How to Check and Proofread Your Writing at GCSE (AQA GCSE English Language): Revision Note

Do I need to proofread my own writing at GCSE?

Yes! Examiners reward the “technical accuracy” of all GCSE writing tasks: “Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.” 

Taking a few minutes to re-read your work when you have finished writing, or ideally at the end of each paragraph, can help you avoid losing marks for simple mistakes that are easy to make when writing under time pressure. Errors in technical accuracy can affect the clarity, flow and coherence of your writing. In addition, proofreading helps you to avoid repetition to make your writing more varied and engaging.

Top proofreading strategies

Here are some top tips for quick proofreading in exam conditions:

Re-read at the end of each paragraph

Ask yourself:

• Does this paragraph make sense?

• Does it link to the previous paragraph (and will it link to the next)?

• Are my ideas presented clearly?

• Could I rephrase any awkward sentences?

• Is my tone appropriate for the audience?

Check for common mistakes

Look out for:

• Capital letters:

  • Check each sentence starts with a capital letter

  • Check names and if you have used a capital for the pronoun “I”

  • Also make sure your capitalisation is clear

• End of sentence punctuation:

  • Make sure you have used full stops, exclamation marks or question marks, and not commas to end your sentences

• Missing words:

  • This is quite common when writing under pressure, so re-reading will help you avoid this

• Common spelling mistakes:

  • Make sure you have used apostrophes for omission correctly (such as “he’s” as short for “he is”, which is different to “his”)

  • Check you have used the correct homophones (there/their/they’re)

  • Check you haven’t joined two words together when they should be separate (such as “a lot”)

  • Try to remember some spelling strategies to help you with words you commonly spell incorrectly

Look for sentence variety

Ask yourself:

• Have you varied your sentence types and lengths for impact?

• Are there too many similar sentence structures?

Dialogue

Have you formatted this correctly? See our guide to writing dialogue in this section for handy hints.

Tenses

Grammatical accuracy is very important, and students who lose control of tenses will not gain high marks. If you start writing in a particular tense (for example, writing in the present tense), make sure you stick to it unless you have a specific reason for changing (such as a flashback, where you might shift to the past tense).

Even fixing one or two key mistakes can help improve clarity and your marks. Examiners don’t expect perfection, but clear, well structured and accurate writing will always do better.

Proofreading checklist

✅Is your writing consistent and convincing?

✅Does each paragraph make sense?

✅Is the whole response coherent? Does it make sense as a whole piece of writing?

✅Have you used correct basic punctuation?

✅Have you used tenses consistently?

✅Have you used capital letters at the start of each sentence, for all names and for the pronoun “I”?

✅Have you punctuated dialogue and questions correctly?

✅Have you re-read each paragraph to check for words missing in sentences?

✅Have you checked your basic spelling, including apostrophes to shorten two words into one?

✅Have you checked words which you know you find difficult?