Editing Checklist

Here it is:

First Name______________________ Last Name _________________________

Date___________________

Editing Checklist for Courage Narratives

Reread your writing carefully. Put a check mark in each box under “Author” as you complete each editing item. Give it to a friend to edit, then to a parent. Once all the boxes are checked, staple this editing checklist to your final draft on Thursday November 15, 2007.

Editing Checklist	Author		Friend	Parent
1. Clarity - Read, asking, “Will this make sense to a stranger?” Find confusing spots and rewrite to make them clearer. Note places where you stumble as you reread and revise to make them easier to read.
2. Punctuation - Read, paying attention to the actual road signs you’ve given readers. If you followed the punctuation as you’ve written it, will the piece sound the way you want it to sound? Have you guarded against sentences that run on and on? Have you punctuated dialogue?
3. Spelling - Do your words look correctly spelled to you? Circle ones that feel as if they could be wrong, try them again, get help with them.
4. Paragraphs - Narrative writers use a new paragraph or a new page for each new episode in the sequence of events. Do you paragraph to show the passage of time? Do you also paragraph to show changes in who is speaking?
5. Grammar Have I written with periods and capital letters? Do I avoid using and or so to combine lots of short sentences together into one run-on sentence?
6. Three snapshots are highlighted in yellow
7. Three thoughtshots are highlighted in pink
8. Each new paragraph is indented.
9. This draft is stapled to the previous draft(s)
10 . This checklist is stapled to the top of your final draft