Steps in writing a good essay include brainstorming a topic, collecting information, making an outline and then writing a complete rough draft. This is the point at which many college students believe that their assignment is finished.
The secret to writing excellence is editing. You can use the spell checker and grammar checker that is built into your word processor to begin the editing process. Misspelled words are flagged out with a red line beneath them, and grammar errors by a blue line beneath them. Making these corrections is the work of a few minutes. But these checkers show only part of the changes you might need to make to create a winning essay.
Editing Software
You can, as a next step, use editing software to check your essay. Editing software will find words that are overused, extra long sentences, and sentence fragments. It will also reveal grammar errors that your basic text editor might not identify. More importantly, it will offer suggestions for ways to correct your errors.
Mechanical editing will carry you part-way through the proofreading process. But when the program has identified words that are used too often, sentences that are too long, or sentence fragments, you will need to correct the problems.
Repetitive Words
To reduce the frequency with which you use certain words, employ a thesaurus or dictionary to look for synonyms – different words that mean the same thing. However, read the definitions carefully; some words have fine shades of meaning, which could cause them to be a poor fit for your message. On the other hand, you might find words that are better than the ones originally chosen.
Too long Sentences
Long sentences make it difficult to read an essay. Often, they are written in passive voice. For example: “The meaning behind legislative is often obscured by being discussed for many days or even weeks before being made available to the people for a vote,” is a long, passive voice sentence. It is easier to understand, and makes a stronger statement when re-written as follows: “Legislation is often discussed until that its meaning is lost before placed on a ballot.”
Non-Complete Sentences
Discovering ways to make fragments of sentences complete can be even more challenging. The mechanical editors will let you know which sentences do not qualify, but are limited in offering corrections. The simple rule of thumb that every sentence should include a subject, a verb, and an object doesn’t take into account that in some instances the subject or even the object might be implied. Such usage requires human judgement. A quick way to correct a sentence fragment is to add in the subject, or to use a pronoun substitute, and read the sentence out loud to see how it sounds. If it makes sense, run your paper or sentence back through the mechanical editor to see if it will accept the change.
Content Evaluation
Once your essay has passed the editing program, it is time to evaluate the content. Read the essay out loud. Ask yourself whether you would understand the point if you heard someone else present this information. Look for gaps in your logic, for facts that were left out. By the same token, be ready to remove statements that do not feed into your main points. They might be interesting, but if they do not make your idea clearer, then you probably do not want to include them.
First and Last Sentences
Revisit your introduction and your closing. Will your opening sentence grab people’s attention? Does your closing wrap up your topic? Does it issue a call to action, summarize the topic or inspire your audience? More importantly, are you still on the same topic when you close your essay as you were when you introduced it? If your essay has wandered far away from the subject, you will want to make some adjustments to the ideas used in the central part of your discussion.
Format
Finally, check your format. Your essay should follow the guidelines – paragraph settings, width between lines, and size of margin – set forth by the writing style your instructor has requested. Credit should be given for all quotations, statistics, specific facts and dates in the style selected. Type titles, your name, your professors name, the date, the assignment title and any other requested information in the correct place on your paper. Many instructors maintain a policy of “no name, no grade” and simply throw away essays if they cannot identify the writer.
Editing is the difference between a good essay and a spectacular essay. When you check your work, you gain the chance to make your meaning clearer, to avoid common mistakes, and to find better ways to deliver your intended message.