What is academic writing? Writing essays, dissertations, research proposals, and several other academic documents refers to academic writing. It is a thorough process that involves a lot of other steps than just writing. For example, you have to perform extensive research before starting with the process of academic writing. But are there any steps to be followed after you have completed your writing? Yes, there definitely are. As soon as you complete the writing procedure, it’s time for you to start with the editing part. This involves two steps- editing and proofreading.
You must have heard about proofreading and editing. These two processes combine to form the editing process for a text. But why are these processes important in academic writing? If you are wondering about this, this post is a must-read for you. It will highlight the significance of editing and proofreading in the academic world to help you understand how these processes can polish your writing.
What is Editing?
Editing is a thorough process of making changes in your written texts to enhance their readability. Editors perform various kinds of edits, such as rewriting sentences and paragraphs, changing words, and removing certain sentences and paragraphs. The primary aim of editing is to make it clearer for readers to understand. An editor also checks the authenticity of everything written in your documents.
Importance of Editing in Academic Writing
Let’s start by taking a detailed look into the significance of editing in academic writing.
Enhances Credibility
Your readers must know that you value their time. Therefore, you must not present them with clumsily written essays as it might alienate them. Academic documents filled with typos, bad grammar, and referencing inconsistencies will simply make you seem less credible in front of the readers. Even if you have just the right grasp of your topic and you include all the information needed, a reader might get disinterested if your document is not edited properly and follows the right academic style. On the other hand, if your document is edited thoroughly, it will enhance your credibility and develop a greater affinity with your readership.
Neutralises Bias
Writing academic content is quite different from the usual marketing blogs you read on the internet. The content included in these writing pieces must be unbiased. Academic writing needs to be well-balanced and unbiased. It is what editing helps with. It ensures that every perspective in your writing has equal depths. Academic writing usually involves arguments. However, this does not mean you have to incline on one side and create an imbalance. Editors neutralise your writing and ensure a perfect balance.
Enhances Reader Engagement
A crucial feature of ideal academic writing is to engage the readers and take them on a journey. Each sentence you write must relate to your topic and make sense to the readers. It is what editing does for you. Editors ensure that each line is unique and there is no repetition throughout your work. Academic writing is usually about making your point. However, repeating the same thing can bore the readers and make your writing look raw. This is why you must get it edited by an expert to avoid repetition while still ensuring that the strands of your paragraphs are tied up efficiently.
Good Grades
Editing will empower your documents. The finely edited content will leave a good impression on your professors. So, it will eventually help you with achieving better grades. Appropriately edited content will showcase your dedication to your work.
What is Proofreading?
Proofreading is the next step after editing. It is a method that involves checking errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The role of a proofreader is to enhance the writing quality by removing errors.
Importance of Proofreading in Academic Writing
Just like editing, proofreading in academic writing is also important for the following reasons.
Draws Attention to the Message
Mistakes in your text, as minor as a punctuation error, can deviate your reader focus from your message. However, a nicely proofread document will never let this happen. Proofreading makes your writing error-free. This will ensure that the readers understand each word clearly and remember the message instead of your mistakes.
Ensures the Right Message Delivery
Proofreading your essays and other written texts ensures that they convey your message clearly. A simple comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. Therefore, if you have errors in your writing, the reader might not clearly get the message you wish to deliver. The same goes for spelling. For example, if you write accept in place of expect, the entire meaning of the sentence will change, and it might even make no sense at all. So, proofreading is crucial to ensure you convey the right message to the readers.
Shields Your Reputation
Building a reputation in your class and among your professors is crucial. Submitting your academic papers without proofreading them can result in lowering your reputation as errors depict your carelessness. However, if you submit error-free writing pieces, it will enhance your reputation and save you from embarrassment.
Consistency
Proofreading in academic writing ensures consistency. Poorly formatted documents show your carelessness and inconsistency. Consistent font styles, heading tags and font size are essential to make your documents impressive, clear and well-structured.
Boosts Grades
Just like editing, proofreading also contributes significantly to better grades. A well-written essay or dissertation is crucial for good grades. However, the information you include will be of no use if your writing is not perfectly proofread. This will eventually lead to disappointing your professors and lower grades. However, if you proofread your documents thoroughly, you will leave a good impression on them and deliver your message clearly, leading to better grades.
Summing Up
Writing is just one part of academic writing, as you must also involve proofreading and editing in your process. Reading this post must have made you realise the significance of both these processes. However, performing these tasks on your own can be quite challenging as you will find everything to write about what you have written. Editing and proofreading need critical thinking and unbiasedness. Our expert editors and proofreaders can help with this: they will polish your academic documents after several rounds of thorough editing and proofreading to help you impress your professors and achieve better grades. So, contact us now to get your documents thoroughly edited and proofread by our experts.
