College Essay Writing and Editing Tips
Revising means ‘seeing again’ and is an opportunity to look critically at your written work to ensure that it conveys your ideas, opinions and intended purpose clearly. Revising your college essay includes checking for grammatical errors, misrepresentation of facts, relevance to course work and an overall well presentation of your work. Revising is very crucial for your college essays because it depicts a serious student who cares about their grades and is willing to make the effort to earn them. Revising your college essays will give you an edge and ensure that you are well prepared even for the corporate world. Below are some useful College Essay Writing and Editing Tips
Delete irrelevant information
While essays are built to give bodies to points, there is such a thing as over building. Irrelevant information will not give the point a body, instead, being redundant, it will take away from it. When you have your college essay written by services such as research paper writing service ensure to convey this information so that your college essay does not have irrelevant information. You may not notice this as you write your essay but going through it after completion will ensure that you capture them. Revise your essay critically and research for more to add on in case your point is thin instead of clinging to information that could be costly to your essay.
Make short paragraphs
Avoid lengthy paragraphs that appear too busy to the eye. As you revise your college essay you will be able to see which of these you have bombarded with information and split them or delete some information. Part of editing and revising is making your work presentable and large information loaded paragraphs do not cut this criterion. Short paragraphs keep the reader hooked while long ones tire the reader. You do not want to lose the reader before they can even get to the point you are trying to make. If there is more to the point, make it continuous by engaging the reader on the next paragraph.
Add more details
As you write you may have stretched a point thin and not noticed. Revising your essay is your chance to rectify this and include more details. Addition of details is one of the well renown revising strategies for the points that are left hanging. The score for your college essay may be lower if your professor feels that you have incomplete information on the points you are making. As long as it is relevant and builds your content, more information is always better than less. Make sure that you have done your research well and counter check that the details you provide do not end up being irrelevant and redundant.
Edit grammar
Grammar is very crucial and big part of your writing. However good of a point you have, if it is in a sea of poorly constructed sentences, it will be obscured. While it is not something you should primarily pay attention to in your first draft, revising writing process calls for you to identify the gaps and close them. This can be particularly hard for students whose first language is not English. However, sites such as academicessayst.com come in handy and assist in writing foul proof college essays for these students. Grammar can be the difference between a good score and a fail just by how good or bad the points were put across. Even if the essay is not a language one, pay attention to your articulation of point. Good grammar will reward you.
Increase readability of the text
It is important to note that the reader will be more inclined to read text that is in short sentences and simple language. Complex sentences tire the reader and they may give up before they get to the point you are making. Additionally, complex words and language may be a barrier if the reader has to reach for the dictionary severally as they read your text. Even though mastery of vocabulary can help set you apart, too much vocabulary will obscure your point and lose the reader every time they have to look up the meaning of a word. Write in words that are easily understood and in simple text. In revision, if you find areas that you ignored this, it helps to paraphrase so that you do not lose your point.
Focus on facts
Facts will always give you an edge in writing. Even when expressing your opinion, it is more authoritative if the premise of your conclusion is driven by facts. Creative writing revision is a little different because this feeds off your imagination and will not be counterchecked against any other material. However, for factual college essays, you do not want to get them wrong. Ensure that you countercheck with books and proper research and convey accurate information. Even when the college essay calls for your opinion, it will be very beneficial if the opinion is in line with the facts. Going radical on a factual essay will be detrimental and may lower your score. Facts are your friend, make them work in your favour.
Do a checklist
One of the best revision strategies for writing is having an orderly manner in which you go through your college essay. Create a list of items you wish to go through in the essay and ensure that they are in order. This checklist will keep you on track especially if you go through it chronologically. A checklist of revision areas will make sure that you do not miss anything and that your writing is always in order. Your checklist should have, on the very least, grammar, spelling checks, sentence construction, punctuation, paragraphs and word complexity. Once you have satisfied the requirements of your checklist, it will be safe to hand in your essay and you will be certain that you did your best.
Develop a schedule for revision
One of the major reasons why college essays get handed in without revising is shelving them for the very last minute. This will automatically mean that you do not have adequate time to write the paper, let alone revise. To avoid this, create a schedule for writing your essays as well as one for revising. Sometimes you may not have the time to write but purchase an essay on some essay writing service. Even though these are professionally written, ensure that you go through them and revise accordingly. Your created schedule should accommodate all essays.
Revision of college essays is a time intensive exercise and should not be rushed. If you revise in a hurry you are not only likely to miss the errors in your first draft, but you can also make more. When you feel like you have revised enough, read out the text aloud word for word and ensure that it is as you want it. Be sure that your points, opinions and ideas are well captured and that you have passed the message you intended to. When done consistently, revising essays can become quite easy and not as time consuming. Because you want to maximize your chances of a better grade, never hand in an essay without revising.