Students engage in all manner of writing in college. They write dissertations, essays, research papers, term papers and so on. Most importantly, they must ensure that these papers are written in well and are free of mistakes. The basic grading criteria depend on how the student has used his editing and proofreading skills to make the paper excellent. It is the least he can do. Most often, then not students take editing and proofreading as one aspect,but they are two completely different things. Both of these are crucial strategies of writing that must be taken very seriously.
All academic papers that need to be published have to undergo through editing and proofreading. They make the paper more presentable because there is nothing so boring trying to read a paper that is full of mistakes in spelling, grammar, the flow of ideas and so on. With editing and proofreading, you demonstrate that you pay attention even to the most mundane details of the text. You come out as a committed academic writer who is ready to leave nothing to chance especially when it comes to achieving the best test scores in the paper.
Students must always take these steps seriously and apply them differently. Sometimes proofreading and editing services can be access online. Different inline writing entities have editors and proofreaders who go through different papers making sure they are in line with the requirements at hand. The good thing about getting another person to do editing and proofreading is that you might inadvertently ignore some mistakes because,for one, your eyes are too familiar with the text. Secondly, you might be too tired to go through the paper, which is why it is recommended you take some time off the paper after you are done writing everything that is needed in that assignment.
Some researchers also prefer editing than proofreading and vice versa. Some publishing websites are strict on what needs to be done about editing and proofreading, and the writer must conform to these requirements. When it involves research, the student o researcher must ensure the paper is excellent simply because mistakes will make the paper less believable. More so, poor usage of words they negate the meaning in some sentences which in turn affects the original message of the research.
This only underscores why it is essential to know how you have used editing and proofreading to fine-tune your paper. These crucial steps of the writing process are essential even when it comes to curriculum vitae for those seeking employment and internships. They have to see proofreading and editing services because they want to present a lasting impression through their papers that will warrant them being granted a chance for an interview. As such, anything written down by anybody must be proofread and edited accordingly. It averts many chances of failure and gets the desired results. As such, you need to know how best you can employ editing and proofreading techniques especially when it comes to your assignments.
Before delving into how you can do your editing and proofreading of your assignment, it would be good to understand each aspect separately.
Editing
Editing happens as soon as you begin your first draft. You reread the draft to ascertain whether there is a good organisation in your paper if there are smooth transitions between paragraphs if the evidence backs up your argument and so on. Editing happens to different levels, which include the following:
- Content
Here, you have to ascertain that you have written your content according to the requirements of the assignment. Ensure that the arguments and claims that you make are accurate and complete. You also should ensure that they are consistent and that you have supported each point using enough evidence. Editing here must establish if the content of the paper achieves the overall goal.
- Overall structure
You have to ensure that your paper has the right introduction and conclusion. The editing process must also establish f your thesis statement is clearly stated and how every paragraph in the body of your paper relates to it. You can make a reverse outline of your paper to check on your structure. In most cases, you need not rely on proofreading and editing services to do this task for you. Once you take the necessary steps of editing and proofreading, your document will be as good as new.
- Paragraph structure
Editing your documents helps you to ascertain if you have a clear topic sentence and if the paragraphs connect to the major idea. You also find out if there are missing sentences in any paragraphs or any other crucial information.
- Clarity, style and citation
The steps of editing and proofreading are important to a copy. When it regards editing, you have to check for clarity regarding any unclear important terms. Determine if they are clear to a reader. You can do this by reading your paper sentence-by-sentence, starting from the end going upwards.
You need to check the style to see if you have used the right tone, which can be informal, formal, or persuasive and so on. The style also includes checking if you have used varied sentence length in your paper. When it comes to citations, editing is crucial in ensuring that you have made appropriate quotes, paraphrases, and ideas from your sources. Ensure that our citations are in the right format, be it APA, MLA, Harvard and so on.
Editing on all these levels ensures that you make necessary revisions to the content and wording of your paper. You have to pay attention to the mistakes that you make often.
Proofreading
This is a crucial stage of the editing and proofreading process. Here, you focus on the surface errors like misspellings, grammatical mistakes, and misplaced punctuations and so on. Proofreading is different from editing because it does not examine the content. The concentration is superficial, and it only happens when you have completed all other processes. Proofreading is important because for one, even though the content matters, how it appears affects the way the professors will grade it. If you have worked hard to present your ideas, you do not want errors standing in the way between you and a good grade. You have to proofread and if you do not, at least go for proofreading and editing services, which are available, online. The internet is laden with different editors and proofreaders, so why present a work full of errors when you have options?
