Include "All words are spelled correctly" as an item. Remind students to use spellcheck, but to proofread their work as well. Spellcheck will not help if they accidentally write "sill" instead of "skill."
Provide students with a list of commonly confused words, such as "there," "there" and "their," "its" and "it's," and "two," "to" and "too." Make each of these words an item on the checklist ("'It's' and 'its' are used correctly"). Include a brief definition of each word so your students will know the difference.
Include items about writing sentences correctly. For younger students, mention writing complete sentences, capitalizing the first letter of each sentence and ending each sentence with a punctuation mark. If you teach older students, these items should cover run-on sentences, sentence fragments, subject-verb agreement and possibly varied sentence structure.
Provide items covering comma and apostrophe usage. Remind students to include commas in lists, to avoid comma splices and to use apostrophes only in possessives and contractions. If you teach older students, remind them that commas come after the independent clause in a complex sentence.
Include items about organization, particularly for older students. This should include logically divided paragraphs, topic sentences for each paragraph and supporting details that support the topic sentence.
Add any other items specific to your assignment. For instance, if your students are writing a short story, include items about plot, characterization and dialog. If they are writing a persuasive essay, include items about logical fallacies and citations.
Consider the grammatical mistakes you make most frequently and those which have never been a problem for you. If you habitually misspell a certain word or can never remember the difference between "to" and "too," you will want to include those on your checklist. However, if you have no problem differentiating between "there," "there" and "their," it is a waste of time to include that as an item.
Consult a grammar guide, such as Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" or the "New World English Grammar Handbook." Familiarize yourself with grammatical rules that confuse you or that you did not know existed.
Create a proofreading checklist with items based on your own most common mistakes; homonyn errors, such as "to," "too" and "two" or "its" and "it's"; sentence errors, such as run-ons, fragments and subject-verb agreement; correct punctuation usage, including avoiding comma splices and using apostrophes for possessives instead of plurals; and stylistic errors, such as use of passive voice.
Consider any items specific to the piece you are writing. For instance, if you are creating an editing checklist for a novel, include items such as "My characters act consistently" and "My plot follows the rules of cause and effect." If you are making a checklist for a resume, you will find it more helpful to include "Every bullet point begins with an action verb" and "All my headings have a similar format."