essay editing symbols

essay editing symbols

The Importance of Essay Editing Symbols

1. Introduction

The written word is one of the most important tools of the legal profession. Words are all lawyers have to persuade, to dissuade, to advocate, to analyze, to orate. This is why good legal writing is so important. At its core, good legal writing is clear, concise, well-organized and well-thought out. But the writing does not have to be Shakespearean to be good. Using plain English and legal jargon that is familiar to the intended audience is a fine alternative to linguistic flourishes and $5 words. But once the core elements of good writing are understood, an often overlooked necessity to good writing in all its forms reveals itself in the necessity of good editing. Good editing essentially means clearing away the clutter. It is the fine tuning of writing that helps communicators achieve their purpose and it is an obligation all writers owe to their readers. But it is not an easy obligation to fulfill. Editing feels like a task best left for a proofreader with fresh eyes and an open schedule. But self-editing is something that must come first in the writing process. The purpose in self-editing is to make one’s writing as reader-friendly as possible and there are many strategies that can help legal writers achieve this task.

2. Understanding Essay Editing Symbols

Understanding editing symbols in your writing helps you to make necessary corrections in the content more effectively. You should understand the usage as well as the impact of the symbols in rectifying the errors, to use them at their potential. At times, teachers do not advise using editing symbols and let the children edit without following any rules. However, this is not productive and it is necessary for the children to develop their rules as to which the corrections can be made. Symbols are being used differently by different teachers. Therefore it is advisable to have a list of symbols, writing out their meaning for reference, to ensure the effectiveness of the corrections to be made. If you have submitted the work for correction by a teacher and it is returned to you with many different corrections, you can rewrite your work. Then give both copies to a friend who can compare them to see whether any corrections are visible. This process is good if you want to improve further but may slow down present progress; therefore you must decide according to your purpose. Some symbols are more straightforward, for example an ‘sp’ to circled to represent a spelling error and / to represent a new paragraph. Using the delete key on the keyboard with the ^ symbol is commonly used by teachers. This is effective to show some typed letters should to be deleted and the letters after the ^ inserted in their place. Some symbols may be used to represent more than one type of error, such as the close space which may be used to show either incorrect spacing between words or a single space where a comma is needed. Other symbols commonly used include the standard correction symbols used in professional writing, such as CS for a comma splice and frag for a sentence fragment. You should be aware of these standard correction symbols for their general usage in other forms of work beyond your own academic writing.

3. Benefits of Using Essay Editing Symbols

Seeking the assistance of editing symbols while reviewing your paper instantaneously increases your chances of receiving a higher grade. There are a multitude of symbols that students could potentially use (dependent upon teacher’s preference), below are just a few examples of what you might find on your paper. One of the most common errors found in essays is a comma splice. A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are linked by a comma. To correct a comma splice, you could insert a period and make the two clauses separate sentences. Another possible correction would be to insert a semicolon in place of the comma. Subject and verb agreement errors are also common in writing good papers. To correct these errors, the subject and verb must be identified in the sentence, and it must be known that both the subject and verb are the same in person and number. If they are not, you must write out the correct combination of subject and verb. Failure to do either of these steps will result in repeating the same mistake. This is a complex procedure to correct, but it is a very easy error to find using the V+ S/V agreement symbol. More often than not, verb tense is mixed up in a paper altering the sequence of events or ideas. This error is usually found and corrected through understanding the context of the essay, therefore this error may be difficult to locate at times. Diction errors are also very common in student papers. Diction to many students involves choosing between the usage of four-letter words, this is a deeply ingrained cultural meaning, but diction actually refers to the mode of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker or a writer. Often times, a student is unaware that poor word choice is detracting from the meaning of their sentence. This is a difficult error to identify without explanation because many students will have a predisposition to thinking diction only refers to curse words, and is an error that may still go uncorrected even with explanation. Clarity and understanding is the ultimate goal when using essay editing symbols to review a paper.

4. Commonly Used Essay Editing Symbols

Add (This symbol is related to the instruction in some way.) – This is a general indicator to you, as a writer, that something is wrong or there is a suggested change in the grammar. You need to go through the sentence and see if you can figure how best to use the word “add” to make the sentence correct. awk – “The expression to avoid is colloquial, old-fashioned, or otherwise inappropriate” (the abbreviation means awkward). frag – The abbreviation or verb “heavy” fragment refers to a ‘sentence’ which is not ‘whole’ because it is a fragment; it is a piece of a sentence trying to be something else. See the fragments page for a discussion of fragments. not clear – You have not strung words together in such a way that your reader can understand. This usually comes from not putting the word you are thinking of at the other end of the pencil, in your haste. Read the sentence aloud and cross out words until it is clear in your mind where you should start using different words (or write it over). Note: This mark is commonly overused by dyslexic students; sometimes you will have to face the fact that you do not have the words because you do not fully understand a topic.

5. Conclusion

Symbols have one of the essential influences in an article. Utilizing editor’s symbols, an editor can without much of a stretch give explanation and give the solutions to be carried out in an extremely powerful way with generally short explanations. This is ordinarily better than needing to note at length straightforwardly on the learners’ articles. In utilizing symbols, the editor must know the meaning to avert misunderstanding and settle on the choices for the proofs. In scholarly editing practice, the editor will utilize a more modest arrangement of editing marks that are normally particular to the profession.

It is of the most extreme significance to edit and amend the articles before presenting it. This is so on the grounds that when you edit an article, you can see a greater number of mistakes than when you did. Fixing and amending the articles on the paper have the capacity to see the mistakes and to re-try the words with the right one that you think will make the article look enhanced. When you attempt to edit someone else’s article, you can study and get another statement of grammar, sentence structure, and some new sayings. This can increase the value of both the essayist and yourself.