One the paragraph level:

• Reduce the number of quotations: summarize or just cite instead.
• Reduce the length of quotations: just include the key parts.
• Reduce the amount of analysis: cut the thinking-out-loud to get to the take-away.
• Eliminate repetition: cut sentences that say the same thing in different ways.
• Remove tangents and digressions: they may be interesting, but aren’t needed.
• Remove ancillary ideas and information: interesting, not needed.

One the sentence level:

• Make long, flowery sentences into simple snappy statements.
• Change word forms to reduce word count: It was a terrible tragedy. It was tragic. 
• Reduce nominalizations: The use of verbs should be done as an indication of action. Use verbs to indicate action.
• Remove adverbs, adjectives, and qualifying phrases: Indeed, that is precisely how Shakespeare’s Richard III works as a literary text.
• Cut meta-discourse: For example, Shakespeare…; Looking at Shakespeare’s sources alongside his own texts, we can see how the simple transmission of an author’s knowledge…
• Trim transitions: Something very similar happened in the case of Romeo and Juliet.

Proofreading: Forgetting to fix silly little errors, or failing to recognize them, offends your reader disproportionately to the actual transgression. The more time your instructor spends correcting the language of your paper, the less time he or she has to focus on the analyses and arguments of your paper.

Formatting: Papers should be typed double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font, and printed on a laser-quality printer. They should be handed in on separate sheets of 8 1/2 X 11 paper, stapled in the upper left-hand corner. Your last name and the page number should be in the header in the upper right-hand corner. Margins should be one inch; paragraphs are to be indented one-half inch. Spaces should not be skipped between paragraphs. Bibliography and/or notes should follow MLA or Chicago Style unless otherwise directed.

Phrasing: One of the best things to do when editing a paper is to read it out loud. Certain sentences will sound goofy, and you’ll know that you need to revise them. If you’ve got a roommate or lover who’s game, have him or her read the paper to you while you lord over your own copy with pen in hand, noting the moments that need editing.

Active Voice: Write in the active voice, not the passive. Writing in the active voice gives more information to your reader by stating who is doing what to whom/what (subject, verb, and object). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (e.g. “The ball was thrown”). In the active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb (e.g. “Wilson threw the ball”). The active voice explains who (subject) is doing what (verb) to whom (object). There are some telltale signs that you’re in the passive voice: (1) the noun follows the verb, (2) the preposition “by” is used, and (3) a “to be” verb (e.g. is, am, are, was, were) is used as an auxiliary verb (e.g. The claim is being made by Wilson that one should write in the active voice). With few exceptions, remove all “to be” verbs from your writing: “is,” “am,” “are,” “was,” and “were.” Only use “to be” verbs in short, punchy, intransitive sentences, when you’re putting a metaphorical equals-sign between two seemingly unequal concepts (e.g., Shakespeare is universal). Only use the passive voice when it is logical to do so, i.e. when the agent of the action performed is unknown or impossible to define.

Subject-Verb Agreement: The subject and its verb must agree in number: both must be singular (e.g., He/She/It agrees), or both must be plural (e.g. They agree). Most often subject-verb disagreement emerges when a prepositional phrase or subordinate clause occurs between the subject and the verb (e.g., Each of the characters in Paradise Lost are complex should be is complex): read the sentence without the prepositional phrase, and the proper agreement will be clear (e.g. Each … is complex).

Fragments: All sentences must have a subject and a verb. Fragments usually appear when you think the verb from the previous sentence still governs the current sentence (which it doesn’t, because of the period). Either supply the missing component (usually a main verb), or subordinate the fragment as a clause in another sentence.

Run-on Sentences: When two independent clauses are not connected by a conjunction, you must place a semi-colon or a period between them. Comma splices are a special kind of run-on sentence in which the writer uses a comma where there should be a period (e.g. Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, he also wrote several shorter poems.).

Conjunctions: Pay attention to the logical relationship between your clauses, sentences, and paragraphs; then use the correct conjunction to communicate the course of your logic.

Post-Positive Conjunctions: Some words cannot logically start an idea because they depend upon something prior. The words for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (remember “FANBOYS”), as well as “however” cannot start a sentence (though “however” is becoming a matter of taste). Place post-positives after a comma or an introductory phrase (e.g. Robert Herrick spent his life as a courtier. He is most remembered, however, as a poet.).

Demonstratives: These words rely upon an external frame of reference (e.g. this, that, these, those), but what exactly that reference is can be ambiguous. This ambiguity is especially likely when a demonstrative starts a sentence that relies upon some complex idea in the previous sentence or paragraph. Modify all demonstratives by finding one word to summarize the reference (e.g. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system. If you've got a business, you didn’t build that. You didn’t build what? The business? Of course you built the business. Edit: If you've got a business, you didn’t build that system).

Pronoun Agreement: First, make sure pronouns agree in number with their antecedents. Second, just as there is subject-verb agreement, there is also pronoun-verb agreement. They must agree in number: both must be singular, or both must be plural. Most indefinite pronouns (e.g. each, everybody, anyone, nothing, something) take singular verbs (e.g. everybody is … ), but some (e.g. both, few, many, others) take plural (e.g. few are … ).

Pronouns: Eliminate any ambiguity about the antecedent of your pronouns (e.g. When Hamlet stabs Laertes, he knows the sword is poisoned. Which one is aware, Hamlet or Laertes? Edit: When Hamlet stabs Laertes, the prince knows the sword is poisoned.).

Prepositions: Prepositions have a precise sense, both logical and idiomatic, one usually determined by the verb you choose (e.g. you center on not around something). A dictionary will tell you the idiomatic preposition to attach to a word.

Contractions: To maintain your academic tone, spell out words instead of using contractions (e.g. did not for didn’t); however there are times, usually in introductions and conclusions, when contractions can be used to transition your reader into or out of your academic tone.

Spelling: Run a spell-check, sure, but don’t expect spell-check to catch everything. Know the words you know how to spell, and look up words you’re not sure about.

Verb Tense: Remain in the same tense. If you must shift tenses, start a new paragraph.

Paragraphing: A paragraph break signals to your reader the end of one idea and the beginning of another. Err on the side of too many paragraphs, rather than too few.

Split Infinitives: An adverb (e.g. boldly) cannot interrupt an infinitive (e.g. to go). Revise to boldly go where no man has gone before so it reads to go boldly where no man has gone before.

Relative Pronouns: Who is the correct pronoun for persons or any word that refers to people; that is used for things, objects, events, i.e. non-persons (e.g. people that commit crimes should read people who commit crimes). Also, who is subjective, i.e. it performs actions (e.g. it is people who do things), but whom is objective, i.e. it receives action (e.g. it is people to whom things are done).

Don’t End Sentences with Prepositions: E.g. … regardless of the class an individual belongs to. should read, … regardless of the class to which an individual belongs.

Acronyms and Abbreviations: All acronyms and abbreviations must be written out the first time you discuss that organization or term, giving the acronym or abbreviation afterward (e.g. General Strain Theory (GST) ). After that first mention, the acronym or abbreviation may be used (e.g. later could read, GST).

Dangling Modifiers: Put the modifying word or phrase next to the word or phrase it’s modifying, lest you be the butt of Groucho Marx’s joke: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don' t know.