Many students tend to rush through or skip the editing and proofreading stages when writing essays, however, they play a vital role in improving grades and should not be overlooked.
Therefore, making sure you incorporate enough editing and proofreading into the process can greatly boost your essay grades.
While they are frequently used in place of one another, editing and proofreading denote distinct phases within the writing process.
During the editing phase, you should concentrate on the overall organization and consistency of the composition, along with the accuracy of points, clarity of writing, and sentence formation.
Some individuals have a habit of revising while they write, such as repeatedly rewriting a sentence until it sounds perfect.
However, this may delay the writing process, leading many individuals to believe it is more efficient to complete the piece before beginning the editing process. In any case, a properly edited essay likely underwent multiple revisions before being turned in.
The final stage of proofreading involves a thorough check of the essay for mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as opposed to earlier stages.
You can also verify that you have followed the ‘house style’ in terms of referencing system, layout, font, line spacing, and other factors. In contrast to the editing stage, the proofreading stage does not involve making major changes to your document’s content.
Whether you’re giving it a final touch-up, fixing any surface-level mistakes, or ensuring the essay is prepared for submission in the best way possible.
So, whenever you complete an essay, always take your time to proofread and edit whatever you have written. Here are a few tips to help you get started with your journey.
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1: Make Sure that the Structure is Perfect
If you can manage it, give yourself a brief break after completing your essay before beginning the editing phase. Taking a break will help you approach the task with a clearer mind.
Editing right after working for a long time can make it difficult to identify mistakes. When you start examining it, begin by analyzing its organization.
Consider the overall structure of your argument and ensure that the points you have included support the progression of your essay towards a coherent and reasonable ending.
You might have composed an essay with the ideas presented in the sequence they came to your mind, but is this truly the most logical arrangement?
Do the points logically connect with each other?
Should the essay be made more engaging by introducing a particular point early on to captivate the reader, or are you giving away too much in the introduction, suggesting that it might be preferable to save some points for later in the piece?
Just a handful of methods are available to enhance the structure, keeping your main argument in focus and ensuring the structure effectively conveys it.
Now that word processors are the main method for writing essays, it is very simple to rearrange paragraphs to create a more logical structure by dragging, dropping, cutting, and pasting them.
Make sure to reread the essay after making changes to ensure that the wording matches the new order, or else a sentence might lead into the wrong paragraph.
2: Cut Down Longer Paragraphs and Sentences
Whether you have exceeded your word limit or not, it is crucial to revise lengthy sentences and paragraphs as they can become challenging to read and may be unengaging or confusing.
Try to keep your sentences short with only two or three clauses.
To avoid overwhelming readers, divide long paragraphs into shorter ones if they are longer than three or four sentences: a wall of text may deter readers. Be sure to leave a space between different sections when composing your essay, as shown in this example.
To avoid having long sentences, you can check your writing and make it more concise.
If you find yourself writing long sentences, seek out different ways to convey your message more concisely. You will probably encounter many instances of phrases that need several words to convey what could be expressed in only two or three.
3: Avoid Repeating Same Words and Ideas
Repetition can easily go unnoticed in your writing, but the editing stage allows you to catch it before your teacher or lecturer does. While reviewing your essay, be mindful of unnecessary repetition and eliminate any duplicates that do not contribute to your essay.
Remember that the initial occurrence of an idea may not be the most suitable placement, so decide on the optimal moment to introduce it and remove any additional instances. Additionally, be aware of situations where you have emphasized the point too much.
Talking excessively about a specific point can weaken your argument, giving the impression that you are struggling to find evidence. Sometimes, a short, clear statement with a brief piece of evidence is sufficient.
One should also be cautious of using the same word repeatedly in a sentence or paragraph. Using common words like “the” repeatedly is acceptable, but it’s recommended to limit the repetition of connecting words like “also” within the same paragraph.
Some other words that you need to avoid are – additionally, moreover, furthermore, what’s more, in addition to, as well as. Less common vocabulary should only be utilized once in each paragraph, like the term “unavoidable”, unless necessary for emphasis.
4: Format Your Essay Consistently
Don’t forget about the formatting of your essay when you’re in editing mode – it’s important for the overall appearance.
This entails maintaining consistency in font usage, emphasizing with italics or underline instead of mixing them, keeping line spacing uniform, and addressing other small aesthetic details.
Although it may not seem significant, maintaining consistent formatting is crucial for giving your essay a professional appearance. Using varying fonts or line spacing will make your essay appear disorganized, regardless of the quality of its content.
Utilize the predetermined formatting options in your word processor for consistency: utilize header 1 for the title, header 2 for subheadings, and ‘normal text’ for the document’s body.
If you discover there are too many items on the list to consider at once while reading your essay, you can go through it multiple times focusing on various aspects each time.
Thinking about all of this may feel overwhelming after you have already invested significant effort into writing the essay but believe us: the result will be a well-crafted and refined piece.
5: Keep an Eye for the Typos
Reading your work in reverse is believed to increase the likelihood of catching typos. This may be because it provides a different viewpoint of your writing, making it easier to identify mistakes compared to reading it in chronological order where you are familiar with the content.
Begin by working backwards from the final sentence until you reach the introduction of your essay. Another suggestion is to physically print your essay and use a red pen to identify and correct errors before making edits on the computer.
Reading a document in its printed form is usually more convenient as it allows you to physically interact with the text by following along with a pencil tip to ensure no mistakes are missed.
6: Get Rid of Weasel Words
Chances are, you’ve unknowingly included many unnecessary words in your writing that only lengthen the word count but don’t contribute to the meaning.
Your writing can still be just as effective without these words. An instance would be the word “very”, which typically contributes nothing to your message. According to Mark Twain, replacing ‘very’ with ‘damn’ in writing will improve it without changing the overall meaning.
Weasel words are more harmful because they are utilized to conceal feeble or disagreeable arguments. Research on Wikipedia discovered that statements generally fit into three categories: numerical ambiguity, passive voice for detachment, and adverbial softening.
Watch out for these words in your writing and modify them to eliminate their presence; they are quite insincere, and your essay will benefit from their removal.
7: Put the Commas at the Right Place
People tend to either overuse commas in a sentence or not use them enough.
If there are too many, the sentence sounds strange; if there are too few, the reader needs to decipher a long, tangled mess to understand the meaning.
The key is inserting commas in places where you naturally stop when speaking out loud. If it is beneficial, consider reading your writing out loud to check for coherence.
When you need to pause a bit longer, consider using a semi-colon instead of a comma. Use a semi-colon to link two independent clauses that could function as standalone sentences.