Three Stage Editing Guide

Patricia Byrd's and Beverly Benson's Three Stage Editing Guide also provides a very effective method. This method begins with the most serious problems in the 1st Stage, continues with intermediate problems in the 2nd Stage, and ends with the problems that are the easiest to correct in the 3rd Stage.

First Editing Stage: Most serious problems

1. Fragment
2. Verb
3. Agreement

Second Editing Stage: Intermediate problems

1. Parallelism
2. Word Order
3. Word Choice
4. Word Form
5. Articles

Third Editing Stage: Punctuation and Mechanics

1. Capitalization

Don't forget to check the punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point) and the spelling!