College students have to research and write essays, meaning that academic writing will form an important aspect of your campus life. In general, most students find essay writing complicated, either because of limited time or inadequate skills.
You can improve your academic essay skills through practice. However, one of the most important things when it comes to formal writing is editing and proofreading. Even if your command of English grammar is ideal, your work will still have some typos and grammatical issues. For this reason, we have outlined the top tools to help students with editing and proofreading.
Why Is It Important to Edit and Proofread Documents?
One of the most frustrating things for students is working on assignments. In fact, evidence suggests that more than 40% of students who drop out of college do so because of stress emanating from heavy workloads and assignments. Problems with research and writing can be resolved through proper time management and planning.
One statement of purpose issue that most students struggle with relates to proofreading and editing. Grammar mistakes and typos can hurt your writing, leading to poor scores and negative feedback on projects. Although largely ignored, editing and proofreading are critical components of the writing process. The stages help by enhancing the effectiveness of your writing style, legibility, and clarity.
Most students confuse the editing and proofreading steps, but some differences exist. Unlike proofreading, editing requires the author to go through the document and identify more critical issues like structure, organization, formatting, and content. Proofreading, on the other hand, emphasizes identifying and amending grammar mistakes and typos.
As a student, it is important to understand that editing is a huge task and a skill you get to master with time. There will be instances when you will need to get a graduate school essay editing service from professionals online. Some important aspects of editing include:
- Organization — making sure that your paper follows the right structure;
- Clarity — your essay should be easy to understand, and words should be properly used;
- Formatting — all parts of the paper, including fonts, spacing, and citations, should adhere to your professor’s instructions.
Once you have completed the editing process, you should get started on proofreading. It is a more deliberate process meant to identify typos and grammar mistakes. The objective of proofreading is to improve the paper and make the necessary changes. Some proofreading tips include:
- Read multiple times;
- Highlight common mistakes;
- Take a break after writing before starting to proofread.
Top Editing and Proofreading Tools
Although essay editing is important for identifying the mistakes and improving the quality of papers, the process can be tedious and complicated. Fortunately, there are tools students can use to make this stage of writing a success. Here are some notable ones:
Mindnode Application
Mindnode is an important tool for students who want to edit their documents. It helps with organizing thoughts and ideas and work through important concepts. If you skipped the outlining stage of essay writing, this tool could be critical in improving coherence. It is ideal when students have many competing ideas to organize into a quality essay. Note that the tool should be used from the prewriting stage.
Grammarly Proofreading App
Over the years, many applications have been created to help with correcting grammar and sentence structure. However, not many of these tools are quite as popular or as effective as Grammarly. The tool allows users to find problems relating to spelling and grammar. There is also an option to use British, Australian, or American English and is available across devices with decent mobile functionality.
The tool can be used as an app to be integrated into word processing applications or on browsers. There is also the option to use the option for free or to trigger the paid version. Of course, with the paid option, people get improved sentence structure and clarity.
The Hemingway App
Another good app for students who want to edit essays is the Hemingway App. The tool was designed to improve the clarity of text and works by color-coding. It shows the author any sentences that are hard to understand and makes recommendations for changes. There are also several other grammar and spelling issues dealt with by this tool.
Google Docs
Writers prefer this tool as it ensures that they don’t lose documents. There is also the possibility to host several free add-ons to improve writing quality and help with checking grammar and spellings. The good news is that you can access your document for proofreading and editing at any time, whether through your computer or smartphone.
PaperRater
When it comes to checking grammar and spelling, this tool provides amazing competition to Grammarly. The good thing with PaperRater is that it also gives a score according to the student’s level of education. This functionality is amazing as users can gauge how well they are likely to perform after submitting their projects. The tool is great for polishing documents to ready them for submission.
WhiteSmoke
WhiteSmoke is lauded as one of the best tools for editing papers for grammar and syntax. Like Grammarly, the platform allows students to check for style consistency and plagiarism.
Final Thoughts
The tools highlighted here for editing and proofreading essays are among the most reliable and affordable you can find online. However, you need to understand that these applications are not perfect and may miss some effective editing elements, such as word use and content. Your best option is to hire a professional editor to finetune your paper.
Photo: Andrew Neel, Unsplash