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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................... 6Building Proofreading Skills in Spelling

Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................... 18Building Proofreading Skills in Capitalization

Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................... 28Building Proofreading Skills in Punctuation

Chapter 4 ..................................................................................................................... 39Building Proofreading Skills in Language Usage

Chapter 5 ..................................................................................................................... 51Proofreading for Clarity, Transition, and Order

Chapter 6 ..................................................................................................................... 61Proofreading and Editing Activities for Writing

Chapter 7 ..................................................................................................................... 70Creative Writing and Proofreading for Success

Certificate of Proofreading ........................................................................................ 80

Answer Key .................................................................................................................. 81

4

IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

To the Teacher

Proofreading, in general usage, is the close examination of anything writtenbefore it is put into its final form for dissemination, including books, magazines,newspapers, newsletters, correspondence, and pamphlets.

The purpose of Building Proofreading Skills is to assist your students inlearning and using basic proofreading techniques. It is the authors’ intention toprovide a selection of creative, even enjoyable, activities to encourage students todevelop these essential, lifelong writing skills.

Proofreading skills are employed from the time the first grader writes that firstthree-letter spelling word on a test until well beyond the doctoral student’s multiplerevisions of a dissertation. It is never too early to begin teaching the skills andhabits of good proofreading.

For the sake of organization, the opening chapters of this book have beendivided into the usual segments: spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.The concluding chapters contain longer selections for proofreading as well aswriting prompts for students to create their own works to be proofread. This bookalso contains a number of creative ideas for moving the task of proofreading fromthe teacher to the students.

On page five is a list of commonly used proofreading and editing symbols.While the authors realize that proofreading symbols vary from book to book, thesesymbols are among the most commonly used. Your students will need to becomefamiliar with these symbols before attempting to complete the exercises in thisbook. The authors highly recommend that each student receive a permanent copyof the proofreading symbols.

The answer key reflects the proofreading system explained on page five;therefore, if your students are familiar with a different system, answers may vary.Furthermore, there are often several ways to correctly punctuate, and the answerkey does not reflect all of these options.

5

Proofreading and Editing SymbolsProofreading symbols are used to identify mistakes and to state the needed correction.

Listed below are the most common proofreading symbols, along with explanation andexamples of each.

Example

He explained the rules of

Henderson middle School

great skiing trips in the Winter

My friend Joe a new green car.

Some body will help you soon.

taught my sister etiqquette

Joy gave two too many reasons.

the 30 inches of fabric

In the ursh of leaving, he forgot

The young boys threw the cowsover the fence some hay.

The problem was easily solved

Well I’ll give it a chance.

Toni usedthe money to start

The letter read “Dear Mr. Yen”

I’ll help you now it’s not hard.

lives on Twenty third Street

Jonathan s new computer

Sally said, Good morning.

My father was rather angry at . . .

Explanation of the Symbol

Begin a new paragraph

Capitalize a lowercase letter

Use a lowercase letter

Insert a missing word, letter, or punctuation mark

Close up space

Delete and close up

Delete a word, letter, or punctuation mark

Spell out

Change the order of letters or words

Move the circled words to the place marked by the arrow (write tr in themargin.)

Add a period

Add a comma

Add a space

Add a colon

Add a semicolon

Add a hyphen

Add an apostrophe

Insert quotation marks

The stet in the margin means “stay;” let marked text stay as written. Place three dots under original text.

Symbol

Building Proofreading Skills ©1999 by Incentive Publications, Inc.Nashville, TN.

6

CChhaapptteerr 11

Building Proofreading Skills in SpellingSpelling mistakes can prevent others from seeing your great ideas in print. This chapter will

help you learn to avoid common spelling errors through a variety of carefully selected activities.Many spelling mistakes come from careless haste. Whenever you write, proofread your papernot only for difficult words, but also for simple, ordinary words that you may have misspelledthrough carelessness.

How to Improve Your Spelling of Particular Words:1. Find out what your personal spelling demons are and conquer them.2. Keep a good dictionary nearby to use whenever in doubt.3. Pronounce words correctly; this will help you write them correctly.4. Get into the habit of taking a good look at new or difficult words.5. Develop your own memory device (called a mnemonic) for difficult words.

PRETEST: Each item below gives four possible spellings of a word. Read the words, and circlethe letter of the correct spelling.

Sample:a. apoligize

1. a. formela

2. a. concession

3. a. gratfull

4. a. annoience

5. a. hastily

6. a. triplacate

7. a. justefid

8. a. stabillaty

b. apologize

b. fourmula

b. concesion

b. grateful

b. annoiance

b. hastilie

b. tripleacate

b. justified

b. stabbility

c. eplogize

c. formula

c. consetion

c. greatful

c. anoyence

c. hastely

c. triplicate

c. justifyed

c. stabilaty

d. epoligize

d. foremulla

d. consession

d. gradeful

d. annoyance

d. hastyly

d. triplicte

d. justifeyed

d. stability

NameBuilding Proofreading Skills ©1999 by Incentive Publications, Inc.

Nashville, TN.