The Basics Of Editing In College, 5 Step Guide On How To Edit A College Paper

I just finished editing my buddy Stefan Knapen’s free ebook he’s giving away. For a guy who learned English from watching ‘Friends’ episodes I’m thoroughly impressed that he runs a completely English blog on study hacks. As I was editing I thought I’d quickly share with you the fundamentals of editing college papers or any paper for that matter.

1: Before you start:

Before you even start, make sure you know what you’re writing about or editing. I can edit a social science paper in less than 5 minutes (correcting thousands of undergrads papers will give you superhuman editing skills!).  Editing a paper on mathematics or chemistry on the other hand is a much slower process. I’m not saying that you couldn’t edit a paper on a subject you’re not familiar with but it is much easier/faster if you do know the content. This brings me to my second point; make sure you have enough time to do the job. Many students don’t give themselves enough time at the end of the day to properly edit before they have to submit their paper. Editing is the most overlooked step in paper writing but crucial to secure a top grade.

2: Decide what kind of edits you’re going to do:

Whenever I edit a paper for a student I decide before I start what level of editing I’m going to be doing. Am I looking at spelling, grammar, sentence structure, flow? Am I going to go deeper and look at the logical connections between subjects, ideas? Looking at all aspects of a paper can take 10 minutes a page for amateur editors. If it’s your own paper I’d suggest you include all the preceding subjects in your editing. If you’re editing for somebody else, simply state what level of editing you were using when you return the paper to them so that they know exactly what you’ve done.

3: Scan for the main idea/thesis/subject and write it down:

As a general rule of thumb, before I even start correcting a students paper I’ll immediately scan for the main thesis and supporting points (if they aren’t on the first page then they’re usually in trouble) and underline it. I’ll write a small note defining the core of the thesis and then compare every supporting point to that main thesis.

Here are couple questions I usually ask:

• How does this piece of information relate to the main thesis?
• Is this relevant or redundant (has this already been stated earlier in the paper)?
• Are there clear connections back to the main thesis or do I have to think about how this information relates?
• Can this information be clearer, if so how?
• Are there any presumptions the author is taking without accounting for them?

4: Don’t be afraid to edit ‘truthfully’:

If you’re editing for somebody else, don’t be afraid to tell them that a particular line sucks! I’m very upfront with this as I believe telling somebody the truth may be painful, but is much more helpful for their long term writing. I’ll often write a note for a particular paragraph or sentence “Awkward sentence consider revising”. Flow is incredibly important to the overall understanding of a document. Just because something is technically correct shouldn’t mean that you should not give your opinion towards the flow and tone of the paper.

5: Use track changes:

This is a biggie! Most desktop publishers have the ability to ‘track the changes’ on a document. In Microsoft word this is found under the tools menu – track changes. This enables all your edits to be shown in red text so that the recipient can choose to ignore or accept each change individually, it also gives you the ability to write notes for your recipient so you can suggest flow and sentence structure changes.

Editing Is A Crucial Step In the Paper Process Give It the Time It Deservers!

Editing is a crucial step within the paper writing process. If you don’t give yourself adequate time to edit you’re leaving serious marks on the table. I highly suggest you edit your own papers and encourage others to look your papers over. You can often miss crucial edits in your work (I know I do) that will lose you marks.

P.S. I have 6 mistakes in this paper, a shiny nickel to the person who can find them all.

Tagged as: college, Editing, Writing, Writing and Editing