Edditing Editing

Earlier this week, I asked you to focus on the big picture of your textual analysis of Maus. Continue to focus on presenting your ideas clearly and effectively, and determine which secondary source you will integrate into your analysis. Later this week, as the assignment deadline nears, shift your focus to finding and correcting errors.

Proofreading

A Writer’s Reference presents excellent advice on proofreading, which I am including verbatim below.

“Proofreading is a special kind of reading: a slow methodical search for misspellings, typographical mistakes, and missing words or word endings. Such errors can be difficult to spot in your own work because you may read what you intended to write, not what is actually on the page. To fight this tendency, try one or more of the following tips.

Proofreading Tips

Remove distractions and allow yourself ten to fifteen minutes of pure concentration–without your cell phone.
Proofread out loud, articulating each word as it is actually written.
Proofread your sentences in reverse order.
Proofread hard copy pages; mistakes can be difficult to catch on-screen.
Don’t rely too heavily on spell checkers and grammar checkers. Before automatically accepting their changes, consider accuracy and appropriateness.
Ask a volunteer (a friend, roommate, or co-worker) to proofread after you. A second reader may catch something that you didn’t.” (31)

Grammar, Punctuation and Mechanics, and Word Choice

The items listed below are the ones that I noted most often in your drafts. Review the ones that are trouble spots for you.

active verbs/voice, 153
apostrophes, 275-78
capitalization, 293-96
colons and semicolons, 271-73
commas, 259-71
end punctuation, 283-84
hyphens, 291-92
italics for titles, 301
lay, lie, 182-83
like, as, 146
numbers expressed as words, 299
paragraph focus
paragraph length, 53-54
pronoun case, 196-97
reason why, 148
reflexive pronouns, 306
sentence fragments, 207-13
standard idioms, 166
subject-verb agreement, 171-79
than, then, 149
that, which, 149
there, their, they’re, 149
to, too, two, 149
verb agreement with subjects, 171-79
who’s, whose, 150
who, which, that, 150

Concluding Your Analysis

In addition to returning to your thesis, consider developing your final paragraph in one of these ways:

Include a quotation from or reference to your primary source (Maus) or your secondary source, one that emphasizes the essay’s main point or puts it in a different perspective.
Place the analysis in a different, perhaps larger, context. For example, you might end your analysis by linking it to the pandemic or the current social or political climate.
Consider the implications of the analysis. What does it imply, or involve, or suggest about parent-child relationships, about storytelling, about memory, or about totalitarian regimes?

In conclusion, To conclude,

Avoid the phrases “in conclusion,” “to conclude,” “in summary,” and “to sum up.” These can be useful, even welcome, in oral presentations. But readers can see, on the page or the screen, when a short essay is about to end.

Writing Help

If you would like for someone to review your analysis of Maus before you submit it, look to the Center for Academic Engagement, which offers a variety of options:

Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. A Writer’s Reference. GTCC Custom 9th Edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2018.

Day: March 31, 2021

ENG 111: Editing Your Textual Analysis