Best ways you can proofread your essay | Proofreading tips

Proofreading is just as important as any other stage of essay writing. Unfortunately, many students neglect this process, which often results in lower grades. In other words, if you want to improve your writing skills and achieve better results in your studies, getting your essay free of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors and typos is essential.

The only thing to remember is that you can start proofreading only after your essay has been properly edited. These two stages are quite different, so do not confuse them. While editing means to check the paper for the overall structure, coherence, logic, and word flow, proofreading is intended to polish the paper and make it shine. Now that you know the difference, you are ready to move to the next stage!

Proofreading tips for students

1. Look from a fresh perspective.

After you have edited your essay, get some rest. Wait several hours or even days before to start the proofreading process. Only in such a case, you will be able to look at your writing with fresh eyes.

2. Print out your essay.

Since it is easier to read an essay or any other piece of writing from a printed version, you are sure to find mistakes and typos much faster on paper than on screen. Use a red pen to underline them all.

3. Read your essay aloud.

Reading aloud is another very useful technique that can help you understand whether your writing has sense or not. Besides, it will help you find all those errors that have been missed.

4. Focus on only one type of error at a time.

Don’t try to catch all the errors at once. Start with grammar, then go to spelling, and then to punctuation. Such a focused approach has proven to be the most effective one.

5. Don’t trust online apps too much.

While it is good to check your paper using online editing and proofreading tools, you should not rely on them too much. It is better to double check the word you are not sure of in official dictionaries and glossaries.

6. Pay attention to the numbers and apostrophes.

Quite often students forget to check the numbers and the apostrophes, which may strongly affect the credibility of the essay. Don’t be like them and pay attention to these common mistakes until it is too late. The same applies to the proper names and other special words you use.

7. Ask someone to help.

After you finish proofreading your essay, you can ask your friend or family member to do the same. After all, to get a fresh pair of eyes on your paper is never superfluous. Most likely, another person will find all those errors you have overlooked yourself.

As you can see, these proofreading tips are simple enough to apply them each time you are writing your essay. Thereby, to become a better writer is not that difficult if you have the right tips at hand. In case you are out of time to proofread your essay you can always find help at essay america .

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