essay editing exercises

essay editing exercises

The Importance of Essay Editing

1. Introduction

Why is an essay so disturbing? We understand why, but the thought of putting the process into a disciplined form usually proves too complex and difficult. Such annoyance is common, specifically in the early stages of writing, and this negative attitude usually stems from the belief that writing an essay is just a formality – that it has to be done, regardless of the quality. This is far from the case. Writing an essay is not simply an amassing of knowledge, a simplification of existing information, or a rearranging of facts – it is a creative process with the goal of exploring and expanding upon existing knowledge. The feeling that no one will ever read the essay often results in a lack of zeal in the writing flow. An objective to “just get it over with” is very strong and the belief that the sooner it is done, the sooner it can be forgotten is a recurrent theme. This leads to a lack of thought and a general sense of being bored with the topic. This is not to say that the essay must be world-changing or incredibly interesting, but it should be well articulated and demonstrate a good knowledge of the subject. A rushed essay, or one that is sloppily written, does not demonstrate an adequate comprehension of the subject, and will usually result in a grade that reflects the same. Step one then is to change the perspective of the essay. An essay, regardless of subject matter, is not a statement of fact. It is an analysis and interpretation. The writer is attempting to communicate to the reader a set of ideas, and through that, an understanding of a given topic.

2. Common Mistakes to Avoid

The following are errors frequently made by students attempting to write A-grade essays: Over-use of descriptive passages – More than a few students who have a keen eye for detail overuse descriptive passages to the detriment of analysis. A few well-chosen vivid details can make a vivid impression but you can convey with a dozen words what might take a paragraph to describe. Consider the following passage: ‘A red jeep charged up the hill at high speed’ effectively gets the same message across as ‘A very fast mode of transport moved upwards via an incline as the dust and small stones on the ground were displaced by its motion’. If you are still having trouble getting rid of what obviously your English teacher marked as good descriptions, write these sentences at the top of the page: ANALYSIS?? What does it tell the reader???? Another common problem in essays, especially by those who use their gut feelings to choose what sounds grammatically correct, is the incorrect use of the word ‘which’ and ‘that’. ‘Which’ is a non-restrictive relative pronoun and takes a comma before the clause it introduces. ‘That’ is restrictive and should not be preceded by a comma. This is best explained with examples: The jeep, which was red, charged up the hill at high speed. This sentence implies that it was the only jeep and it was red that caused it to charge forth. The first clause is non-restrictive and therefore ‘which’ is correct. The jeep that was red charged up the hill at high speed. This sentence implies that there were jeeps of other colours which took no action and that for some reason the redness of this particular jeep was a factor in causing it to charge. The mistaking of the meaning of the two words lead to the error seen in common speech and on the email in the recent must consume up stuck with broadband advertisement.

3. Techniques for Effective Essay Editing

– If your essay is still in the descriptive or narrative form, you might need to make more of a clear statement about your thesis, or what you want to prove. – Make sure the thesis is clear, and that each paragraph after the thesis clearly proves the thesis. – Make sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence and a conclusion sentence that logically supports the thesis. – Check that you have transition sentences between paragraphs, that help flow the essay together. – Check the beginning to make sure you clearly defined both the topic and the audience, and that you succinctly state the purpose of the essay. – Check to make sure the conclusion matches the introduction, in that you are answering any questions posed, and reiterating the importance of the essay.

Checking the overall structure of your essay, starting with your thesis, followed by your topic sentences, and ending with a conclusion, is definitely a good strategy for editing your essay. Here are some points to consider while you are checking the overall structure of your essay:

4. The Benefits of Professional Editing

General Proofreading: A quick overview of proofreading – Proofreading is an important task in writing. It is the final step. It involves checking a written document for errors, typically errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. However, this is the last step in the writing process. Often proofreading is not done as thoroughly as it could be. This is as a result of the writer spending so much time on the actual writing of the document, and often writing is done at the last minute, with little time left for going over the document. This makes it difficult to find errors in the writing. Proofreading is important because there are often some errors in documents that cannot be found by using “spell and grammar check” functions which are found in programs such as Microsoft Word. This has become relied upon by many writers and proves to be a bad habit. These functions do not always find every error and they can often make suggestions that are irrelevant to the writing. The only reliable way to check writing is by carefully reading the document from start to finish, and this is what proofreading involves.

5. Conclusion

In academic life, writing an essay is a common task. Whether you are in high school or university, you will need to write essays. In high school, the essays were about a general experience or what they learned during their time in elementary school. In college or university, essays will be more complicated and technical. Usually, the writer will be required to write an essay based on their own research. It is a requirement in the essay. An essay that already exists could have been more perfect if you can hire an expert to fix it. Because it is rare, people directly give their works without revision or correction. Usually, because people think there might be no significant errors and nothing to be changed. In fact, no human is 100% correct. Being perfect is a process, and so are essays. Does an essay need to be rechecked? Actually, checking the essays we have made and finding the errors or possible changes can be called essay editing. This activity is usually carried out by someone else. Someone who is editing the essay should not be the writer himself. Because he has to make an assessment of the existing essays without being affected by the author. Typically, an editor is paid to do this. But you can also use some of the editing services available on the internet today. The importance of essay editing is to get a better essay quality. Also, it can avoid the writer from any mistakes in the essay he made and make the essay more suitable and acceptable for a particular purpose. High-quality essays would be everyone’s want. It can make your essay differ from the others because the content is qualified and has no errors. But sometimes you have used your best effort to make an essay with no mistakes, but you still get a bad grade. Have you ever experienced it? This can happen because there is something less from your essay. A small mistake that you do not realize can affect the assessment of the essay. And the mistake might not be related to the core content of the essay but in the language or writing. This is what should be addressed by essay editing, checking the language and also the consistency of the essay writing. An editor can read the existing essay and identify the errors and the possibility of better words that fit in a sentence. Usually, people, including the writers, often do not realize the mistakes they have made. An editor will give an assessment to the author. He will tell and show the error that has to be fixed and the reason so the writer can understand it. He will not just fix the error but also consider the writer’s ideas and purpose of the essay. Essay editing is also important to avoid the writer from any mistakes. Have you ever heard the famous word “Two heads are better than one”? It is common and seems true. If the writer is just using his own capabilities without involving others, he could have made a fatal mistake. By involving an editor to fix the essay, the possibility of any error can be reduced. The editor will consider the existing essay with the general rules of the correct language or even the editor would do a little research for the possibility of a better sentence. And the result is, the essay is more acceptable. Error-free essays and language consistency will provide great results too. People may judge from the writing before assessing the content. With quality language and consistency, anyone reading it would feel comfortable, and in their hearts, they will provide a good assessment. It is not impossible if the essay was originally intended only for the assignment, but it can be published and can be useful for many people. This may be a “miracle” because the writer never thought they could make something useful by just writing an essay, and it all starts from the step of choosing the right words and no errors.