Editing is perhaps the most important use to which you can put your knowledge of Standard Written English. After you have written a rough draft, you should go back and review your work. However, before you check to see if your sentence grammar is acceptable, you should make sure that your ideas are logical and coherent, and that they relate to the main idea you are trying to express. There is no point in correcting grammar if you are going to change the sentences anyway.

Once you are reasonably sure that you are really saying what you want to say, you should systematically go over your sentences to see if they are grammatically correct. When you read over your own work, you often miss errors you have made. It is only natural: after all, you know what you intended to say. Finding errors and omissions is always easier if you are looking for specific problems rather than simply reading over your work. The table above will remind you of some problems you might want to check for when you are editing.