One of the most common mistakes made by students is the lack of knowledge on how to proofread their essay, after they have finished. This often leads to essays being submitted with grammatical and spelling errors, or serious faults in their argument. A lot of marks can be lost on errors that could easily be spotted and changed before handing in, and that can mean the difference between a pass and a fail. Below, I have identified the best ways to proofread your essay, so you can be sure that you'll achieve the marks you deserve.
1. Distance yourself from your own writing before you proofread your paper. You will need to ensure that your head isn't full of the information that you have just been writing about, so you should wait some time from finishing the writing of your essay to begin proofreading. You will want to make sure that you do a thorough job on the document so you should choose a time of day when you are able to concentrate on the document and have minimal distractions around. This will make it a lot easier to ensure your essay is much better for submission.
2. Some people find it beneficial to read backwards through their essay paper, as this allows them to concentrate on the individual words and sentences to make sure that they are able to spot the smallest mistakes. You want to be able to spot these smaller mistakes as they are the ones that you may not notice when you read through your paper. You may also find it beneficial to place a ruler under the sentence that you are wanting to read, as many writers find this helpful to keep track of where they are.
3. You should use your own spellchecker. If you are using a word processor for your academic essays and typing up your essays, then you should consider closely checking that all words are spelt correctly. If you simply leave the program to check over all of your spellings, then you may end up with correctly spelled words, but some with a different meaning than you wanted.
4. Ask for help. If you're a little unsure of where to place an apostrophe, then you should consider asking a friend who does. Making sure of this, as well as all of your references being correctly displayed will be crucial. These simple mistakes only take a couple of minutes to correct, yet could cost you a lot when you submit.
5. Look back through work you've already completed, and spot your common errors. Asking your tutor may also help. Make a list of the errors you make repeatedly, and read through your essay backwards again for each one, correcting them as you go.
6. Read your essay aloud. Reading through your essay and vocalizing the tone and direction of your work will allow you to understand if there are any parts of your work that you need to develop and if it all makes sense.
7. Give your essay to a flatmate or parent to read. Ask them if it makes sense, and to point out any confusing sentences or mistakes that they spot. Other people can usually spot mistakes a lot easier than we can ourselves, and can be more critical of the essay itself.
8. Read through your paper again. After you have done all of the above, read through the paper again, once for spelling, once for punctuation, and once to check each paragraph makes sense, and links to the one before and after.
Once you have made all of these checks and proofread your essay, then it should be perfectly written and ready to hand in. The whole process shouldn't have taken more than two hours, and will ensure that you wont be losing out on marks due to silly mistakes.
When you become used to making these checks, you will become faster at doing them, and your writing grades will improve rapidly because of the higher quality of written material you will be submitting.
1. Distance yourself from your own writing before you proofread your paper. You will need to ensure that your head isn't full of the information that you have just been writing about, so you should wait some time from finishing the writing of your essay to begin proofreading. You will want to make sure that you do a thorough job on the document so you should choose a time of day when you are able to concentrate on the document and have minimal distractions around. This will make it a lot easier to ensure your essay is much better for submission.
2. Some people find it beneficial to read backwards through their essay paper, as this allows them to concentrate on the individual words and sentences to make sure that they are able to spot the smallest mistakes. You want to be able to spot these smaller mistakes as they are the ones that you may not notice when you read through your paper. You may also find it beneficial to place a ruler under the sentence that you are wanting to read, as many writers find this helpful to keep track of where they are.
3. You should use your own spellchecker. If you are using a word processor for your academic essays and typing up your essays, then you should consider closely checking that all words are spelt correctly. If you simply leave the program to check over all of your spellings, then you may end up with correctly spelled words, but some with a different meaning than you wanted.
4. Ask for help. If you're a little unsure of where to place an apostrophe, then you should consider asking a friend who does. Making sure of this, as well as all of your references being correctly displayed will be crucial. These simple mistakes only take a couple of minutes to correct, yet could cost you a lot when you submit.
5. Look back through work you've already completed, and spot your common errors. Asking your tutor may also help. Make a list of the errors you make repeatedly, and read through your essay backwards again for each one, correcting them as you go.
6. Read your essay aloud. Reading through your essay and vocalizing the tone and direction of your work will allow you to understand if there are any parts of your work that you need to develop and if it all makes sense.
7. Give your essay to a flatmate or parent to read. Ask them if it makes sense, and to point out any confusing sentences or mistakes that they spot. Other people can usually spot mistakes a lot easier than we can ourselves, and can be more critical of the essay itself.
8. Read through your paper again. After you have done all of the above, read through the paper again, once for spelling, once for punctuation, and once to check each paragraph makes sense, and links to the one before and after.
Once you have made all of these checks and proofread your essay, then it should be perfectly written and ready to hand in. The whole process shouldn't have taken more than two hours, and will ensure that you wont be losing out on marks due to silly mistakes.
When you become used to making these checks, you will become faster at doing them, and your writing grades will improve rapidly because of the higher quality of written material you will be submitting.
About the Author:
After writing your essay, Nick knows how crucial it will be to choose an academic editing professional to make sure your paper has an essay edit and that it is free from mistakes before you submit it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment