(TUI) Thematic Unit: Influences - Editing Tips Lesson

• Examine each word in the paper individually. Move from the end of each line back to the beginning. Pointing with a pencil helps you really see each word.
• If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled correctly.
• Watch out for homophones (weather/whether) and correctly spelled typos ("tot he" for "to the" and "an" for "and").

Compound Sentence Commas

• Skim for the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor, so and yet.
• See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the conjunction. If so, place a comma before the conjunction.

Fragments

A sentence fragment is a group of words that isn't a complete sentence, but is punctuated like one.

• Fragment Examples:
  I love my cat.
  A fuzzy friendly feline.
  (The underlined words make up a fragment. It is only a descriptive phrase—it has no subject or verb.)
• Another fragment example:
  I would be lonely without him.
  Although he wakes me up every morning at six.
  (This group of words has a subject and a verb, but the word "although" makes it into a dependent clause that must be attached to a complete sentence.)
• Look at each sentence to see whether it contains an independent clause.
• Pay special attention to sentences that begin with dependent marker words (such as "because") or phrases such as "for example" or "such as."
• See if the sentence might be just a piece of the previous sentence that mistakenly got separated by a period.
  For example: I love my cat. A fuzzy friendly feline.

Should be: I love my cat, a fuzzy friendly feline.

• Check the Fragment section of the workbook for more.

Run-Together (Run-On) Sentences

A run-on, or run-together, sentence occurs when a writer joins two complete sentences without any punctuation or by using only a comma, which is also known as a comma splice error.

• Run-On Examples:

For example: Janet opens the door the air outside is cold.
(The underlined words make up a complete sentence, which must be punctuated as such.)

An Example of a Comma Splice : Janet opens the door, the air outside is cold. (Because the underlined words make up a complete sentence, they can not be separated from the first complete sentence by only a comma.)

Independent & Dependent Clauses

Review each sentence to see whether it contains more than one independent clause. Start with the last sentence of your paper, and work your way back to the beginning, sentence by sentence.

• BEST CHOICE: Using a joining word, a subordinator or a coordinator.
• ALTERNATIVE CHOICE: Use a semicolon ONLY IF you cannot find a joining word that works. Though grammatically correct, a semicolon does not let your reader know the specific logical connection between your two sentences.
• Remember, semicolons join complete sentences only.
• LEAST PREFERABLE CHOICE: Use a period ONLY IF you cannot find a joining word that works. Though grammatically correct, a period gives your reader even less information about how sentences relate.

Comma Splices

• Skim the paper, stopping at every comma.
• See whether there is a complete sentence on each side of the comma. If so, follow the advice from Run-Together Sentences, above.

 Apostrophes

• Skim your paper, stopping only at those words, which end in "s."
• See whether or not each "s" word needs an apostrophe. If an apostrophe is needed, you will be able to invert the word order and say "of" or "of the":
• Mary's hat - (the hat of Mary)

Left-Out Words

• Read the paper aloud, pointing to every word as you read. Don't let your eye move ahead until you spot each word.
• Also, make sure that you haven't doubled any words.

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