Writing a top-notch college essay is important. Even if you’re not going to major in English, writing an error-free essay is a must for your overall academic progress.
The reality is that this piece represents its author – you. For that reason, you have to produce an accurate document that does not contain any mistakes. The latter tend to distract your readers from the presentation and overall quality of the essay. What is more, you want your target audience to understand the message that you convey. Thus, it is important to ensure the paper reads well.
Read on to get a better idea of how to edit and proofread a college essay to make it shine bright like a diamond.
- Does your essay address the given/chosen topic? It is important to make certain that you are actually addressing the essay prompt. For instance, your essay prompt may be as follows, “Please, tell us what you value the most about your family and why. (350 words)” In this case, you have to address both your personality and your family, rather than writing a generic essay that can fit any personal essay type.
- Is the essay organized well? Your work doesn’t necessarily need to have a standard five-paragraph structure. However, your essay should have a strong logical structure. Does your structure stay on topic? Does it flow well?
Structure checklist:
- Have you met the professor’s requirements on the essay structure? (typically, you should include the intro, the body, and the conclusion).
- Have you included the thesis statement? Is it clear?
- What does the body of the essay is focused on? Should it be broken down into sections?
- How did you sum up the key points in the conclusion?
- Read each paragraph. As you read your essay paragraph by paragraph, ensure to copy and paste your thesis statement on top of each body paragraph and highlight it. Before reading each paragraph, ensure to return to the thesis statement so you can see if the information included in the paragraph is directly related to your thesis and the chosen topic.
The reality is that it’s not easy to keep in mind the question as you write or edit your essay. That is why keeping it at hand will enable you to detect the most problematic parts, like going off-topic or repetitions. Are your second and third paragraphs actually saying the same thing? Do your first and second paragraphs answer the essay question, or do you need to provide more paragraphs to convey your message? Use your thesis statement as a “road map” to stay on track and move confidently towards the concluding part.
- Check the spelling. When you read your essay aloud, you can easily catch misspellings. If you submit an essay that includes misspellings, it will seem quite sloppy. To avoid this, feel free to approach online professionals with a “Please, help me edit my paper cheap” request. Rather than just relying on spell check, ask online editing experts “Help me edit my paper cheap and give me some professional tips on how to ease the editing process.” Thus, you will be provided with a top-notch piece and some precious recommendations from someone who has been in the industry for ages.
- Do you use proper capitalization and punctuation? Punctuation and capitalization are key to writing a quality text. Check each comma and a capital letter to make sure you follow the existing rules.
For instance, a lot of college and university students tend to misuse commas.
- Incorrect: My three favorite things are eating kids and dogs.
- Correct: My three favorite things are eating, kids, and dogs.
- Make sure you meet the word count requirements. When it comes to the word count, some tips to keep in mind:
- Show, do not just tell.
- Cut off the pieces of information where you restate the same issues but use different words.
- Eliminate unnecessary details.
- Cut out extraneous adjectives (they should be used sparingly).
- Make run-on sentences short.
- Ensure every essay adds something important to the whole project.
- Consider the proper sentence structure. Read your essay to see if all sentences make sense. Did you stick to the grammar rules? When you read your essay aloud, you have a chance to catch all the sentences that are clunky.
- Don’t “try hard” to sound smart. When it comes to word choice, you need to be careful what you include in your essay to convey your message. Do not include the words from the thesaurus to show how much you “know.” Do not use big words to just impress your target audience. Make sure to focus on your message to communicate exactly what you want.
- Get rid of all clichés. If you’re working on a college application essay, you have to keep in mind that the reps of the college admission board cringe every time they see things like “expand my horizons,” “plethora,” or “at the end of the day.” After all, it is impossible to find a teen that would ever use the phrases like “outside my comfort zone” or “from the bottom of my heart.”
- Look for feedback. Now that you’re aware of the basics of editing, ensure to approach some of your peers to read your essay. The point here is that having the other pair of eyes on your essay is a wonderful way to detect overlooked errors and unclear sentences. It is important to approach someone who has sufficient topic proficiency. They will be able to provide constructive criticism.
College fellows would be the best choice, especially when you’re ready to check their works as well. As a result, you both have a chance to learn from each other.
Keep in mind that it is important to think twice before rejecting or accepting any feedback since every point of view is subjective.