Essay Editing Tips

Hi,

As I am currently surrounded by what feels like hundreds of copies of essay drafts, I thought it would be a good time to talk about my tips for editing university essays.

1. Print it off

Yeah, I'm probably going to kill a lot of trees this year. However, I find that I edit so much better when I am not staring at a screen. Printing off essay drafts allows me to annotate by hand, which I believe is a much more effective way of working out what to say.

2. Expand on your draft

If you find yourself writing on your draft to expand on a certain point, actually write at the point in time what you are going to say. Often I have written the word expand, only to get to actually editing on screen and realised I no longer know what the hell past Abby was talking about. Writing on your draft at the time will make it much easier for you in the long run.

3. Highlight on Paper Drafts

In addition to writing all over paper drafts, I also find that highlighting on paper drafts can be a good way of checking if you've used enough secondary sources, quotes or analysis. I often drop quotes into my essay and then don't explain them fully. Highlighting the quotes I use can help to see exactly how much analysis is after each quote, which in turn makes my writing a lot better.

4. Reword Sloppy Sentences

Often when I am writing my first draft I just write what comes off the top of my head, often its not as academic as it will be by the time it is finish. Therefore, in my first couple of drafts I usually focus on rewording anything that either doesn't sound concise enough or just doesn't make sense. I use the general rule: if it doesn't make sense to me, how will it make sense to anyone else. I have essays before where I have reworded a good third of it, and it has definitely paid off.

5. Peer Review

Peer review is a great way of testing out where someone, other than you, can understand what you have written. It is also a good way of either reassuring you that what you have written is good enough, or it is a good way of giving you constructive criticism about which areas need to be improved. It is something that I have done, on and off, throughout my degree. However, I am definitely doing it outside of seminars and much more frequently this year. I also find that it is great to talk to a peer as they can often give a different type of advice than a lecturer would give.



6. Go for Tutorials

As much as tutorial aren't my favourite thing, they do have their uses. I often find that the best time to go is during the planning stage, usually just before I'm about to start my first draft. It is reassuring to see whether your argument is effective. I also find that they often talk about something, be that an idea or a secondary source, that I haven't previously thought about, and this can offer a different perspective to a piece.

7. Email a Section

Emailing them a section of your essay to your seminar tutor can be a great way to get some informal feedback about a particular part of your essay. As difficult as it may be, it is always best to send of the part that you're struggling with, or that you feel could do with some feedback. It can be so tempting to send off the best part of your essay, however, in the long run it is better to take the constructive criticism.

I hope this helps :)