When the material of the student’s work is collected, it is important to bring it to the scientific style which will be best perceived by the teacher and other readers. Editing and proofreading an essay are aimed at this. The student should accurately and fully explain the facts, show cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena, identify patterns of historical development, check the grammar and so on.
What is the difference between editing and proofreading?
Editing is an improving the text when preparing it for publication. It is carried out with the repeated deep reading of scientific work, affects its content and design. Editing is often applied to specialized educational literature, coursework, essays and other academic papers.
Basic principles of editing:
- Using the correct terminology – a consistent and clear system of concepts and terms.
- Conformity of the content with existing standards, practical experiments and other aspects of the subject area.
- Adequacy of training examples, the applicability of acquired skills to solve real problems.
- The relevance and novelty of the described provisions and techniques.
While proofreading, students and scientists don’t concentrate on the content of the text. They pay attention to grammar, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, check figures, format the work in accordance with the rules of the educational institution.
This stage is final and extremely important. Even if you put forward a genius innovative idea but allow a number of grammatical errors, a few extra commas, the teacher may find you uneducated and order to perform paper revision without even delving into the meaning of the text.
How to edit papers?
In the process of working on a scientific text, the editor should focus on the analysis of its composition. The structure of an academic work is closely related to its genre specificity and purpose. It should allow the reader to see how the research goal was achieved and ensure the implementation of the author’s intention, the rapid, accurate and intelligible delivery of the key statements to the addressee.
Analyzing and evaluating the structure of the work, pay attention to the title (heading) of the paper. This is the most important informative unit which reflects the research topic and corresponds to the content of the essay. It is important to understand whether the division of the text into parts is logical and to evaluate the relationship between them.
The editor should create a right system of headings in the main part of the work. The division of the text into paragraphs also contributes to its proper presentation.
The substantive basis of any scientific work is the factual material (statistical information, names, titles, dates, figures, quotations). It should be closely related to the topic of the work, organically fit into its structure. The necessity of different facts is determined by the purpose and objectives of the scientific research.
The analysis of terminology is also one of the mandatory components of the editor’s work. It is important not to allow the inaccurate or mistaken use of terms, especially if some word has several meanings.
Words and phrases that play the role of connecting elements are widely used in the scientific style. Thanks to them, the coherence, logical unfolding of the text is achieved. In this group there are conjunctions, adverbs, introductory words and phrases, etc. They perform two functions:
- Enter a logical context (therefore, thereby, thus);
- Characterize the degree of objectivity of information (perhaps, apparently, of course).
If you write an academic paper that will participate in a contest, may be published in a scientific journal, or you need to outline its key ideas before the audience, it is important to add elements of communication to the facts and figures while editing.
Conversational vocabulary and phraseology could be actively included in the scientific text. They make content interesting, create a laid-back, entertaining story, and keep the attention of the public. It should be remembered that abuse of scientific words deprives the speech of simplicity and accessibility of perception. The introduction of complex terms in the text should be motivated. It depends on the education and age of the audience.
One of the new requirements that schools and universities start to practice is the plagiarism control and the definition of the uniqueness percentage. Therefore, the use of the material in its initial form, even with references to primary sources, may be considered unacceptable. You’ll have to increase the uniqueness. To do this, read the text attentively and retell it in your own words.
The front page is the first sheet of the work. It is not numbered, indicates university, type of paper, faculty, discipline, topic, course, info about the author and his teacher, year of writing, and the city of the educational institution for which the essay was created.
The list of sources should be indicated at the end of the work. It can include scientific researches, articles, dissertations, periodicals and online publications, textbooks, laws and bills. As a rule, the list is written in alphabetical order and includes at least 15 sources.
Where to turn for help with editing and proofreading?
We outlined the main principles of the revision of the collected information. If you try to follow all the rules but still get a result that does not satisfy the teacher, there is no reason to get upset. Fortunately, many special paper writing services work in the Internet. Here you can order help with editing and proofreading.
Correction of scientific works is a very responsible process. Asking professionals for assistance is a wise solution, especially if essay is returned to you for the third time, or you do not have the possibility to work with the material thoroughly.
As a rule, authors with serious experience of writing scientific papers perform the tasks at such sites. The work is checked for compliance with all the regulatory requirements. Also, you can list the rules put forward by your scientific council. The authors will take into account all your wishes and carry out the editing in exact accordance with them.
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