Congratulations! You’ve finally completed your essay. However, just before you click the submit button, you’ve got to do something extremely important. You need to edit your essay so that it can be easy for your professor to read and understand its main purpose. Of course, this process can be challenging. However, not to worry because we put together this article to guide you on this important stage in the writing process. The tips you will learn are easy to use and will help you write the perfect essay in no time!
At the end of this article, you should:
- Understand the importance of editing your essay.
- Know how to edit your essay to improve its overall flow.
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Why Should you Edit an Essay?
If you have ever written an essay, you’ll realize that editing your essay is typically the last phase of your writing process. Yet, this phase plays a critical role in helping you create a perfect essay. Here are 4 reasons you should pay close attention to editing your essay.
- It helps to make your essay clear and easier to read.
- Editing ensures that your essay is free from errors.
- Editing ensures you write your essay in the appropriate formatting style.
- It improves the overall quality of your essay.
Here are 6 quick tips to help you edit and improve the quality of your academic writing.
6 Simple Essay Editing Ideas to Improve your Essay’s Quality.
Are you ready to transform your draft into an outstanding paper? Incorporate these effective ideas into your writing process and watch your essay improve tremendously!
Ensure your Format Structure is Right
A structure is the roadmap of an essay that helps you organize and align every piece of information in your essay to your thesis statement. In addition, a structure aims to provide clarity and a logical flow to your paper, making it easy for your readers to understand the purpose of your work.
Before writing a word in your draft, it’s best to create a format (structure) for your essay. As an editor working on your essay, go through your entire essay to ensure that you’ve got the right format. The questions below will help you polish your essay’s format and elevate your essay’s quality.
- Does your essay have an introductory paragraph, a body paragraph and a conclusion paragraph?
- Does your introductory paragraph clearly state your thesis statement (chief argument) of your essay?
- Is there a transition from the introductory paragraph to the body paragraphs?
- Do your body paragraphs include more data to support your thesis statement?
- Is there a transition from the body paragraphs to the concluding paragraph?
- Does your concluding paragraph summarize your essay and restate its main points?
- Did you write your paragraphs logically?
- Did you cite your sources of information appropriately?
Use these questions as a checklist to improve your paper’s structure.
Read your Draft Aloud.
Many professional writers and editors attest to the fact that when you read through your essay, you can easily catch errors and inconsistencies. When you read your draft aloud, you are essentially examining your work from a fresh perspective. If you can, print out your essay and read it on a printed paper. While you’re reading, pay particular attention to words and sentences that you stumble over. Look out for ways to reword those sentences in order to improve the readability of your essay. Reading out aloud helps you discover sentences that are poorly structured and words that are overused.
Avoid Repetition of Unnecessary Words.
Repeating words in an essay can have a mind numbing effect on your readers. As a result, eliminate words that have been repeated severally in your essay. A great way to reduce repetition is by:
- Using different connecting words in your essay.
- Rewording your sentences. A thesaurus can help you with a wide range of word choices.
- Incorporating long, medium and short sentences in your essay.
Reduce Overly Long Sentences and Paragraphs.
A great paper should have a right blend of short, medium and long sentences. If you’ve written your essay with a lot of long sentences and paragraphs, consider breaking them into medium and short sentences. Short sentences improve your essay’s readability.
In addition, if you’ve used a lot of long paragraphs in your essay, consider using smaller paragraphs instead. You can explain each point per paragraph. This makes it easier for you to convey your arguments explicitly to your readers.
Do not Completely Rely on Spellcheck Software.
You can use an editing software to help you become a better writer/editor. There are many good editing programs available, such as ProWritingAid, Grammarly, etc. Spellcheck softwares are beneficial, but they won’t write your essay for you. Unfortunately, many students often totally depend on these softwares. Before accepting the suggestions of your editing software, ensure that the suggestion is perfectly suited for your paper.
Get rid of all Typos, Spelling mistakes and Syntax errors.
Spelling and grammar errors are quite common when writing. However, it is better to finish writing your essay before checking for misspellings, typographical errors, punctuation mistakes and grammar mistakes. This is because checking for mistakes can disrupt your flow of thought when writing. With this in mind, the final step in essay editing is to proofread your final draft.
In order to proofread, try reading your final draft to spot errors. As you read, highlight these errors and correct them immediately.
Furtheremore, if you’ve got a writing center in your institution, try to visit the center to get additional help. Always remember that effective editing is a continuous process that shouldn’t stop until you submit your “perfect” essay.
Are you ready to improve the quality of your essay? Which of these tips would you try out right away? Please let me know in the comment section.
It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to edit an essay, depending on the length of the essay and the amount of editing required.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to avoid plagiarism in an essay will vary depending on the essay’s topic and the resources used. However, some tips to avoid plagiarism in essays include using citations and quotations, paraphrasing and summarizing information, and using original research.
1. Read your essay aloud to yourself. This will help you to catch any errors or awkward phrasing. 2. Use a grammar checker. This can help you to identify and correct any errors in your essay. 3. Have someone else read your essay. Another set of eyes can often catch errors that you may have missed. 4. Take your time. Don’t try to rush through the editing process. It’s important to take the time to ensure that your essay is as good as it can be.
