Making Your Mark

Basic Beginner Rules to Marking Up a Manuscript

1. Use a RED colored pencil/ to mark corrections
   *Ticonderoga Checking Red is highly suggested, but almost any red works
   *Marks cleanly and erases well
2. Wright Clearly
3. Flag any queries you have with a Post-It
4. Indicate all corrections in the margin
5. Circle, underline, draw lines through, and add carets ( ^ ) to the text itself
6. Mark your corrections on the margin in the order in which they occur for lines that contain more than one correction
   *Separate each correction using a slash ( / )
7. Cross out the entire block of text for major text changes and rewrite it in the margin or at the bottom base of the page
8. Keep a lookout for error patterns and clusters within the text
9. Have the Merrian Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition on hand
10. Closely follow the “house style sheet” if given by your publisher

A good handful of people are depending on you to catch all the pesky grammatical and punctuational mistakes for the final copy. That is why it is very important to get these basic rules down in order to return a neatly proofread manuscript cleansed of its mistakes. These ten rules are the most important beginner rules that you’ll need to set you on the right foot when proofreading. For more rules and symbols to follow and use when proofreading a manuscript, take a look at Sue Gilad’s Paid to Proofread book here.

By Karla Cortes
www.karlamarianacortes.com