Writing an essay is one of the main ways to test how a college student can express his thoughts in a structured and logical way, and showcase the mastery of the subject. Even though tutors advise mandatory editing and proofreading of essays, many students submit their works right away after finishing. However, such an attitude towards writing an essay is a marker of negligence, and not of the author’s honesty and sincerity.
Editing and proofreading are two essential processes showing that you can use written language skills to share your take on a particular topic coherently, concisely, and clearly. And if you are not confident in your editing skills, it’s better to ask for the help of college essay editing services. They can professionally polish and structure your text, and eliminate errors and incoherence.
What to Choose – Editing or Proofreading?
Picking a service of writing help doesn’t confuse editing with proofreading. Sometimes college students suppose that people use these words interchangeably. However, these are two completely different processes for working with text.
Editing boosts the overall quality of the text by eliminating sentence construction problems and improving the readability, clarity, and tone of the essay. Choose this service, if are looking for:
- the overall structure and content revising;
- checking the quality of findings and analysis;
- enhancing the language;
- expressing your thoughts clearly and compellingly.
With the help of proofreading, the editor finds typos and reveals all textual and numerical inconsistencies, as well as errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Pick proofreading as a last stage of editing, if you:
- have already edited your college essay and need to make final corrections before submission;
- are confident in the quality of the text and you only need a superficial grammar check to correct typos, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Step-by-step Guide to Edit Your College Essay
Step 1. Outline the essay requirements.
Prepare a check-list with the instructor’s requirements on the essay, for example:
- did you follow the required essay structure?
- do not need to break the body of the essay into parts?
- is the main thesis statement clear?
- is the content arranged in a logical sequence?
- have you reached the word limit?
Step 2. Evaluate the general picture of the essay after a break.
Once you’ve made sure your essay meets the requirements, step back and take a break to get back to work with a fresh perspective. Skim through the essay to find anything you can catch in a few minutes: an inappropriate title, a typo, a missing argument, an unfinished sentence, or whatever.
Step 3. Сheck each paragraph for compliance with the thesis.
Keep the main idea of the essay on hand so you can see redundancy and repetition, as well as misplaced passages or something left out.
Step 4. Read your essay the bottom up.
In a quality essay, the conclusion and thesis are consistent, so it will read well from both sides. In addition, backward reading will allow you to switch attention to unnoticed mistakes.
