Editing

                   Editing can get a lot more complex than you think. Capitalization is a Very important part of editing. Some of the things the book mentions that are important to capitalize are: ethnic, religious, and political groups. Also, titles, months, days, holidays, and historical periods. There are some exceptions to capitalizing proper nouns. The book gives an excellent example of this, “french fries”, because it is such a common phrase now. When writing a title you want to avoid capitalizing conjunctions, articles, and prepositions. Each type of writing does have their own exceptions. When writing in MLA format, if the article is the first or last word in the title you must capitalize it. APA’s exception is that all words longer than four letters must be capitalized. Also, in all major writings if a word follows a comma or dash, it must be capitalized.

                Apostrophes and commas are another aspect of editing that are important. Not using them properly can make you form comma splices and run-on sentences. This is something I have lots of trouble with. But what is the difference between a comma splice and a run-on? A comma splice is when only a comma breaks two independent clauses. A run-on sentence is when you don’t even use a comma to break two independent clauses. There are many easy ways to fix these errors, such as just making them into two different sentences or using a coordinating conjunction. Take what I’ve told you and edit to the best of your ability.