Writing a college paper can be difficult, but remember that editing and proofreading is a time-consuming but necessary step in the process. The successful college student should communicate their intent in a well-organized error-free essay. Revising and editing a paper can mean the difference between a C and an A grade. These steps are basic to every paper and provide a checklist for the student.
Instructions
1. Read the draft of your paper aloud. This simple step, often forgotten, will provide you with a good idea of how much work your paper needs. Listen for logical progression of thoughts and staying on topic. Ask yourself, "Does this make sense?"
2. Highlight areas that you know immediately need more work. Often writers forget things noticed on a first read because they get distracted by other errors. Keep every change you wanted to make in mind.
3. Check your draft against the professor's guidelines. This ensures you are answering the right question, have enough words or pages, have your deadline in mind and are using the correct grammar style. Mark changes in a different color of pen.
4. Go over the draft with a style manual to ensure the paper meets style requirements. If your professor assigned a manual for the course, use it and nothing else. Otherwise, there are hosts of online style guides that provide a checklist of paper requirements.
5. Perform basic spelling and grammar check. Using spell check on your computer does not guarantee your paper is error free. Read your paper backwards to catch sneaky errors.
6. Revise your paper and reprint. The cleaner you keep the drafts, the easier it is to notice additional errors.
7. Let someone else read your paper. A second set of eyes may catch what you did not. Make changes as necessary and reprint.
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