Writing an essay is not the only thing that one should be concerned about. One should pay extra attention to the editing process as well, to ensure impeccable writing. A clumsy paper with grammatical and other mistakes leads to rejection. Hence, it becomes a necessity to edit an essay paper. Editing gives you an opportunity to pay close attention to the overall structure, the logical flow of an argument and strengthen the argument and turn an average essay into a brilliant one.
However, one might find this process as an exhausting and back-breaking task. Though it is a time consuming process, it is definitely a rewarding task. Hence, never consider submitting your essay without editing it. To simplify this process and make scholars feel better, here we have put together a few simple editing tips that serve the purpose.
A spell check will not pick every single error in your essay. It does highlight few typos and misspellings, but will not tell you if you have inadvertently made use of the wrong word altogether. For example, you wanted to write “from”, but mistyped it as “form”. The spell checker won’t highlight this because “form” is also a word type. Hence, manually go through every single word rather than using the software.
Without even realizing, you might have ended up repeating words or ideas in several paragraphs. Going on about a particular point for too long can subvert the strength of your argument. Editing lets you thoroughly check for the repetitive words, and eliminate them.
Punctuation when placed wrongly, alters the meaning of the sentence completely. Also, too many broken sentences sound odd and the reader has to read the sentence number of times to figure out what exactly you are trying to convey. Make sure you don’t use too many exclamation marks and eclipses.
Sentences provide a framework for clearly expressing your ideas. Before you edit the sentences, understand the differences between phrases and clauses. Inspect key elements of your sentences and make it readable. A varying sentence structure and length can keep the reader engaged. Pay attention to such sentences and polish them.
Do not just look out for academic words. You may think that only academic words play an important role in an essay. But this is just a myth. Closely inspect non-academic words like which, what, when, where etc. Misuse of these words can totally change the meaning of the content.
Content consistency should be maintained throughout your work. Go through each line and ensure there is a logical flow between the sentences and also the contents are consistent. If your University has asked to implement a specific citation style, ensure you have implemented the same.
Follow the aforementioned tips and edit your essay effortlessly. If you are still not confident about the process, consider taking help from adroit editors.