Appendix IV

Checklist: The Writing Process

Stages and Steps in the Process of Writing

Prewriting

• Determine your topic and your purpose.
• Consider your audience’s expectations.
• Know your subject.
• Decide on your point of view (or your relationship as an author to your material) and, if appropriate, your persuasive strategy.
• Organize your thoughts (jot down notes or make an outline).

Drafting

• Write your first draft.

Revising

• Edit and revise your draft.
• When possible, set your writing aside to let it go cold.
• Read it again (preferably aloud) and make final revisions.

Proofreading

• Proofread your final copy.

Checklist for Proofreading: Make Multiple Passes Through Your Final Copy

Because it is difficult to check for different types of errors in a single reading, make four passes through your text. Each time through, look for a different type of error, progressing from the general to the particular.

Begin not by reading your text but by looking it over and checking for consistency in format, highlighting, and punctuation. Make sure you haven’t omitted anything or accidentally repeated something. In your second pass, read for content (clarity, coherence, organization, and logical development). In your third pass, check for word choice and tone. In your fourth pass, check for correctness (rules of grammar, punctuation, and usage).

First Check: Does it look right?

• Text is highlighted (with bold, italicized, or underlined font, lists of bulleted or numbered items, etc.) to engage reader and reinforce main points.
• Punctuation and format are consistent (spacing after periods, format of headings, sequence of numbered or lettered items, punctuation at the end of items in lists, closing punctuation marks like the parenthesis at the end of this item).
• Pages after page one are numbered and identified in headers or footers.

Second Check: Is it effective and complete?

• Central idea or main purpose is clearly stated and developed.
• Main points are limited and appropriately emphasized.
• Subordinate ideas are clearly related to the central idea.
• Material is arranged in a logical and coherent sequence.
• Reader is given the information needed to take the desired action.

Third Check: Does it sound right?

• Word choice is clear, concise, specific, and free of clichés and misused jargon.
• Tone is appropriate to the purpose, audience, and occasion.
• Sentence structures are varied, and sprawling sentences are divided into shorter units.

Fourth Check: Is it correct?

• Spelling, especially of names and homonyms, is correct.
• Word choice, hyphen usage in compounds, and numbers usage are correct.
• Rules of grammar are followed (especially subject/verb agreement, parallel structure, pronoun case, and pronoun/noun agreement).
• Punctuation is correct (especially commas and avoidance of comma splices, order of closing punctuation and quotation marks, and apostrophes in possessives).