Editing guidelines for a first paragraph in an academic writing assignment. Correct usage of titles, capitalization, emoticons, slang, punctuation, acronyms, contractions, numbers, etc.

1. By Cheryl Magnant, M.A., M.A.

2. THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE BOLD
The beautiful and the bold
The Beautiful and the Bold
Capitalization rules for titles (x2):
 Capitalize 1st and last words of titles
 Capitalize all content words

3. Capitalization rules for titles (x2):
 Capitalize 1st and last words of titles
 Capitalize all content words
non-content words are:
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Articles

4. gone with the wind
to kill a mockingbird
a midsummer night’s dream
the girl nisa: a story of growing up in a ¡kung
society

5.  Be interesting:
Introduction
Let Me Introduce Myself
Everything about Me
 Be brief:
Where can you learn about Ju-min?
If you presume about my name, my intro will tell you
more.

6.  The Beautiful & the Bold!!!
 I unfortunately failed the entrance exam , not
once but twice ㅠㅠ.
 BTW, I wanna go 2 c the show b4 Saturday if
mom will lemme. Man, you gotta come &
bring your friends. That kind of show rocks!!!

7. When I was growing up, I studied in NZ for a
time and then later in the US.
In four years I plan to graduate from KU with a
double major. The plan is to get a 4.0 or higher
GPA so that I can enter Stanford.
My favorite show is CSI, and it makes me want
to be a PD.
 When I was growing up, I studied in New
Zealand (NZ) for a time and then later in the
United States (US).

8. Making wishes on falling stars can’t guarantee
your wish being realized.
It’s an interesting story worth telling again.
If they want children, why don’t they try to
adopt?
Mom said that I shouldn’t go home late.
Mom shouted, “Don’t come home late!”

9. Numbers with two digits or more - acceptable
 My grandmother had 10 children, 7 boys and 3
girls.
 My grandmother had 10 children, seven boys and
three girls.
Numbers at the beginning of sentences
 1986 was a pivotal year for South Korea.
The year 1986 was a pivotal year for South Korea.
In 1986 South Korea became recognized
internationally by many other countries.

10. Numbers telling time – acceptable
 They will be busy until 3pm.
They will be busy until 3 p.m.
Numbers and hyphenation do not mix
 The 13-year-old girl became a cheer leader.
Humanities (H) & science/math (SM) are different!
He ran forty-two kilometers and drank sixteen ounces of
water every hour. (H)
He ran 42 kilometers and drank 16 ounces of water every
hour. (H)(SM)
He ran 42 km and drank 16 oz of water every hour. (SM)

11. FANBOYS
 I invited him. And he came.
 We enjoyed some delicious ice cream at Baskin
Robbins. But that night we both were sick.
Because …
 Because I really did not understand the map.
Especially …
 Especially we like listening to Korean pop (K-pop).
 We like listening to music, especially we like listening to
Korean pop (K-pop).
 We especially like listening to Korean pop.
 Especially because we like Korean pop, we went to that
concert last night.

12. half won pea sea. Its good four low-cating
miss steaks inn my righting.
Butt if ewe dont ewes a spell chequer, U vary
likely will half sum problems that wood bee
embarrassing two tale yore friends a bout.

14. Your writing check-list:
Capitalization of titles
Structure of titles
Punctuation, Emoticons, Symbols & Slang
Acronyms
Contractions
Using numbers
Fragments
Spelling & Spelling Checkers
Proof-reading & Editing