Most people will only take a few minutes to proofread their work as they try to catch glaring errors. This might not work especially if you have been writing the paper for long hours and you could miss many mistakes. As such, you have to be systematic in the way you do your proofreading.
Now let us dwell into the tips of how you can edit and proofread your assignment
When it comes to editing and proofreading, you have to approach your work with a fresh set of eyes as well as perspective. You need to develop your editing and proofreading tactics. The following tips can help you achieve just that, and they include:
Take a break from the assignment
After you have finished writing your assignment, you need to take some time off from it and breather, the idea here is to separate the writer in you and the reader in you and to do that, you need some time off. You can take a quick trip t the kitchen, fix yourself a cup of coffee, relax, watch a movie, and do anything that will distract you from work. If you do not feel like doing it, proofreading and editing services can come in handy. For one, you will get excellent services from a professional editor or proofreader who is coming into contact with your work for the first time.
If you opt to do editing and proofreading by yourself, approach the task from a stranger’s perspective. This way you will find different mistakes that relate to content, style, spelling, grammar and so on. Your editing and proofreading will be effective, which is why it is recommended you take some time off.
Reading your work aloud
Even though this is easier said than done, you have to read it slowly. Do not be in a hurry to finish your editing and proofreading. If you took some time off the paper, it means you have allocated adequate time to complete this task and to fine-tune the paper to the desired format and requirement. You read aloud, you go sentence-by-sentence and pay close attention to the meaning that you are projecting in every sentence. Use a much slower pace as opposed to what you are used to.
Look for patterns in your mistakes
You need to pay close attention to the errors that you make. This will enable you to identify the pattern of errors that need to be fixed. You have to do it the way proofreading and editing services would do it. Once you identify the errors that you make, this will help you to look for them in the future tasks of editing and proofreading.
Do not always rely on your computer’s spell check
This is one convinced that makes students lazy especially when it comes to proofreading. Lazy writers who do not take editing and proofreading seriously are more likely to produce a piece that is laden with errors. Spellcheck systems are not 100% right and can overlook some mistakes. You can run your spell check, but you also need to go through your paper to catch more mistakes that are complex. If you rely on your computer to make your paper excellent, then you are in for a big shock. Most importantly, if you are editing and proofreading by yourself, you are more likely to home your skills in both aspects, and you will not necessarily have to rely on proofreading and editing services from online writers and editors. This is something that you need to pay attention to, though not many students see it from a perspective of gaining important writing skills.
Reduce the level of “waffle” in your copy
Waffling can affect negatively on your content especially if you are trying to make a point. Your audience might miss the point if you waffle. Some may even stop reading your paper if your message is too confusing. If this is an assignment, your professor will not even take time to go through the entire work because he knows you did not take the necessary measures to do editing and proofreading to our assignment. This results in a very poor grade.
Avoid using sentences that are too long
The idea of editing and proofreading is to arrange and rearrange your content correcting any possible mistakes, whether superficial or deep-rooted. When you use long sentences, it can be hard for the audience to focus on your point. If you have a way too long sentence, try to break them down into shorter versions of themselves without negating their meaning. Short sentences are much easier to read as opposed to longer sentences. They also convey the message much easier than long sentences. As such, you ought to use editing and proofreading to correct such mistakes.
Edit for more than spelling
When editing or proofreading your assignment, you have to go beyond the spelling mistakes. For you to ensure that your editing is on point consider the following:
- Check to see if there are any grammar mistakes
- Ascertain that the sentences make sense
- Ensure that you have balanced your quotes, examples and references
- Ascertain that your assignment meets the level of depth required o the topic
- Ensure that you have not repeated or overused words and phrases or stand out words
- Ensure that the sentences and paragraph are of the right size
- Flush out any colloquialism or slang
- Check your abbreviations
- Check the flow of your work and ascertain that it is perfect
With editing and proofreading, your work is bound to meet the minimum requirements of the assignment. Even if you miss the top score, yet will not be as a result of poor and avoidable mistakes.
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