"PRACTICE 6
Revising
Step4B:
Editing
(Proofreading)
___I\ppendix1\ ITheProcessofAcademicWriting^275 ,h':":
Byyourself,witha partner,orina group,revisethefollowingroughdraft.Suggest
ormalcerevisionstothecontentandorganizationonly.Theassignmentwastowrite
oneparagraphonthetopicofcultureshock.
AmericanClassrooms(RoughDraft)
TheclassroomenvironmentinAmericanschoolsis verysurprisingtome.
Iamfroma culturewhereteachersandstudentsbehavemoreformally.Inthis
country,studentscanbeveryrelaxedinclassroomwithoutgettingintotrouble.
Studentscanaskquestionsandevendisagreewiththeprofessors.Thiswould
neverhappeninschoolsinmyculture.Teachersaredifferenttoo.Inmyculture,
thereisa formaldresscodeforstudentsandteachers.IntheUnitedStates,
teachersandstudentswearcasualclothestoschool.Mostsurprisingofall,
sometimesstudentscalltheirprofessorsbytheirfirstnames.Thisseems
disrespectfultome.Americanschoolsareeasier,too.Here,theysrudya foreign
languageforonlytwoyears,andmoststudentsdon'ttakeadvancedmath.
Teachersarea lotstricterinschoolsinmyculture.Theyarenotfriendlyto
students.
Thesecondstepinpolishingyourwritingisproofreadingyourpaperforpossible
errorsingrammar,sentencestructure,spelling,andpunctuation.
- Checkeachsentenceforcorrectnessandcompleteness.Youshouldhaveno
fragmentsandnochoppyorrun-onsentences. - Checkeachsentencefora subjectanda verb,subject-verbagreement,
correctverbtenses,nounplurals,articles,andsoon. - Checkthemechanics:punctuation,spelling,andcapitalization.
- Checkforincorrectlyusedorrepeatedwords.
- Checkforcontractions(can't, isn't,I'll,andsoon).(Somewriting
instructorspermitthem,butothersdonot.Findoutyourinstructor's
preference.)
Thestudenteditedherparagraphasshowninthefollowingmodel.