Proofreading and editing is an important part of the paper writing process. It is also one that students often neglect, even though it can make a big difference in their grade for the assignment. Proofreading and editing your work helps to make sure that your writing is as clear as possible, and that you don’t have any errors in your paper that might lead the reader to think you haven’t understood the topic properly.
When you are editing and proofreading your paper you should be looking for two main things:
That your main arguments for your paper are clear and well supported
That your writing and grammar are correct, so that the reader can follow your arguments easily.
Checking for Clarity of Argument and Structure
You should proofread your paper in a specific order. Your first concern should be making sure that your points and arguments are clear. At this point you should be reading the essay through as a whole and checking to make sure the overall structure makes sense.
You should ask the following questions as you read:
Do I have a clear thesis statement?
Does my paper have an outline that is obvious to the reader?
Do my arguments and the details support my thesis statement?
Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence?
Are my arguments clear with proper evidence to support them?
Does my conclusion summarize my points to support my thesis?
If you think any of these points are unclear you should go back and rewrite those sections to make sure they are as clear as possible.
Checking for Clarity of Writing
Once you are sure that your structure is good, and your arguments are coming across clearly and are well supported, then you can move on to checking your writing.
Here you should read through your essay carefully to check for the following:
Do I have run-on sentences or sentence fragments?
Do I have comma splices?
Do I have spelling mistakes?
Do I have positives where it should be negative, things like do where it should say don’t?
Have I done my quotations properly?
Have I included all my citations properly?
Do I have a complete bibliography with all my sources listed properly?
Reading through for these kinds of writing errors can be very tiring and you can often get distracted. It is better to read for one kind of error at a time, since this will help you focus on that issue and spot it more easily. You should also plan to take breaks between read throughs to make sure you are seeing it with a fresh set of eyes, since this helps catch more errors.
Enter your email and we'll send you reset instructions
Network
My requests
You don't have any notifications
You have no active requests
Please introduce yourself to proceed
My Uploads
Score:
Embed HTML
Many sites and online services, like Google Maps, suggest HTML code (usually iframes) to embed widgets and content on your page.
You can add such HTML widgets in your quizzes.
Please note:
In case pasted code is not just iframe tag it will be wrapped into HTTPS iframe.
Only HTTPS sources for iframes, styles and javascript links are supported.
Non-HTTPS sources will be blocked by the browser and won't behave properly.
