The final step in the writing process is putting the finishing touches on your essay. At this point, your goal is to make sure that your essay is well organized, convincing, and clearly written, with no distracting grammatical or mechanical errors.
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Editing
When you edit your revised draft, you review your essay’s overall structure, style, and sentence construction, but you focus on grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Editing is an important step in the writing process because an interesting, logically organized argument will not be convincing if readers are distracted by run-
Pronoun-
A pronoun must always agree in number with its antecedent, the word to which it refers. Every pronoun must clearly refer to a particular antecedent.
| CONFUSING | College administrators, faculty members, and staff members must work hard to show every student that a green campus will benefit them. |
| REVISED | College administrators, faculty members, and staff members must work hard to show every student that a green campus will benefit him or her. |
For more practice, see the LearningCurve on Nouns and Pronouns within this LaunchPad.
Proofreading
When you proofread your revised and edited draft, you carefully read every word, trying to spot any remaining punctuation or mechanical errors, as well as any typographical errors (typos) or misspellings that your spell checker may have missed. (Remember, a spell checker will not flag a correctly spelled word that is used incorrectly.)
Contractions versus Possessive Pronouns
Be especially careful not to confuse the contractions it’s, who’s, they’re, and you’re with the possessive forms its, whose, their, and your.
| INCORRECT | Its not always clear who’s responsibility it is to promote green initiatives on campus. |
| CORRECT | It’s not always clear whose responsibility it is to promote green initiatives on campus. |
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Choosing a Title
After you have edited and proofread your essay, you need to give it a title. Ideally, your title should create interest and give readers clear information about the subject of your essay. It should also be appropriate for your topic. A serious topic calls for a serious title, and a thoughtfully presented argument deserves a thoughtfully selected title.
A title does not need to surprise or shock readers. It also should not be long and wordy or something many readers will not understand. A simple statement of your topic (“Going Green”) or of your position on the issue (“College Campuses Should Go Green”) is usually all that is needed. If you like, you can use a quotation from one of your sources as a title (“Green Is Good”).
Evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of the following titles for an argumentative essay on green campuses. Be prepared to explain the strengths and weaknesses of each title.
Green Campuses
It’s Not Easy Being Green
The Lean, Clean, Green Machine
What Students Can Do to Make Their Campuses More Environmentally Responsible
Why All Campuses Should Be Green Campuses
Planting the Seeds of the Green Campus Movement
The Green Campus: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Checking Format
Finally, make sure that your essay follows your instructor’s guidelines for documentation style and manuscript format. (The student paper on the next page follows MLA style and manuscript format. For additional sample essays illustrating MLA and APA documentation style and manuscript format, see Chapter 10 and Appendix B, respectively.)