Recipe

Proofread a paragraph

Use when: you have a finished paragraph or longer draft and need to catch errors a single read-through would miss

Goal: a paragraph checked systematically, one error category at a time, instead of relying on one read-through to catch everything at once

Taught in The Six-Pass Procedure

1. 1

   Read the whole paragraph once, marking only frag, r.o., and c.s. Does every sentence have a real independent clause? Are any two independent clauses joined by one of the five legal structures?

   Example

   Draft: The meeting ran long everyone stayed late. The list of complaints were reviewed by the board. After the review ended the board approved the budget. The team should of caught the numbers issue earlier. At this point in time, the project is on track. The manager recieved approval on friday. Two clauses, the meeting ran long and everyone stayed late, sit next to each other with nothing between them. Flag it r.o. Nothing else in the paragraph gets marked on this pass, not even the errors in the later sentences.

   Why: this pass goes first because it is structural. An unmarked boundary can hide the seam the next two passes need to check.

2. 2

   Read again, checking only agr. Does every verb match its true subject? Does every pronoun match its antecedent? Watch for the four agreement traps: an intervening phrase, an indefinite pronoun, a collective noun, and an or/nor compound.

   Example

   The list of complaints were reviewed by the board. The true subject is list, singular. Of complaints is just a phrase in between -- the classic trap. Were is wrong; it should be was. Flag it agr.

   Why: a sentence has to hold together before "does the verb match the subject" is a fair question.

3. 3

   Read again, checking only punc: commas, semicolons, colons, apostrophes. Is every comma doing a real job? Is every semicolon or colon announcing what it should? Does every possessive or contraction carry the apostrophe it needs?

   Example

   After the review ended the board approved the budget. After the review ended is an introductory dependent clause, with its own subject and verb, leading into the main clause. It needs a comma right after ended, and that comma is missing. Flag it punc.

   Why: comma rules depend on knowing where the clauses are and what the subject is, which the first two passes settled.

4. 4

   Read again for w.c. only: the commonly confused word pairs this course has flagged. Spell-check misses these, because both spellings are real words.

   Example

   The team should of caught the numbers issue earlier. Should of is the misheard version of should have. Flag it w.c. and leave the rest of that sentence for later passes.

   Why: a word-choice error is invisible to a grammar check and to your own ear. The sentence sounds identical read aloud. It only surfaces when you scan for this one category.

5. 5

   Read again for awk only: padded phrases, redundant pairs, and vague words standing in for something concrete. Nothing here is a grammar error. Every flagged sentence would survive Passes 1 through 4 untouched.

   Example

   At this point in time, the project is on track. Nothing is ungrammatical here, but at this point in time is just a padded way to say now. Flag it awk.

   Why: style gets its own pass, last among the judgment-based ones, because it is not an error a reader would call "wrong." Folding it into an earlier pass would blur broken and merely loose.

6. 6

   Read one final time for sp and cap only: check each word's spelling and check which words need a capital letter. This is the most mechanical pass. It asks for no judgment about meaning or structure.

   Example

   The manager recieved approval on friday. Recieved is misspelled -- i before e except after c. Flag it sp. Friday names a day of the week and needs a capital letter. Flag it cap.

   Why: fixing the other five categories first means you are not checking the spelling of sentences that are about to change.