EDITING TIP FOR JULY

THE FINAL CHECK

Before your written product is ready for publication, you will need to make one final visual check. It is best to do this with a print copy, since there will probably be things that you won't see if you are looking at it on a computer screen. After you check for these common problems, do a final spell check (just in case any spelling errors were introduced by your last minute changes):

1. Are there double spaces in the middle of sentences?
2. Are there "rivers of white" (places where spaces between words line up to give the appearance of white "squiggly" lines)?
3. Are there widows (one line from a paragraph at the bottom of a page) or orphans (one line from a paragraph at the top of a page)?
4. Are some headings separated from the following text by a page break?
5. Are your paragraphs of roughly equal length?
6. Are there tables that have been cut in two by a page break?

Follow this link to January's editing tip.
Follow this link to February's editing tip.
Follow this link to March's editing tip.
Follow this link to April's editing tip.
Follow this link to May's editing tip.
Follow this link to June's editing tip.