What is academic proofreading?
Academic proofreading is, in essence, the correction of grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. It’s also picking up formatting mistakes in an academic document. The document can be anything in the academic realm. For example, a research paper, an article for a journal, an undergraduate essay, a personal statement, a thesis or dissertation. Basically, if it’s linked to academia, it’s academic proofreading. This means that an academic proofreading service is not just for all students. It’s for professors, academic authors, research scientists, and anyone else within the academic world.
How to get the most from your academic proofreading or academic editing.
The best way you can benefit from using the services of an academic proofreader is to get involved. Whilst it’s fine to sit back and let the professional do the work, you stand to gain more by checking over your work when you get it back. Not for mistakes (though proofreaders are human too), but to see whether you are happy. Do you understand what the proofreader has done and why? Whenever your document comes back from a proofreader, remember that it’s yours.Some people may not be brilliant at grammar. That might be your reason for employing an academic proofreader. Even so, if there’s something that concerns, or interests you, you should always seek clarification or explanation. Ultimately it’s your choice whether you accept the corrections, suggestions or changes.
Is academic editing any different?
With editing this is much the same process. After all, it’s your ideas. All an editor, such as myself will do, is take your ideas and try to make them flow together well on the page. I’d remodel your paper so that it reads well with a structured introduction, middle and conclusion. Editing in its basic form would not add any new ideas to your work. Perhaps the editor would rewrite a few sentences, add a few words to help things hang together. Other services are provided by proofreading-editing.co.uk. These include reworking, or academic writing services, which can mean adding new concepts and ideas.
Generally, though, with academic proofreading and academic editing services, your original work stays basically the same, but with a tidy-up to be more presentable. This might mean changing things about a bit, but it’s still your basic template. Once you receive your reviewed work, the best thing to do is to use it as a guide going forward, as to how to structure things in future. You can see where you’ve made the most mistakes that the proofreader has had to correct. You can learn from this. This way you will improve your own work and should be able to go forward next time with less help.
Why use academic proofreading services?
Everybody wants their work to be readable, presentable and to get top marks, or achieve top consideration for publication. It’s all very well having wonderful ideas. What happens if your writing doesn’t make sense, contains faulty reasoning, or is peppered with mistakes? Then it will not achieve such a high grade or worthy consideration. A tutor’s dream is an essay that reads well and engages them in an original and well thought out argument. If it has lots of horrible errors which make it difficult to persevere with, it’s a bit like picking flies out of gourmet soup! Even if the reader likes the case you are making, and the ideas that you present, if by the end of it they are gritting their teeth over the grammar, your clever, well thought out piece might end up bottom of the pile.
There are machine checkers available, but they are not as accurate as human checking. This is because the complexities of English grammar and spelling are vast. These machine checkers often work on quite a basic level, and can flag things up as wrong that are, in fact, correct, and vice versa. So they are no competition againt a seasoned eye who will look over your work, make suggestions or corrections.
So, give yourself and your tutors a break, and give them a flawless piece of work. After all, you wouldn’t roll out pastry on a dirty worktop, so why try to extrapolate an argument on a bed of spelling mistakes?
So, what next?
Overall there are many benefits to academic proofreading, editing or essay help. It’s up to the individual whether or not they decide to employ a professional academic proofreader such as myself. Mine is a service with very good reviews and accolades from previous clients. I have many returning clients, which I believe shows their satisfaction with using my academic services. To find out more, read about my academic proofreading and contact me today.
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