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Editing and Proofreading. What’s the difference?. Editing… changes the content of the letter, memo or report…. to communicate the meaning efficiently to a chosen audience. to clarify the intent of the writer. to enhance the style of the document. Editing…. for meaning
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Editing and Proofreading What’s the difference?
Editing…changes the content of the letter, memo or report… • to communicate the meaning efficiently to a chosen audience. • to clarify the intent of the writer. • to enhance the style of the document.
Editing… • for meaning --requires that you understand the writer’s original intent. --requires that you preserve the writer’s original content, as much as possible.
Editing… • for clarity --requires that you use language as efficiently as possible. --requires that you avoid wordiness.
Editing… • for style --requires that you check the tone of the document. --requires that you check the language of the document.
Proofreading…changes the surface-level features of a document to remove errors in… • Grammar. • Punctuation. • Mechanics. • Usage.
Grammar includes… • Subjects and verbs. • Pronouns. • Prepositions. • Sentence structure.
Punctuation includes… • Commas. • End marks (period, question mark and exclamation point). • Semicolon (;) & Colon (:). • Hyphen (-)& Dash (--). • [Brackets] and (Parentheses). • Apostrophe.
Mechanics includes… • Capitalization. • Spelling. • Document format. (letter, memo, report, etc.)
Usage includes… • Word choice (a/an, etc.) • Gender inclusive language (his/her) • Jargon (terms specific to a profession) • Slang (spoken vs. written expressions)
Proofreading tips • Read your document aloud, slowly. • Read your document backwards, sentence by sentence. • Exchange your document with a colleague. • NOTE: Spell check will not catch everything and grammar checks are often wrong.