{"id":763,"date":"2020-07-22T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/?p=763"},"modified":"2020-06-26T10:50:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T15:50:05","slug":"five-tips-for-editing-your-college-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/2020\/07\/22\/five-tips-for-editing-your-college-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips for Editing Your College Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a freshman in college or you\u2019re in graduate school working on your dissertation, you\u2019re going to find yourself writing many papers when you\u2019re a student. The quality of those papers can greatly impact your college experience, so it\u2019s important to get them right.<\/p>\n

This includes choosing the right topic and using persuasive writing techniques, but it also means editing your paper. You don\u2019t want to spend all that time writing your paper only to end up with information that isn\u2019t effective because the punctuation is distracting!<\/p>\n

Before you turn in that paper, follow these editing tips to make your paper the very best it can be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have Someone Else Look Over Your Paper<\/h2>\n

One of the best things you can do is have someone else look over your paper. It\u2019s true that it can be a bit scary to have someone else read through what you wrote, but they are likely to catch more errors than you.<\/p>\n

Because you wrote the paper, you already know what you\u2019re trying to say. It\u2019s easy to gloss over errors simply because you\u2019re predicting what\u2019s coming next. Someone reading your paper for the first time won\u2019t make those same mistakes.<\/p>\n

Someone else in your class can read through your paper, but you can also visit your college\u2019s writing center where a TA may be able to read through your paper and provide you with tips.<\/p>\n

Professional editing services<\/a> are also an option. Because these services cost money, they\u2019re best for dissertations and academic articles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Write and Proofread in the Same Day<\/h2>\n

It isn\u2019t uncommon for college students to stay up all night the evening before a paper is due writing it. Although it\u2019s always better to turn something in than nothing at all, it really is better to save your proofreading for another day.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of grammar and punctuation rules<\/a>. It\u2019s easy to miss many of them when you\u2019re tired and your eyes are strained right after writing. Not to mention, you literally just wrote your paper, so it\u2019s easy to skim through it when you should be reading it in more detail.<\/p>\n

Finish your paper one day and reread through it the next. For even more proofreading power, read through it at least twice.<\/p>\n

Use a Spell Checker and a Grammar Checker<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a no-brainer to use the spell checker when editing your paper, but don\u2019t rely on the spell checker alone. There is a lot it doesn\u2019t catch.<\/p>\n

You should also look into grammar checkers. They can pick up a lot of the errors that spell checkers leave behind.<\/p>\n

Some of the best grammar checkers<\/a> include:<\/p>\n