Steps in writing the essay: Editing and Proofreading.
“Writing is rewriting” D. Murray
Behind well-chosen words and cohesive structure of every elegant essay there are hours of conscientious and thoughtful editing. Editing is what differs good from poor writing and transforms a good essay into an excellent one.
Editing helps you to have a fresh and objective look at your essay and do away with its weak points.
Editing is a careful process of going through your essay paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, word by word.
Proofreading and editing can seem an undertaking but if properly-organized they will turn out to be a simple task.
Take a break between writing and proofreading. You should have a clear mind and enough time to do a quality editing of your draft.
Follow these ten steps to conduct an effective editing:
1. Start editing your essay with the spellchecker and grammar checker option on your computer.
2. The next stage aims to check on the content of your writing. Print out the copy of your essay and edit it manually. Read the thesis and see if it:
is clear and easy to grasp?
reflects the content of the essay? If not, rewrite it.
3. Then go on to editing the introduction. Make sure that it is concise and adequately developed. It should be not just a statement of your intentions and opinion.
4. Check if each paragraph contains relevant information and is free of meaningless sentences. There should be transition sentences linking the paragraphs. Otherwise your writing will look jerky without a clear transition from one point into the next.
Try reading backwards, a sentence at a time. You will be able to focus on the sentences, rather than on the content of your essay. Refine your sentences and make them smooth and clear. Get rid of too long sentences. Pay attention to the rhythm of your writing: vary sentence lengths and patterns.
5. The conclusion is the last thing the professors read and the first thing they remember. So make sure it is consistent with the structure of the essay and refers to the thesis statement.
6. Once you have edited the content of your essay, manually check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, as computer checkers sometimes cannot guarantee the absence of errors in your writing. Proofread for one type of error at a time. If commas are your weak point, look through your paper checking only that problem. Then proofread again for the next most frequent problem.
Be especially attentive when checking your references. Make sure all the cited and paraphrased material is properly referenced.
7. Read your essay aloud. It will help you to see the difference between what you intended to write and what you actually wrote.
8. Ask somebody to read through your paper and offer suggestions for polishing it.
9. Use a word processor to perform one last spell and grammar check. If time permits, read through it once more before submitting it.
Steps in writing the essay: Editing and Proofreading.