- General considerations
In all the ambits, while it might be tempting to submit your final project as soon as you have inserted the final full stop, do not be so quick to forget about it completely!
When you start planning the project, look at how much time you have before the hand-in date. Leave yourself a few days between finishing your draft and submitting the finished paper to read through your work with fresh, critical eyes. This will give you time to take a step back from your work and spot any mistakes, add important information you may have overlooked or take out anything you now deem to be redundant.
This process is known as editing and is an essential part of publication. It might seem daunting at first, but it increases the academic quality of your work. It is much easier to criticize and make improvements to your writing than it is to create content from scratch. The bulk of the work is done, now this is your chance to polish it off.
Finally, print out your project. This helps you see your writing with fresh eyes, as if it were written by someone else. Take a different coloured pen and do not be afraid to cross things out or add comments to the page. Visualizing the editing process before you make and save your changes will help guide you through the process. - Structure
When you first start the editing process, focus on the overarching structure of the project. Make sure your discussion presents your ideas in a logical order, that it flows through your argument and leads the reader to a coherent conclusion. Do not be afraid to rearrange your paragraphs, perhaps turning two shorter paragraphs into one paragraph or cutting out unnecessary introductions to create space for more valuable content. If you do this, however, read through the project again to ensure your new order flows logically. - Content
It is common to finish a draft over the word limit, but that limit exists for a reason. Concise writing is an art form, and even if you have not managed it so far, editing your work tightens up your ideas and leaves you with a clean and polished paper. Here are a few tips for this final stage:- Delve in a little deeper. Look at the sentences that make up your paragraphs. In Catalan and Spanish, the tendency is to write long sentences with lots of information. However, English-speaking readers are much more receptive to shorter sentences that break up the information into digestible chunks and facilitate their understanding of your argument. That being said, these are often used alongside longer, more complex sentences to make the paragraph more interesting to read and easier to understand (see Sentence variety). Look out for repetitions. Your reader will have good academic skills, so avoid explaining your points more than once, or extending your argument with redundant examples, simply to stress how important you think it is.
- Check your ideas against your original plan. Have you included everything you believed would be useful during your research stage? A lot of preparation has gone into this project. Make sure you have not left anything important out, but also only include the most relevant arguments in your discussion, those that will lead the reader to the clear conclusions you have drawn. Do all the points you make help answer the question or title of your paper? Everything you write should be relevant.
- Have another look at your introduction. It might not have been the first thing you wrote; but now you have had a chance to look at the whole text as a body of work, does your introduction do its job? Does it signpost your reader through your work? Make sure to revise it, especially if you moved things around as you edited!
- Delve in a little deeper. Look at the sentences that make up your paragraphs. In Catalan and Spanish, the tendency is to write long sentences with lots of information. However, English-speaking readers are much more receptive to shorter sentences that break up the information into digestible chunks and facilitate their understanding of your argument. That being said, these are often used alongside longer, more complex sentences to make the paragraph more interesting to read and easier to understand (see Sentence variety). Look out for repetitions. Your reader will have good academic skills, so avoid explaining your points more than once, or extending your argument with redundant examples, simply to stress how important you think it is.
- Spelling
Make sure your spelling is consistent throughout your paper (See Spelling at the UB for more details). Also check common spelling mistakes caused by confusion between there, their and they’re, or our and are, or it’s and its. These are common signs that you failed to proofread your work and can lead your reader to draw negative conclusions about your competence.
Finally, always run a spelling and grammar check once you have finished writing. It may pull up some errors you missed in your own proofreading! - Punctuation
Review your use of commas. Even native English speakers have trouble using commas correctly, but they can make or break your writing. One trick is to put commas where you would naturally take a pause when speaking. (Note that Purdue University offers excellent advice on using commas.) Try reading your paper aloud, which might also help you spot other mistakes, such as repetitions. Finally, consider using semicolons to join longer sentences, particularly when building an argument. - Check and recheck your references
Reference your citations correctly. Take another look at the referencing style guide recommended for your degree. Check that all your citations include the relevant information and whether they are listed as footnotes or embedded within the text itself. Check that your bibliography is listed in alphabetical order and include all the information that is relevant to the publication of each source. Again, the information you need to include will be detailed in the referencing style guide you are using. - Feedback
Asking for feedback is one of the most useful ways to help improve the academic quality of your paper. If your tutor offers to read a draft of your final project, accept! After all, the tutor is the person who will be marking the final version. Once you have spent so long engaged in the writing stage, it is often difficult to see your own mistakes or spot ways in which you can improve.
If you have already handed work in and had it marked, look at the feedback from your teachers. Are there any recurring comments? Have they given you any tips on how to structure your paper more effectively? Look at all their comments as constructive criticism and apply this to your final project. Swap your work with a classmate to get a fresh perspective. Peer learning can be very effective, especially when someone looks at your work objectively.
Recommended citation:
«Editing your text» [en línia]. A: Llibre d’estil de la Universitat de Barcelona. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Serveis Lingüístics. <https://www.ub.edu/llibre-estil/criteri.php?id=3295> [consulta: 28 abril 2024].