Editing Tips

The following are EDITING TIPS deisgned for students using the AAA writing style; however, many apply also for APA and writing in general. I prepared these for doctoral students, based on what I noticed to be the most commonly made mistakes. Note that the AAA style guide should be a writer's primary source; this merely highlights common errors.

Simple self-edits: Before submitting, use the Word “search” option to ensure that the following style/grammar issues are correctly used throughout your document.

• Numbers under ten should be spelled out. Exceptions are found in the AAA guide.

• The word “data” is plural when seeking grammatical agreement.

• Don’t use the “royal we” or “one” to refer to an unknown person. “One must remember that…” should be “It is important to remember” or “remembrance carries importance.

• Don’t use hyphens, even “and/or.”

• Capitalize the word “Chapter” whenever referring to a Chapter in the dissertation.

• Special Note for Dr. Herda's students: DO NOT USE THE FOLLOWING: impact (unless referring to a physical collision), empowerment, feedback, compare and contrast, perception.

OTHER NOTES:

• Quotes should only be indented if they take more than four lines. Per AAA, “if extract takes more than four manuscript lines, make it a block extract.”

• Change the case of the initial letter of quote to fit sentence without using brackets.

• Don’t begin a quote with “…”

• Check for the consistency of spacing in references. “(Ricoeur 1999:25)” is okay; so is “(Ricoeur 1999: 25).” But be consistent!

• Also, check punctuation, making sure that it is after the reference, not before it.

• Where possible, eliminate the passive voice: NOT “the data was analyzed,” but “I analyzed the data.” This is important both for good grammar and to properly appropriate the role of the researcher (participatory).

• A paragraph should not (rarely) end with a quote. Instead, use the quote within the paragraph, then use your own words to explain the quote and close the paragraph. Also, quotes should not stand alone; they should be introduced and explained, in context to the rest of the sentence and paragraph. The relevance of the quote to the text may make sense to you, but it must be explained to the reader!

• Use “United States of America,” rather than “America/n” except for the continental region.

ALSO:

• Before submitting, check each reference to make sure it is included in the bibliography.

• Check appropriate tenses throughout. An author is always present tense, whether alive or dead: “Socrates states….” In the dissertation: Ch 1 and 2 (intro and lit review) are present tense. The research process is in the past tense. Data presentation is mostly in the present tense, with the past tense used as appropriate for specific participant voices. Secondary analysis and final Chapter are both present tense, though secondary analysis chapter can draw in a quote from the participant to make a point. Then it is, “so and so said….” The final Chapter can also include, under policy or curriculum suggestions, “"could, might consider, or other conditional or subjunctive words. In the Author's Reflections, past tense could be used.

• Don’t use long quotes as data. Short quotes are okay, but describe the conversation, don’t insert it in long blocks. Remember to use ethnography (such as Geertz writes) as a presentation guide for data.

• Work to draw a story from the conversations. The data presented should not be a listing of each conversation and what happened, but a story that is drawn from the conversations according to themes.

There are more tips throughout the AAA style guide; be sure to review it periodically to check for specific style issues that are relevant to your work.