Editing and Proofreading Worksheets

Correct your own works as well as the work of others is a critical skill to command at all levels of education. You should always be working to improve your skills on this topic. We give you a wide range of activities to work on here.

How Many Mistakes Can You Find?
A story about two twin boys with a number of errors. Go get them! The passage about the twins is riddled with mistakes. Correct all those mistakes.

Rewriting and Editing Short Passages: At the Farm
A story about Jim and Andy's farm. We look at a farm in Mississippi. Correct the entire passage to make it correct.

Editing Informal Letters
A simple 4 sentence letter, so what Holly missed. Find all eight mistakes in this letter. You can circle them or just underline them.

Editing and Proofreading an Informational Memo
These will become familiar to students quickly. They are sent home all the time. We have students edit and proofread the memo that we prepared for them. There are ten total mistakes.

Editing a Short Letter of Complaint
Make sure you work on your grammar before you complain to anyone. This one might be a bit tricky. Make sure to track your changes.

Rewriting Poorly Written Sentences
We give you some messed up sentences, we want you to make them squeaky clean. Horribly written sentence that will be sculpted into works of art by our students.

Editing Sentences
There are some really bad errors in the sentences that we give you. These sentences are a bit longer and a little bit hard to decipher, as far as the message goes.

Choosing Proper Sentences
Which of the three sentences is written properly? Which of the sentences makes the most sense? Underline it!

Grammar and Contractions in Sentences
Which sentence works best? Look for the clear and calm sentence. These are all straight forward.

Rewriting Paragraphs
We have you correct an entire paragraph to step up our use of this data. We suggest you underline them first and then proceed with your rewrite.

Using the (Write) Right Homophone
We have you pick out which Homophones are way off. Find the improperly used homophones and replace them with grammatically correct homophones.

Editing Stories
These stories have a number of errors, find them all. We have you proof the entire passage and make changes as you see fit.

Proofread and Fix Each Paragraph
These are extended passages for you to work on. We stick the similar themes for you when editing this entry. You should recognize it by now.

Daily Writing Edit - Cats
We give you three quick entries to edit that all relate to cats. We give you two to three kitty related sentences to make corrections on.

Daily Writing Edit - Dogs
The same concept as above, except this time we focus on dogs. We swap out kitties for puppies in this set of edits. Makes for quicker activity.

Editing and Proofreading a Letter of Complaint
The reader should write a letter of complaint back to the author. Correcting a letter of compliant is a little ironic. This one is a real mess too!

How to Improve Your Editing and Proofreading Skills

Editing and proofreading skills go hand-in-hand. If you write an essay and don't spell check it for spelling errors, grammatical errors, and poor sentence structure, it won't appeal to the reader.

So, whatever work you submit should be proofread and edited before submission. Otherwise, it will give the reader the impression you are careless and disinterested in your work.

Proofreading and editing skills help you in your professional and your personal life. The way your content looks and how well you develop your ideas affect how the reader judges you. Mistakes tend to distract the reader from the actual message and details.
During job hunts, it is quite common for resumes to get rejected simply based on spelling mistakes. It leaves a very bad impression on the employer. So, it is a good idea to proofread and edit before handing your resume in. Let's look further into these skills and how you can improve them.


What Is Proofreading?

Proofreading involves carefully checking the text or content for errors before sharing it. It is not the same as editing your draft. While you proofread a document, you are essentially checking it for inconsistencies in formatting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. It is far less extensive than the editing process, which we will look at later in this article. The skill is important because errors can confuse the reader and give a bad impression of you. However, we've got you covered. Let us look at some ways that can help improve your proofreading skills. Read on to learn what they are.

How to Improve Your Proofreading Skills?

1. Read More Books

As you read more books, articles, and novels, your vocabulary and knowledge improve. You are more likely to spot errors and mistakes if you are well-read on the subject at hand and have good grammar and vocabulary skills.
This doesn't just happen overnight. So, read as many books as you can. Make a monthly target of reading books and try to achieve it.

2. Minimize Distractions

Proofreading requires as much focus as writing a document. So, put your phone on silent for some time, sit in a quiet room and then proofread the text.
Distractions may lead you to miss out on checking certain errors, and you wouldn't want that!

3. Print the Document or Change Fonts

At times, the text you are trying to check may be too small and difficult to read.
Changing the font, increasing the font size and line spacing, and printing the document you must proofread will make your life easier.

4. Read Your Text Aloud

Reading the text out loud will help you spot sentences that are oddly structured and difficult to understand. If you have to stop and breathe for a second while reading out a sentence, it is an indication that the sentence is too long and would be a good idea to break it into two parts to make it easier to comprehend.,
This will also improve your reading and pronunciation skills!

5. Read the Document More

The document you are trying to check may be too small. It is a good idea to go over it again. Reading the content will increase your chances of spotting errors you may have missed the first time. So, keep reading until you are satisfied that you have done it right!

6. Use a Software to Assist You

If you have a softcopy of the content, use the spell-checking tool on MS Word to check your spelling and other errors.
You can also use spell-checking software like Grammarly to assist you in proofreading that will check your “spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes.”


What Is Editing?

As mentioned before, proofreading and editing are not the same. Editing requires you to carefully and meticulously review the text and check the sentence structure, tone, readability, and language clarity. While editing, you may also add a few more ideas to the text or remove or change it completely. It is more in-depth and goes beyond simply checking for spelling and grammatical errors. Here is how you can improve your editing skills.

How to Improve Your Editing Skills?

1. Divide the Editing Process into Phases

You can approach the task phase-by-phase.

- In the first phase, you can go through the document and check for sentence structure and clarity.

- Then, in the second phase, you can check the text for cohesion to make sure there aren't any gaps in the text. The text should have a smooth and continuous flow.

- In the third phase, you can check the formatting and structure of the document.

- Lastly, you can check for typing mistakes and grammatical errors.

2. Understand the Purpose of the Work You're Editing

You must understand the purpose the piece of writing you're working on serves. For example, if the content is meant to be technical, it should contain the appropriate technical language. It should be easy to read and understand if it is meant for a broad audience including younger readers and those with a limited vocabulary.

3. Be Confident

Confidence is key in proofreading and editing! Don't approach the task with any self-doubt. Skills take time to develop, and it is ok to make mistakes every once in a while.
Know your strengths and practice to improve upon your weaknesses.

4. Don't Rush

Read each line slowly and even re-read several times if you have to. If you rush, you will miss out on some errors to take your time. Take necessary breaks in the middle.

As you practice your proofreading and editing, your skill will definitely improve. Understand that it is a time-consuming process, and you feel frustrated if a document you have proofread and edited skill has errors. Practice makes perfect. Quiz your proofreading and editing skills by going on websites online. Review your common mistakes and note them down, so you don't repeat them. Follow these simple steps to become a master at this so that no errors get by you! Good luck!