowing how
to correct them is an important part of producing a professional document.
Contrary to popular opinion, most executives these days don’t
have secretaries who edit their work for them, and recent research
suggests that computer programs that check grammar and spelling are
grossly inaccurate, so proofreading and editing are important skills
for all professionals to have.
The editing log is a way for you to track and eliminate your own
individual grammar and punctuation bugaboos so you can focus on eliminating
them. You work particularly on your own problems and don’t have
to worry about your neighbor’s.
First, the log will allow you to track the number of errors you might
have (and we all have them).
Second, it will ask you to name the type of error (ask a tutor for
help if you’re not sure—an important part of solving any
problem is being able to name it). You might be surprised to find
a pattern in your errors. Often writers find that they are making
only one or two types of errors. So they only have to learn one or
two rules to vastly improve their grammar and punctuation.
Finally, it will encourage you to rewrite the sentence that contains
the error in order to make the correction immediately. We also encourage
you to look up and learn any rules that might apply to fixing the
error, so you can, over time, eliminate the error pattern completely
from your writing.
The bottom of this page contains a sample editing log, but you can
create your own if you wish. You might, for instance, want to leave
space to write the down the rule for correcting the error (maybe even
paraphrase it, so that you put it into terms that make sense to you),
to write down tips for identifying the problem (where it typically
happens, for instance), or to write more than one possible correction
of the sentence.
How to Use the Editing Log
- Go through your paper and highlight (or underline) all your grammar
and punctuation errors.
- Number them consecutively throughout
your paper.
- Transfer the number of each error to one of the cells
in the first column on the editing log. You may also wish to copy
the sentence (as it appears in your paper) into the cell.
- Identify
the type of error and write its name in the second column.
- Rewrite
the sentence correctly in the last column. Remember there are
often several possible solutions to grammar problems. You might
want to write more than one correct solution and increase your language
flexibility.
Sample Log
Error Number |
Type |
Possible Correction |
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