The Last Four Minutes: What to Check Before You Hand In
Most students reread their composition at the end. Rereading catches almost nothing, because you read what you meant to write rather than what is on the page.
Checking is different from rereading. You look for one thing at a time.
Minute one: tense
Read your first sentence. Read your last sentence. Same tense?
Then check your most exciting paragraph. That is where tense slips, because writers stop narrating and start re-living.
Minute two: subject and verb
Look only at your longest sentences. Find the subject, find the verb, check they match.
“The list of names were posted” — the subject is list, not names. Long sentences hide these.
Minute three: the joins
Read only the first sentence of each paragraph, in order, skipping everything else.
If they sound like separate blocks, add one clause to a paragraph opening that carries the last one forward. It takes fifteen seconds and it is worth more than fixing a spelling.
Minute four: did you answer all of it
Go back to the question. Count the parts.
Describe a place that is important to you and explain why. Two parts. Did you do both, or did you describe for four paragraphs and explain in one line?
If one part is thin, add two sentences. That is the cheapest mark available to you at that moment.
What not to spend the time on
Do not rewrite whole sentences to make them fancier. Do not add a moral to the ending. Do not hunt for spelling mistakes at the expense of the four checks above.
Four passes, one minute each, looking for one thing at a time. That is checking.
Read next
- Cohesion: The One Thing That Moves You Up a Language Band
- Tense Control: The Commonest Reason Scripts Sit at 11 or 12
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