How to Improve an Essay in 7 Steps
At what stage of writing an essay are you right now? Previously we published a post for those who do not even know where to start. Therefore, check out this article on essay writing step by step to get familiar with the basic algorithm. But we are sure that some of our readers have already managed to finish their papers, and only one thing is left for them to do: to edit the document before turning it in. Here we will dwell on 7 very efficient essay improving strategies that will come in handy even for novices in the academic world. These tips are widely used in professional circles, which makes the post a unique piece of advice straight from the horse’s mouth. Enjoy reading and gain proficiency in academic writing together with Smart Essay Rewriter.
1. Make it logical.
Once the essay is written, read through it all to make sure its elements have logical connections between them. The train of thoughts must develop in a natural way, and each of the paragraphs must make a generous contribution to the main idea.
If one idea is referred to in the text more than once, it is an indicator that something went wrong with the thoughts organization. Revise such excerpts and unite two or more parts of writing that develop the same idea into one. The most logical solution would be to squeeze them in only one paragraph.
To check whether everything is OK after editing, try this short questionnaire. In the end, the answers to all these questions should be positive:
- Is there an introduction and a conclusion?
- Do the ideas come in the right order?
- Are there necessary transitions between different thoughts?
- Does the essay give an impression of a completed utterance?
Four yeses mean that you can move on to the next step.
2. Use a grammar and spelling checker.
This kind of software is not a panacea, but it considerably speeds up the process of editing and spotting misprints in a document. What is not recommended here is the option of automatic replacement. Remember that a checker is designed to find imperfections in a text, but not to correct them, which is the task of a human being. If you do not want to end up with nonsense in the essay, stay away from automatic corrections and check each suggestion the software makes by yourself.
An average checking program is able to detect approximately 70-80% of all the mistakes in a document. If this is not enough, stick with professional editing instead. Just think about it: our best essay writing service offers the 100% elimination of mistakes in academic texts. And writers do not make any unnecessary changes in the work: they only improve what needs improving.
3. Cut down the waffle.
On a writing spree some things that initially seem relevant are actually not. That is why deleting parts of the text afterwards is often the necessary process of improving an essay. Look out for these writer’s enemies:
- Clichés and buzz words pollute writing a lot, so get rid of them without any hesitation.
- The overuse of parentheses is another bad habit. When used in moderate quantities, they help to make the text organized. But the abundance in them leads to the impression than the essay is overstuffed with superfluous words.
- Adverbs and adjectives must be reduced to a logical minimum, too.
- If there are any parts that have only a remote connection to the topic of the essay, it is better to get rid of them straight away. While they may lengthen the text artificially, they do much more harm to the contents of it.
4. Put the references in order.
First of all, check whether you have them at all. An essay without a list of cited works cannot be called an academic essay. Besides, you should refer to them across the text, which makes any writing reliable and substantial.
It is much easier to insert references to other works along the way, which means in the process of writing rather than at the editing stage. However, if it has not been done previously, then the rule “better late than never” applies. Find appropriate sources and cite them during editing and proofreading. In this case some parts of the text may have to be paraphrased in order to correspond to the new information.
As for the number of references, there are no specific guidelines. Some claim that one reference per page is the golden mean, whereas others prefer to stick with 3 or 4 quotations per essay, with the thinking behind that this number of sources, if chosen carefully, can provide enough insight on any subject. But we still emphasize that it is up to every individual essay writer and every separate assignment.
5. Eliminate informal expressions, exclamation marks and addresses to readers.
Formalities should be preserved in every academic essay, so sticking with the right style means a lot in this kind of writing. Our advice is to comprehend the frames of academic writing and stay within them all the time. Thus, a college paper should be free from:
- idioms,
- colloquial vocabulary,
- exclamatory sentences,
- rhetoric questions and appeals,
- digressions from the main topic.
All these stylistic devices are great for fiction, but they are not acceptable in a scientific study. You had better opt for terms and impersonal expressions instead. For those having troubles with finding appropriate vocabulary that belongs to the right style, we suggest professional editing services. While an ordinary student would have to spend precious time browsing through a dictionary in order to find the necessary terms for an essay, our specialists bear all this information in mind. It speeds up the process by several times and allows us to offer urgent editing and proofreading that we deliver in a matter of 12 hours at most.
6. Prune heavy sentences and paragraphs.
Although essay writers must be extremely formal, it still implies the use of understandable grammar structures. It is easy to get lost in a research if the latter is abundant in bulky paragraphs half a page long. There is no need for such extremities in academic writing. A paragraph that includes from 5 to 7 sentences is a perfect choice, while sentences should not contain more than 3 clauses, unless it is really necessary for the explanation of an idea.
As saying goodbye to parts of the text – wrote with such great efforts – seems barbaric, we suggest simply splitting them into several smaller sentences and paragraphs. In this way you preserve the amount of writing, but the essay gets easier to grasp.
7. Be consistent in formatting.
Now that the work on the text itself is over, move on to the “wrapping.” Clarify all the instructions as for the title page, the choice of font and style from the professor directly. Even if there are not any, academia does not give students much room for creativity in terms of formatting. Check out this comparative table on APA and MLA guidelines to find out more about basic formatting requirements. Although they may slightly differ in establishments across the world, it is better to stick with these instructions than to invent something new, which is more likely to turn out a failure.
With this, we finish our essay improving guide. Soon Smart Essay Rewriter will publish new handy academic tips, so check our blog from time to time not to miss anything interesting. Apart from offering practical advice, we also work in another direction, which is rendering writing and editing services. Students who even after reading these posts fails to do everything on their own are welcome to ask for our professional assistance in academic matters. Place an order any time and get a quality essay back exactly in a term that you choose to establish.