Introduction
Are you a college student working on your essay editing? If
yes, it means you have completed the most challenging part of your essay, i.e.,
writing. With the completion of this part, know that the trickiest part of the essay
is going to start, i.e., editing. Editing is the most difficult task in essay
writing. It is because no one wants to read an essay that he has written after
spending days and nights. Also, many students do not want to highlight their
own mistakes. All in all, students face some difficulty in essay
editing. It is why today’s article is all about things you must know about
essay editing. There will be mention of 10 top tips for you. So, let’s get
started.
What are the 10 things students must know
about essay editing?
From the discussion above, you know that editing an essay is
a hard nut to crack. Therefore, students need some kind of guidance in this
matter. Hence, a brief description of the 10 things they must keep in mind while
editing is as follows:
Start from the structure
The structure is the main thing of an essay. Commonly, the
structure of an essay includes an introduction, body, and conclusion. So, you
must start essay editing by ensuring the proper structure.
Trim the long sentences
Whether you have achieved your word count or not, trim the
long sentences. Long sentences make the readability difficult. Therefore, you
must cut them back and turn them into simple and smaller ones.
Simplify the language
Using jargon and complex vocabulary does not make you look
like an intellectual. On the other hand, it undermines the quality of your
essay. Therefore, simplify the language wherever necessary.
Watch for repetition
Repeating the ideas and facts in an essay is considered a
bad point. You must look for these things in the editing phase and make sure
that there is no repetition of anything.
Do the spellcheck
Students often make spelling mistakes in their essays. In
the editing phase, they take help from the spelling checker tool. The important
thing here is that you should not rely on such tools.
Spot typos
Doing typos is the most common mistake that students make.
Therefore, they need to spot and correct them by reading through the whole
essay. As suggested by many good writers, the best practice to spot typos is to
read backward.
Remove tautologies
A tautology is the use of two words whose meanings are the
same. For example, “a big giant.” The word big and giant has the same meaning.
Therefore, you must avoid such things.
Watch the commas
Punctuation errors are the most common errors that many
students make. They do not know where to put the comma or the semicolon. So,
you must watch out for these mistakes.
Consistent spelling
Some words have different spelling in different countries.
For example, in the UK it is color, and in the USA it is color. Make sure that
you have used consistent spelling in your essay.
Consistent formatting
The formatting of the document must also be consistent. It
means that the header and footer must run in the same style throughout the
essay.
Conclusion
Essay editing is an arduous job to do but is imperative for a top-class essay. Students who neglect this phase and submit their essays without proper editing pay in the form of bad grades. However, the 10 things mentioned above can help you a lot in essay editing. You must consider them when editing your essay.