LibGuides: SPARK: Student Papers and Academic Research Kit: Essay Editing

Tracking Frequent Errors

Keep a list of the errors that you make frequently. For example, if you are often told that you are putting apostrophes in the wrong place, list this error together with a brief description of proper apostrophe use. Consult your list of frequent errors when you are ready to edit your paper and look specifically for these problems.

Find and Replace

A useful strategy to help check for known common errors is to use the “find and replace” feature in your word processing software. For example, if you confuse “its” with “it’s,” search for occurrences of each in the document and decide which is appropriate on a case by case basis. The same strategy could be used to search for misuses of “their,” “there” and “they’re.” This strategy can also be useful to check for words you tend to overuse.

Most word processing programs have features for locating grammar and spelling errors. However, even the best of these programs can miss many problems. Often, they mark passages as problematic even though they actually work very well in the essay. The programs can serve as useful starting points to identify possible problems, but think of these as suggestions for review rather than as requirements.

Grammar and spell checkers cannot substitute for your own careful reading as they are not aware of your intentions. A spell checker, for example, will not mark “their” as a misspelling because it doesn’t know that you actually meant “there.”

Editing Punctuation & Format

Punctuation is important for keeping the meaning of sentences clear, and errors in punctuation can increase a reader’s problems considerably. Inappropriate or inconsistent formatting can also distract your reader.

The following are some important points to consider:

Appropriate use of commas is particularly difficult to master. Review your essay carefully for correct comma usage. For a brief guide to the use of commas see the Using Commas resource.
Review each sentence in your essay for appropriate use of quotation marks and apostrophes.
Check to be sure that you have capitalized all proper nouns, titles and headings.
Check that the format of your essay is consistent throughout and adheres to the assignment guidelines. Look at margins, font size, line spacing, title page, page numbers and word count.

Editing Content

Consider the following questions as guides for editing your introduction:

Can the reader easily recognize the topic or question your essay is addressing?
Can the reader easily identify your essay’s thesis statement, its main point, or its answer to the question that you have chosen to address?
Will the reader know what to expect from your paper?

Consider the following questions as guides for editing your body:

Does each paragraph focus on a main point and have a clear connection to the overall goal of your paper (as seen, for example, in your thesis statement or in the question that you have indicated in the introduction)?
Have you fully explained the point you wish to make in the paragraph?
Are the transitions between paragraphs smooth so that the reader understands how one idea is related to the next?

Consider the following questions as guides for editing your conclusion:

Does the conclusion summarize concisely the main argument or idea of the paper?
Does the conclusion offer some insight into the implications and significance of the ideas?

Editing Citations

Review your essay for any problems with the citation of the sources you have consulted in preparing the essay. Review your quotations and paraphrases to be sure they are appropriately introduced and punctuated. Bibliography software such as Zotero can be very helpful in the process, but a close check is still necessary as the software does sometimes make errors. In particular:

Have you checked all in-text citations to ensure they are formatted and documented accurately and appropriately according to the system you are using (MLA, APA, etc.)?
Have you checked your bibliography or reference list to ensure that the sources are in alphabetical order and formatted accurately and appropriately according to the system you are using (MLA, APA, etc.)?
Pay particular attention to:
- Punctuation: location of periods, commas, colons
- Titles: italics, quotation marks, capitalization
- Capitalization of proper nouns, i.e., names of places and people
- Noting page numbers, i.e., p. or pp. or numbers alone

Editing Language

Review your essay to determine if there are ways to change the language to gain a tighter focus on your main ideas. Look for unnecessary words and phrases; be sure there is a reason for everything you have included.

Check for these common language problems:

excessive repetition of particular words or phrases
tone and language level that are inappropriate (too emotional, too sarcastic, or too informal, for example)
sexist language, particularly using masculine pronouns to represent people in general
clichés – convenient but unimaginative and overused expressions such as “avoid it like the plague,” “all’s fair in love and war” or “they’re driving me up the wall”

The following are useful questions to consider:

Is the language in the paper appropriate to your audience?
Have you incorporated key terms and concepts from the course correctly?
Have you removed any slang, abbreviations and contractions that do not contribute specific meaning to your essay?
Have you defined any acronyms like Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)

Editing Grammar

Review your essay carefully, very slowly, sentence by sentence for subject/verb agreement, tense sequence, plurals and possessives, sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Once you have checked all of these things, check again; they are very easy to miss.

The following are some particularly important questions to consider with respect to grammar in your essay:

Does each subject agree with its verb (e.g., “the girl works”; “the girls work”)?
Is the tense of your verbs appropriate and consistent within each paragraph?
Can each pronoun (he, she, they, it, etc.) be easily traced back to the person or thing to which it refers?
Are all your sentences complete and appropriate in length?
- Does each sentence have a subject and a verb?
- If sentences are combined, have you used a conjunction or a semi-colon between them?