The Grade "A" Checklist

Writing is a pain-staking craft, often taking years to master. But here are some shortcuts:

Is my paper double-spaced? ____________ and a doc, docx, rtf or PDF?__________
Did I italicize all case names?
Riley v. California ______________ and then subsequently refer to the casesimply by its first party, Riley ___________
Did I Capitalize and spell out the amendments and laws? __________
     such as, First Amendment, Affordable Care Act
Did I capitalize names and titles? ___________
  such as The United States Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts, State of Texas
Did I avoid random or inconsistent capitalization? __________   such as Supreme court or supreme Court
Did I avoid inconsistent singular and plural? __________WRONG: Defendants lives in San Diego. They was leaving...RIGHT: Defendants live... They were... [He she or it “is”]
Was I consistent with my verb tenses (past and present)? _________WRONG: The suspects were under arrest, but run away.RIGHT: Either say are and run, or were and ran.
Did I read it aloud, or even better, have a friend read it to me? __________
If it doesn’t sound right (listen carefully), it needs more editing.
Did I use Paragraph Breaks to organize my thoughts? __________New idea = new paragraph.
Did I omit long, run-on sentences? __________They are confusing and hard to follow. If you must, use commas toclarify your thoughts. Try using some two to four word sentences.“Jesus wept” says more than some entire paragraphs of prose.
Did I omit unnecessary verbiage? ___________Ask yourself, is the meaning clear without it? How can I make mythoughts clear with the fewest number of words?
Did I avoid indefinite pronouns, such as, they? __________Be clear and exact in your language; don’t use “they” or any otherpronoun unless the reference is obvious, especially if you are referringto a person, place or thing.
Did I avoid starting a sentence with which? ___________CORRECT: Which one is it?INCORRECT: Which had contraband in the trunk.
Did I write, then edit, edit, edit and edit some more? _______Writing is 90% editing, so most of your time should be spent editing.Have a friend read it, preferably out loud. Sleep on it for perspective!

Common, Easily Avoidable Errors

Their (possessive), there (location) and they’re (they are).

Your (possessive) You’re (you are)

It’s (it is) and its (possessive)

To (direction) too (also) and two (2)

Use an apostrophe to show possessive form, such as, “the court’s opinion” (singularsince you are referring to one court) or defendants’ rights (plural, if there aremultiple defendants).

Apostrophe “s” is not the plural form of a word; just use a plain old “s” without theapostrophe. That goes for decades, too, such as the 1990s, not 1990’s.

Prepositional phrases, such as, “Through the winter,” are not sentences. Theyneed a subject and a verb, such as “Through the winter (prepositional phrase), he(subject) heated (verb) the cabin with wood.”