Polishing Your Essay Writing Skills: How to Edit Your Own Writing
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009When writing an essay we are liable to make errors, some mistakes can be easily traced with a second reading while there are others which become difficult to recognize. Availing for the editing services offered by custom writing companies is always a better option if you want an assignment edited in a given deadline but this must not stop you from learning the skill of editing your own writing which comes handy at most writing tasks like writing an exam essay.
Most writing assignments like writing an thesis or a Masters Dissertation allows you to make extensive revisions. This opportunity should never be missed or taken for granted. No matter how impressed you are with your original draft you cannot consider it as your final until you have completely checked it for errors, typos and other grammatical, stylistic mistakes.
How to Revise your Original Draft.
1. View from a fresh Perspective: If time allows, put your original draft away for a few days. The more time you leave it untouched the better. When you return to it, you will be able to read the text from a fresh perspective and hence more easily spot its weaknesses.
2. Have you made all the necessary points: Match your essay with the essay outline you prepared before venturing into writing. Have you mentioned all the points that are there in the outline? Read the essay in the light of the essay title or thesis statement. Does it clearly states and elaborates on the title? If your essay diverts from its purpose or message, make necessary adjustments to it.
3. Recheck Figures and Quotations: It is essential to have all your figures and quotations correct and in the right format. Make certain that thebquotations are used verbatim and any changes therein are italicised and noted. Also, you must reperent the ideas of others person fairly giving due credit to them.
4.. Check for Consistency and Balance: Are all your points consistent and logically correct? When elaborating or commenting on an issue make sure you have not used a similar argument twice, in a different wording. Make sure you have incorporated all the features and elaborated on them with equal importance. If you are writing an analytical essay, check whether the argument you made in support your thesis weighs over other points. Have you ordered the various points made within the section and essay as a whole methodically? You may try out sentence restructuring to make your essay logically consistent and balanced.
4 Word Usage and Style: Look at your words. Have you used the right word in the right context? Is there any other word that could have been a better suited to the tone of writing or the context? Is your style pitched at the appropriate level of difficulty for the intended reader?
5 Check your sentences: When writing we tend to mix a number of sentences in one sentence which makes it difficult and complex. Check your sentences for length, sentence structure and ambiguity.
The best way to final check your essay writing is to have the pleasure of communicating all your ideas in the best possible format. If you feel that your points are not well communicated or represented you must recheck and edit your work.
