Does editing sound tormenting? Well, do not underestimate the importance of reviewing your dissertation. In fact, you should have an inordinate amount of time for proofreading it before the submission. Sometimes you think of taking help from professional editors, but have you ever thought what special editing skills they use that you cannot? Why seek help from professional editors if you can learn these skills?
Review your work as a whole
Edit your dissertation as a whole. Have you developed clear arguments? Are they in accord with your dissertation title? Have you answered appropriately to your research questions? Do not hesitate to change the title if you have shifted your focus during writing. You can get better output if you have someone who does not know about the subject-matter of your dissertation. Ask them whether each term is comprehensible or not.
Edit each section
Read over each section to ensure that all details you mentioned are relevant with your research topic. If you find any paragraph that consists of too much description and not enough analysis, you should fix it by introducing explicit statements, otherwise readers will get discombobulated. Further, look out for information if it does not belong to a particular section and find out if the information might fit in another section. Make sure that the content is not inchoate; you have clearly addressed your research problem.
Edit each paragraph
One paragraph should discuss one idea to maintain consistency throughout your dissertation. The first sentence of each paragraph should clearly introduce a point that you want to discuss and there should be a connection between each paragraph when you move from one to another. Use transitional phrases such as “In addition to,” “Furthermore,” “Moreover,” “In contrast to,” “However,” and the like to maintain the flow and avoid confusion.
Edit each sentence
You may slip up noting minor mistakes such as wrong spellings and punctuation errors while writing a long dissertation. Make sure that you consider these errors while editing. To avoid such mistakes, you should not use extremely long sentences that cover more than three lines. Be careful with homophone errors such as their and there, advice and advise, and so on. Identify the subject in each sentence and make consistency in the voice. Try to frame sentences in active voice and use passive voice when the subject is not important to mention. Make sure the content is not superfluous and verbose.
Dissertation editing is imperative before final submission to your doctoral committee. So be careful with editing and proofreading work to make your dissertation impeccable. However, you are not still confident, you should have it edited by professional editors.