Introduction to Essay Writing
Essay writing can be fun for students who love to express their thoughts and ideas. When they write an essay they get to express themselves about a particular topic. They also learn a lot when they research a specific topic and pen down their point of view about the same.
Once students are done with the writing part, it becomes critical for them to edit and proofread the essay that they have written. They must take all the necessary steps to edit and proofread the essay to ensure that they get the best results.
It is also vital for them to be aware of some expert tips that can help them edit and proofread the essay.
Expert Tips to Edit & Proofread Your Essay
Here are a few tips you must remember during editing and proofreading after writing an essay.
1. Take a Break from Writing
2. Check the Overall Structure
3. Check the Relevance of Each Paragraph
4. Look if Everything is Clear
5. Check the appropriate Style
6. Re-check all the Citations
7. Check One Error at a Time
8. Do Not completely rely on Grammar Tools
9. Read Everything Slowly
10. Check the Assignment Guidelines
Let us understand them in detail one by one:
1. Take a Break from Writing
First and foremost, before you begin with the process of proofreading and editing, it is advised that you take a break from writing. This is to relax your mind and ensure your attentiveness while proofreading and editing your essay. Being away from the essay will allow you to refresh your thoughts and work with a fresh mind. Moreover, if you are editing and writing simultaneously, it becomes confusing and you might miss some important details.
2. Check the Overall Structure
To begin with the proofreading and editing, you must start by checking the structure of the essay. This means that you must look at the overall appearance and quality of the essay and note down if anything appears to be wrong or could be improved by making changes. When you check the overall structure you also realise if you have missed some important points or details that could improve the quality of the essay.
3. Check the Relevance of Each Paragraph
The next thing you must do is check if all the paragraphs you have written are in flow and relevant to the topic of the essay. You must ensure that you do not include unnecessary details in the essay and stick to the suggested word count. If you find some paragraphs are not making sense you must remove it or add something to connect it with the essay.
4. Look if Everything is Clear
It is also vital for a student to make sure that the written essay is clear to the readers. They must easily grasp the details and ideas you want to convey through the essay. To make sure of that you must use simple and easy language. Moreover, once you are done writing it, you must see if everything is clear and that the readers will be able to understand what you have written.
5. Check the appropriate Style
We all know that various types of essays require different styles. So, as a student, you must ensure your tone and level of writing go well with the assignment. You must pay attention to what kind of essay you are writing and then adjust your language accordingly. In this way, you are certain that your preferred style goes well with the essay and that you score well.
6. Re-check all the Citations
Another vital step to consider while proofreading and editing your essay is to re-check all the citations that you have written. You must ensure that the citations are mentioned in the given format and that you are flawless in mentioning the names and sources of the sites you have used to add data and information to your essay. You must check your citations to make sure they are correct and complete. Citation styles are of various types so you must pay close attention to them.
7. Check One Error at a Time
During proofreading, you must focus on one type of error at a time. For this, you can start with grammar, then move ahead and focus on other errors such as typos, punctuation, and so on. Thus, you will not be burdened and mistakes will be easier to spot. Therefore, instead of figuring out all the errors at once, you must focus on one area at a time to ensure that your essay is just perfect.
8. Do Not Completely Rely on Grammar Tools
Grammar and other spelling tools available on the internet are beneficial, but you cannot rely on them. You can start by using them to find out the main mistakes but you must also read the essay to check if all the corrections are required and if there are no other mistakes that have been missed. As it seems common these tools may miss some errors or sometimes suggest unnecessary changes, that could affect the quality.
9. Read Everything Slowly
Concerning proofreading, patience is your key and you need to understand it is important to be patient. Therefore you should slow down and read your essay carefully. You might find it boring to re-read what you have written, but it is a vital step to ensure that it is flawless. Reading slowly allows you to catch mistakes you would not be able to find by just looking at the text without reading with attention. When you read, there are many errors such as missing words or the use of wrong phrases and punctuation marks that you get to notice, which is not possible by simply looking at the text.
10. Check the Assignment Guidelines
Before you finally submit your essay to the university, you should review the assignment guidelines provided by your teacher or professor. These guidelines ensure you meet all your requirements, including formatting and other important details. Missing minor detail can cost you a lot of marks so you must always ensure that your essay follows the required format. This includes checking many things such as the font size, margins, line spacing, and any heading or title page specifications. You must also remember to check the word count or page length to be sure you obey the limit mentioned by your university.