Proofread Essay Contract
Proofreading your essay, while not a guaranteed cure for your grammar, punctuation, and format mistakes, can help to a significant degree.
Students may find that their essays improve in terms of content as the semester moves along. However, their grammar and punctuation errors remain stubborn and recalcitrant like a virulent rash that defies the most heavily medicated prescription skin ointment. A common reason behind these stubborn, acute grammar errors is that most students don’t proofread their essays.
Because we’re trying to improve writing content, grammar and punctuation, we must proofread our typed writing assignments.
To encourage more students to participate in their proofreading, I submit to you a Proofread Essay Contract. This contract is a ticket that must be attached to your typed essay in order for me to grade it. You cannot submit your essay without attaching this Proofread Essay Contract to your essay. Staple it to the top of your document. Everything else in your document remains unchanged.
Here’s the contract:
I, ____________________________________________________________, hereby affirm as a true statement of fact that either I alone or with the help of tutor proofread my essay to make sure I corrected common grammar, usage, punctuation, and format errors. My proofreading was robust, thorough, and meticulous, not the last minute skimming of a student with time management problems.
During my proofreading, I kept a sharp eye for the following:
Sentence fragments
Comma splices
Run-ons
Noun-pronoun agreement errors
Subject-verb agreement errors
Pronoun shifts
Mixed sentence structure errors
Diction (writing style and usage) errors
Comma errors
Parts of speech errors (confusing nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs)
Possessive apostrophe spelling errors
Spelling and word choice errors
Headers (putting page numbers in the upper right of document)
MLA Works Cited format
And any other common patterns of grammar, punctuation, and format errors that I see in my writing
