prompt essay editing

prompt essay editing

The Importance of Essay Editing

1. Introduction

As the old age says, a book can’t be judged by its cover. This maxim also applies to a student’s academic writing. A well-written piece of work is nothing if it’s filled with trivial errors; its meaning will not be well conveyed. For many recipients, mistakes in form or language not only reduce the strength of the argument, but also damage the credibility of the author. The readers will think that the author is less competent than he/she actually is. Nevertheless, credibility is crucial when someone tries to persuade or inform their readers. A student, in particular, will suffer from a lowering of their self-esteem and attitude to keep progressing in the academic world. These are the reasons why editing an essay is important. Now let’s look at how editing can be applied as a solution to the above-mentioned problems. In terms of understanding mistakes, it means to increase knowledge about the language itself. Badly phrased sentences and awkward language are thrown around in many students’ work; these students need to know what the better alternatives are to what they currently write. By paying close attention to an edited piece of work, the student can begin to understand the correct use of a term or a phrase, as well as how it fits in with the rest of the sentence. Knowledge can also be gained about the mistakes themselves. A particular point of interest lies in the recurring mistakes made by the student. By identifying these mistakes from an edited piece of work, the student can begin to understand the root of the mistake and prevent it from happening in future writing. This process allows the student to slowly eliminate small errors made in the past.

2. Benefits of Essay Editing

In stating this, there are some who may need to seek guidance when it comes to writing well. Abroad students, for example, who may have English as a second language, will be required to write essays that vary greatly between humanities and science. As they complete written assignments, there will be language and idiom inconsistencies. People such as these would definitely have a need for essay editing. An idiomatic example of this would be an undergraduate student who has been assigned to interpret a piece of classical music. In understanding the ideas of the music and the times in which it was composed, the student must reflect this knowledge in the interpretive writing. Both the music and ideas will be complex, and the writing may be difficult to understand. By editing the interpretive essay, the student will be able to understand if they have correctly interpreted and conveyed the idea of the music and thus improve the writing as well as the understanding.

When it comes to essay writing, not everyone has an inherent talent for it. People learn to write and to write well. Writing well is something that is learned over time, and the more it is practiced, the more the individual will improve. This is where essay editing and proofreading becomes necessary. As a writer learns to construct clear and concise sentences and paragraphs, they will usually become aware of the problems that impede the flow of writing. By examining each problem individually, they should be able to improve the writing as a whole and learn to construct good writing thoughts and ideas. It is easy to see that the ability to edit an essay well is an invaluable skill that can carry great academic weight.

A significant part of essay editing is the ability to understand the benefits that editing can deliver. For every writer, it is important to put in writing ideas and topics that are potentially unclear, difficult, or complicated to the reader. The more an individual writes, the more they will understand their writing. This is where the benefit of essay editing lies because, rather than understanding the writing, writers will usually understand their ideas. If the writer has a better understanding of their ideas, and they understand something that is difficult or confusing, it is less likely that the reader will misinterpret the presented information.

3. Common Mistakes to Avoid

– Over editing. So you’ve finished your essay and you think it’s great. Then you have your English teacher look at it. And then your neighbour’s uncle who is a doctor. And maybe you sent it to that guy you met on the Internet who’s a writer. Taking input is excellent and in fact it’s often essential, but remember to keep your voice in the essay. The best essays allow the author’s character and personality to show, and if you repeatedly go through numerous iterations, you’ll find there’s no character left. Keep in mind the advice of others, but don’t sacrifice your point of view in the process. Oh, and don’t get too many inputs; you could end up with so many ideas from everyone that you won’t know what to write. If you can find a teacher at school to help you, then it’s probably best to leave it at that. And don’t ask the writer from the Internet. He may be a little crazy. And always watch out for spelling and grammatical errors! A clean essay speaks volumes.

– Failing to answer the prompt. The number of essays we have received that do not fit the question. It’s quite alright if your essay addresses a major issue with global implications, but it is not healthy for your application to attempt to encompass global and national issues in all cases, so make sure you’ve actually answered the question! This also includes sticking to the word limit. If it’s not feasible to do your essay it may be better to scrap it and start again. Failure to follow the rules is quite unbecoming of an aspiring college student, and it will not go unnoticed by the people who decide whether you get in.

– Choosing a topic for the wrong reasons. This is one of the most crucial steps in creating your essay. If you pick a topic just because you thought it was what the reader wants to hear, you’ll end up sounding unoriginal and disingenuous. Writing about a weighty experience can be very effective, but it’s OK if the experience was small, as long as it had an impact on you. Nor is the presence of a lesson the essential factor, as some of the best essays have come from a mundane experience, but the expression of the impact is key. Focusing on a specific topic often gives you a more concise essay, which will be a more compelling read.

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing application essays. Avoid these and you’ll be more likely to create a meaningful and effective piece of writing.

4. Tips for Effective Essay Editing

Differentiate between editing and proofreading. Editing is a thorough process in which you will often be making changes and modifications to the content of your essay. It is often a good idea to make these modifications on a copy of your initial draft so that you will have a record of any changes that you have made. If you end up making changes on your computer then be sure to save any previous draft of your essay to prevent irreversible loss. Seeking input from your reader or a friend can often be an effective method of editing as it will provide you with direct feedback. Proofreading is generally superficial in nature and should be done only after you are satisfied with the content and overall structure of your essay. This final step can occur on a printout of your essay or on a computer screen and involves checking the essay as a whole for any types of errors.

Get the computer to interpret it. A powerful way to re-examine is to read your initial draft and then read it aloud to yourself verse by verse. Reading aloud forces you to read each verse and can often make it easier to pinpoint both minor and major errors. Additionally, by reading aloud you are more likely to find errors in sentence structure and length as you will hear specific hotspots.

Be experts considering the observer. Reconsider your essay, saying the reader can apprehend and understand what you have written. If your best friend is a grammatically conversant individual who enjoys reading, then any errors can be more readily and eagerly identified. If you have written for a specialized audience (e.g. members of a philosophical society), then try using terms and concepts that can be commonly understood by the reader. This will create an environment where any grammatical errors can be easily verified. For those of you who don’t have a friend who enjoys reading your essay, try recording yourself as you re-examine and using this as a way of identifying errors.

5. Conclusion

Check for the organization of the essay. Is there a clear and concise thesis statement? Does each paragraph offer compelling evidence on the thesis and lead to the next paragraph? Often during the writing process, it’s easy to lose track of what the paper’s purpose is, so taking a moment to reaffirm the thesis can be a very useful way to refocus the direction of the essay. Next, evaluate each paragraph in relation to how well it supports the thesis and how effectively it connects to the next paragraph. By doing this, the writer will be able to identify whether or not the paper is progressing in a logical sequence from one idea to the next.

The essay editing process is not always a hassle, it can actually be a very gratifying experience. As writers review their essay, it’s often difficult to spot small mistakes as they are less likely to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. An editing checklist would be the perfect tool with which to simplify the complex and often overwhelming process of editing an essay. With a finite amount of time to work on a paper, the constraint becomes not overlooking an error. After completing the list, the writer may want to post it somewhere visible such as near the computer or on the top of the paper so as to continue to remind them of its overarching goals as they edit.