How to see it
Leave a few minutes to check. Read it in your head as if aloud, so you hear where each sentence stops. Check one thing at a time. Capitals: sentence starts and names. Punctuation: full stops, commas, speech marks. Then spelling. One thing at a time. Fix, don't add.
A worked example
Capitals first. We starts a sentence, so it needs a capital. Saturday is a day, so it needs one too. Punctuation: read it aloud in your head, and your voice stops after Saturday. A full stop goes there, and the next word needs a capital. Spelling: harbour, seagull, sandwich, all correct. Four fixes, nothing new.
The common mistake: adding new ideas in the checking time instead of fixing mistakes
The trap is using the checking time to add. A new paragraph, or a dragon on the pier. New writing brings new mistakes, with no time left to find them. And the old mistakes are still there. Fix, don't add.
Try one
on friday, we went to the zoo it rained all day.
Here is a draft. Which version fixes its mistakes, and only its mistakes?
- AOn Friday, we went to the zoo. It rained all day.
- BOn friday, we went to the zoo. It rained all day.
- COn Friday, we went to the zoo, it rained all day.
- DOn Friday, we went to the zoo. It rained all day, and a lion escaped.
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Right: A, On Friday, we went to the zoo. It rained all day.
It fixes the capitals and the full stop, and adds nothing new.