Editing

Proofreading an essay is harder than one thinks, especially if you are proofreading your own essay. You may overlook key mistakes because you wrote it yourself and may not see the errors. Getting someone else to read over your essay, whether it be a fellow classmate or another professor, will help you avoid turning in an essay riddled with tiny mistakes and errors. Here are some tips on how to properly edit an essay:

1.       Read the essay out loud

When we are in the “zone,” we can sometimes lose sight of the big picture. If you read your essay out loud, your ear will pick up on errors that your eyes may miss.

2.       Make sure all of your words and phrase are performing their job of making your argument

Are all the phrases you are using helping you? Are the words you are working into your essay actually assisting you with your paper? Ensure that you are using all the words and phrases you are using properly (it would be embarrassing if you, for example, used the word Irony to describe when a vegetarian activist sneaks off from a protest to eat a hamburger and fries. In that case, a vegetarian eating meat is not ironic, but a hypocrisy)

3.       Don’t be nice with the editing

                 If you overlook the minor errors on a paper because they are so tiny, you are not doing                 yourself any favors. Get mean with your editing, find the small stuff and point it out that it will be changed.


4. Ensure your paragraphs are LONG

A mistake I see a lot these days is not making paragraphs long enough. A paragraph that is 6 sentences long is a decent paragraph. College students should be able to write paragraphs that are least 10-12 sentences long. You can use a quote- two quotes if they are short and sweet- to add some length. But do not use more than one quote that is longer than 3 lines in an essay. Most of the essay should be you writing, not someone else.