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Editing Tips
Independent Clause
An independent clause has a subject and
a verb (could stand alone as a sentence).
“Deeply afraid, the man frantically ran
across the street.”
Connecting Independent Clauses
Two independent clauses can be
separated by a period or semicolon.
OR
Joined by a connector word (such as and
or but).
Fixing Comma Splices
No: He hated the icy cold rain, he
despised the dark, frigid sky
Yes: He hated the icy cold rain; he
despised the dark, frigid sky.
Yes: He hated the icy cold rain. He
despised the dark, frigid sky.
Yes: He hated the icy cold rain, and he
despised the dark, frigid sky.
Active vs. Passive Voice
Active: the subject does the action (The
boy threw the ball; the wind thundered
across the plains.)
Passive: the subject is acted upon (The
ball was thrown by the boy; it was windy)
Reducing passive voice
• Rewrite sentences to avoid the use of to-be verbs (get rid of sentences that use “is,” “are,” or “was”)
• Avoiding using “it,” “there,” or “this” as the subject of a sentence.
Strengthening Voice
• Read aloud (if it is hard to say, it is probably hard to read too)
Proofreading
• Read over once just looking for errors that spell check won’t catch.
• Try printing out.
• Try reading backwards line by line.
• Read over once just looking for one kind of error you perpetually make (or one phrase you overuse)