How to Self-Edit Your Term Paper: Proofreading Guide

If you ask anybody for advice about your term paper or read any how-to guide on this, you will get numerous tips. They will offer different approaches to various aspects of term paper writing, and you will find some recommendations more useful than the others. But if they know anything about term papers, the final word of advice will be the same: do not submit your work right after you have finished it, you can't possibly overestimate the importance of editing and proofreading term paper.

Of course, it is always best to have a second pair of eyes to proofread your work, but there are some things that you can do yourself. In this article, we would like to focus on those.

1. USE ONLINE TOOLS

This is the first, most obvious thing to do. It is true that no software today can perform as good as a qualified editor yet, but they are still useful for sorting out the minor errors that you may have overlooked, as you were carried away putting your brilliant ideas to paper.

However, when you check grammar mistakes online, you should not accept all the suggestions that you get, but be critical about it. They are not perfect, and sometimes they overlook mistakes or even cause them.

If you have to write on a regular basis, it may be worthwhile to consider spending a few dollars and upgrading your online proofreading tool to premium. Premium versions have extra options and are generally more sophisticated.

2. PUT YOUR DRAFT AWAY AND RETURN TO IT IN A FEW DAYS

Writing term paper is very engaging if you do it properly. So, when it comes to editing and proofreading, this can become a challenging task to accomplish. It is hard to judge oneself objectively because you are naturally biased to a certain extent.

Therefore, it is a good idea to lay your draft aside and forget about it for a few days. You can spend these days attending to other matters or just relaxing. Only then can you give your term paper a fresh look, as if it were someone else’s writing, and spot the mistakes that you would have otherwise missed.

3. DO IT ON PAPER

When you proofread a text, it is not necessary to fix all the disadvantages immediately as you find them, on the go. It is better to first spot and mark them, and then give each case proper consideration.

When you do it on your computer, it is easy to ‘accidentally' delete a mark or miss a point. It is only natural, because – let's face it – editing and proofreading are not the most entertaining activities in the world, at times they get rather tedious. When you mark the disadvantages of your text on paper with a pen, on the other hand, it is harder to overlook them even when you want to.

This advice comes from the creative writing department, but it is good to use for term paper as well.

4. SHOW IT TO PROFESSIONALS

Finally, when you feel like you have done everything you could to perfect your paper, but you still feel like it could use some refining, it is the high time to address people who have to deal with minor writing issues professionally on a regular basis. We are talking, of course, about custom writing services – the ones from whom one can normally buy a term paper, an essay, a dissertation, etc.

Some conservative-minded folks may think that dealing with such companies is a shady thing to do. But they cannot deny the fact that the people employed at custom writing services are most definitely professionals because their professionalism is basically the only thing that can keep them on the market. Besides, they usually offer a range of other services than just writing. Most often, you can order proofreading your text, and you can rest assured that it will be done in due quality – because this is what they do.

Some people underestimate the importance of proofreading their term papers properly, thinking that it is the content that matters. While the content does matter most, some minor mistakes that we often overlook can also have a critical influence on your term paper's performance. Therefore, proofreading and editing need to be taken with all seriousness!