Proofreading

Writers name:

Group Member:

Chief Editor

Your story will be proofread at least 3 times. By yourself, a group member, and a
chief editor. A chief editor can only proofread a story after it has been proofread
by the writer and a group member. Address each rule, make corrections, and tally
how many corrections you made in each box. Return to Matt when completed.
First Read-through
Grammar Rules
Possessive pronouns yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs, and
whose never need apostrophes.

Its = it is or it has (e.g. Its been a cold morning).

Its is possessive. (e.g. The thermometer reached its highest
reading).
Who vs. Whom
he = who
him = whom

There, Theyre, Their.

There designates a place.
Theyre is a contraction of they are.
Their is a possessive pronoun.
That vs. Which
That introduces an essential clause. Essential clauses add
vital information to the sentence, and do not have commas
introducing or surrounding them.
e.g. I do not trust products that claim all natural
ingredients because this phrase can mean almost anything.
We would not know the type of products being discussed
without the that clause.
Which introduces a nonessential clause, which adds
supplementary information. Nonessential clauses are
introduced or surrounded by commas.
e.g. The product claiming all natural ingredients, which

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appeared in the Sunday newspaper, is on sale.

The product is already identified. Therefore, which begins a
nonessential clause containing additional, but not essential,
information.
Second Read-through
Periods

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Use a period at the end of a complete sentence that is a

statement.
If the last item in the sentence is an abbreviation that ends
in a period, do not follow it with another period.
e.g. This is Alice Smith, M.D.
Please shop, cook, etc. We will do the laundry.

Commas
Use commas to separate words and word groups in a simple
series of three or more items.
e.g. My estate goes to my husband, son, daughter-in-law,
and nephew.
Use a comma to separate two adjectives when the
adjectives are interchangeable.
e.g. He is a strong, healthy man. (We could also say healthy,
strong man).
e.g. We stayed at an expensive summer resort. (We would
not say summer expensive resort).
Avoid a run-on sentence, a.k.a. a comma splice.
Incorrect: He walked all the way home, he shut the door.
Correct: He walked all the way home. He shut the door.
Correct: After he walked all the way home, he shut the
door.
In sentences where two independent clauses are joined by
connectors such as and, or, but, etc., put a comma at the end

of the first clause.

e.g. He walked all the way home, and he shut the door.
Use a comma after certain words that introduce a sentence,
such as well, yes, why, hello, hey, etc.
e.g. Why, I cant believe this! No, you cant have a dollar.
Use commas to set off expressions that interrupt the
sentence flow (after all, by the way, however, etc.).
e.g. I am, by the way, very nervous about this.
Use commas to set off the name, nickname, term of
endearment, or title of a person directly addressed.
e.g. Will you, Aisha, do that assignment for me?
Yes, old friend, I will.
Good day, Captain
Use a comma to separate the day of the month from the
year, and always put one after the year.
e.g. It was in the Suns June 5, 2003, edition.
No comma is necessary for just the month and year.
e.g. It was in a June 2003 article.
Use a comma to separate a city from its state, and
remember to put one after the state.
e.g. Im from the Akron, Ohio, area.
Use commas to enclose degrees or titles used with names.
e.g. Al Mooney, M.D., is here.
When starting a sentence with a dependent clause, use a
comma after it.
e.g. If you are not sure about this, let me know now .
If something or someone is sufficiently identified, the
description that follows is considered nonessential and
should be surrounded by commas.
e.g. Freddy, who has a limp, was in an auto accident.
The boy who has a limp was in an auto accident.
Use commas to introduce or interrupt direct quotations.
e.g. He said, I dont care.
Why, I asked, dont you care?

Use a comma to separate a statement from a question.

e.g. I can go, cant I?
Use a comma to separate contrasting parts of a sentence.
e.g. That is my money, not yours.

Third Read-through
Apostrophes
To show possession with a singular noun, add an apostrophe
plus the letter s.
e.g. a womans hat
the bosss wife
Mrs. Changs house
To show plural possession of regular nouns (guy, guys; letter,
letters, actress, actresses; etc.), simply put an apostrophe
after the s.
Correct: guys night out
Incorrect: guys night out (implies only one guy)
Correct: two actresses roles
Incorrect: two actresss roles
To show plural possession of irregular nouns (child, children;
tooth, teeth; woman, women), you may find it helpful to
write out the entire irregular plural noun before adding an
apostrophe or an apostrophe + s.
Incorrect: two childrens hats
Correct: two childrens hats
Incorrect: the teeths roots
Correct: the teeths roots
With a singular compound noun (for example, mother-in-law),

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show possession with an apostrophe + s at the end of the

word.
e.g. my mother-in-laws hat
my two brothers-in-laws hats
If two people possess the same item, put the apostrophe + s
after the second name only.
e.g. Cesar and Maribels home is constructed of redwood.
In case of separate rather than join possession, use the
possessive form for both.
e.g. Cesars and Maribels homes are both lovely.
Use an apostrophe with contractions, doesnt, wouldnt, its,
cant, youve, etc.
Amounts of time or money are sometimes used as possessive
adjectives that require apostrophes.
e.g. three days leave
Dont use apostrophes when pluralizing initials and numbers
used as nouns.
e.g. She consulted with three M.D.s.
I made straight As
He learned his ABCs
the 1990s
Dialogue
Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.
e.g. The sign said, Walk. Then it said, Dont Walk, then,
Walk, all within thirty seconds.
He yelled, Hurry up.
Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
e.g. He said, Dan cried, Do not treat me that way.
New paragraph (new line and indented) for each change in
speaker.
Fourth Read-through

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Capitalization

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Capitalize the first word of a document and the first word

after a period.
Capitalize relatives family names when they immediately
precede a personal name, or when theyre used alone in place
of a personal name.
e.g. I found out that Mom is here.
You look good, Grandpa.
Do not capitalize family names with possessive nouns or
pronouns, when they follow the personal name, or when they
are not referencing a specific person.
e.g. My mom is here.
Joes grandpa looks well.
The James brothers were notorious robbers.
Theres not one mother I know who would allow that.
Capitalize proper nouns, e.g. the Golden Gate Bridge, a
Russian song, the Great Depression
Capitalize specific geographical regions. Do not capitalize
points of the compass.
e.g. We had three relatives visit from the West.
Go west three blocks and then turn left.
We left the Southeast and drove north.
Do not capitalize occupations before full names.
e.g. director Steven Spielberg
coach Biff Sykes
professor Robert Ames
Numbers
Spell out all numbers beginning a sentence (except years).
e.g. Twenty-three hundred sixty-one victims were
hospitalized.
1956 was quite a year.

Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through

ninety-nine.
e.g. Forty-three people were injured in the train wreck.
Hyphenate all written-out fractions.
e.g. One-half is slightly less than five-eighths.
With figures of four or more digits, use commas, Count
three spaces to the left to place the first comma. Continue
placing commas after every three digits. Do not include
decimal points when doing the counting.
e.g 1,054 people
$2,417,592.21
To show time write 8am, 3:09pm, 11:20am etc.
Dates
the 30th of June, 1934
General
Each new paragraph is indented
Single spaced
Alignment - Justified (Ctrl+Shift+J)

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