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)