incorrect use of a comma to connect ("splice" together) two complete thoughts. Ex.: I go to school, my brother stays home.
revising
a stage of the writing process: re-thinking and re-writing draft versions of a piece of writing in order to make it stronger
editing
revising a piece of writing with particular attention to grammar, style, punctuation, and other mechanical issues
sentence fragment
a word group that lacks a subject or a verb and/or one that does not express a complete thought. Ex.: Whenever I go to school. ("Whenever," introduces a dependent clause, so it cannot stand alone.)
proofreading
the last step of paper preparation: carefully re-reading the near-finished draft, checking for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and format.
