EDITING AND REVISING RESEARCH

These are the instructions for our in-class peer editing activity. Follow all directions. You will also need to have an outside source edit

your paper and sign the bottom of it.

NUMBERS

Look for all numbers in the paper. If any are incorrect, highlight them.

Spell out a number that begins a sentence. Spell out a number that expresses order (i.e.

first, second, third, etc.) Spell out a number that tells how many if it is

one or two words. If it is longer than two words, write it numerically.

Use numerals to express numbers in conventional situations (like percentages, dates, addresses, times, etc.)

CITATIONS

Highlight all parenthetical citations in your paper. Then check for…

1. …the period. It should go only after the parentheses. Not before and after. Not just before. Just after. Like this: Mrs. Ross is the weirdest teacher ever (“Weird Teachers”).

2. …the titles. Titles must be capitalized! No, I don’t mean IN ALL CAPS. The major words should be capitalized like this: The Men Who Stare at Goats. Notice that the title was italicized because it’s a major work. If it’s an article title, it should be in “quotation marks.”

FORMAT

Check for MLA formatting—this should be the easiest part of your research paper grade! Make any corrections with a red pen.

- Margins should be 1” - 4-line heading (Name, Teacher’s Name,

English II-#, Date [6 November 2009]) - Double spaced (with no extra lines between

paragraphs) - Header (in same font—Last name and page

#)

POINT OF VIEW

Highlight ALL instances of first (I, me, my, we, our, us, etc.) or second (you, your, etc.) person. Eliminate these from your paper. Consider substituting “one” or “some” (or ask me if you can’t figure it out).

CONTRACTIONS

Search for any contractions in your paper and highlight them when you spot ‘em. Uncontraction these. Okay, so that’s not a word, but you know what I mean.

CONJUNCTIONS

There’s nothing wrong with conjunctions; you just don’t want to start a sentence with one. To refresh your memory, the coordinating conjuntions are: for, an, nor, but, or, yet, so (FANBOYS). If you started any sentences with one of these words, highlight and fix it. Usually it can just be taken out of the sentence. If it doesn’t make sense that way, change the period

before the conjunction to a comma. **Hint: the most common sentence-starting conjuctions are “and,” “but,” and “so.”

GENERAL TYPOS AND MISTAKES

Switch papers with someone around you. Read over your partner’s paper very carefully. Make any corrections with a red pen.