Top 16 ideas to edit your assignments the best way

“As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.”

― Ernest Hemingway

Excellent writing doesn’t just happen the first time you sit down to write. Whether you’re looking for a cost-effective editing option or just want to do the editing process yourself. Even academic experts take a step back from the long hours of complex proofreading for thesis bundles.

Meanwhile, most of us cannot afford the cost of hiring an expensive editor to review our individual blog posts. It might even get hard to do expenditure for a book editor.

And as procrastination is the writer’s best friend, you might not even have time to ask a fellow writer or your associate to take a quick glance for mistakes.

But, editing your content is the top skill one can develop. Not only does it save your time from letting others proofread, but you can entirely make a career out of it!

Based on top searches in Google, interest in the profession of copywriting has been steadily increased over the last 5 years. However, it has grown much higher in early 2021, likely due to the pandemic, as more people swapped to remote careers.

However, the outlook is different in digital media. Based on recent statistical data from LinkedIn, digital marketing experts and content creators’ jobs are in high demand and growing fast.

Growth in hiring has been almost 33% for digital marketing professionals and 49% for digital content creators.

Now that you know the perks of proofreading let’s explore the tips that can help you to do so –

1. Print it out – Reading your words on the printed page can help you find spelling mistakes, sentence fragments, and run-ons more quickly than trying to track them down on a bright computer screen.

• You can even modify the text formatting if that helps you look at it differently. Use a color pen of your choice to track changes or edits along the way.

1. Read aloud – If you hear your writing, it can help you listen to lines that don’t sound right.

• For example, you can check if your content has too many poetic sentences, overuse of particular phrases, and unnecessary words.
• Sometimes a writer doesn’t realize that the sentence structure is poor or that the main point isn’t clear until they hear it aloud.

1. Cut long sentences – Considerable lengthy sentences are grammatically correct. However, long sentences often contain several ideas, which causes quickly to lose the reader’s focus quickly.

• In addition, they don’t provide a break, leading readers to lose interest.
• Therefore, when you spot a comma-heavy sentence, try to give those segments a new pitch and break them into small parts.

1. Avoid adverbs – Adverbs detract from your writing because they aren’t descriptive.

• For example, modify it to ‘ She sprints instead of using adverbs like ‘the girl runs fast.
• Instead of saying ‘the cat creeps or tiptoes’, say ‘it creeps or tiptoes’. Or, ‘the screen door didn’t slam shut with a thud’ but ‘the door slammed shut.
• You need to replace the weak verb + weak-ly adverb combination with a more robust verb.

1. Stick to one voice – Sometimes, it’s necessary to use both the first and second person, but that can be jarring for readers.

• For example, you might start by talking about yourself, then switch halfway through the piece and address the reader.
• Throughout each piece of writing, try to use the first-person “I” voice or the second-person “you” voice.
• If you have to swap, start with one and work your way to the other. You must not switch back and forth between the two. Else, your readers will become confused.

1. Remove excess punctuation – It’s simple to make a significant impact with a striking hyphen here and a thought-provoking semicolon there.

• However, a literary text with several punctuation marks — parentheses, colons, and so on — does not flow smoothly.
• You can usually get rid of these unnecessary punctuation bits with commas or by completing a phrase and starting a new one.
• As a result, your writeup will become even more potent if you are engaged in writing an assignment.

1. Replace negative with positive – Rather than describing what something isn’t, explain what it is.

• For example, “You don’t want to make these faults in your writing,”, can be rephrased as “You don’t want to make these mistakes in your writing.”
• It’s a lot easier to understand.
• Therefore, find a method to rework negative assertions in your writing that contain the words don’t, shouldn’t, can’t, or another similar term without the “not.”
• That means you’ll probably need to develop a more forceful verb.

1. Match up your bullet points – Using bullet points is an effective way to organize complex ideas.

• Just make sure your bullets coordinate with one another.
• Too often, writers make the mistake of mixing all the points together.
• Instead, you should apply uniformity with the bullets throughout the post — to avoid confusion.
• If your topic is called ‘3 Career Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make’, here’s an example of adding bullet points in a segment:
• Failing to build a strong resume each time while you apply for a job
• Make sure you note down the necessary highlighting points before you make your resume
• You can turn nearly any concept into a tip by adding a verb.
• For example: “Remember always that sitting on your head benefits you to write better stories.”

Thus, make your bullet points consistent, and hence, your writing will become more fluent to read.

1. Take a break – Walking away from your writing project for some time and coming back to it with fresh eyes can help you gain a new perspective by creating an emotional distance between you and your work.
2. Keep your voice active – With active voice writing, the subject of a sentence is performing an action.

• That action is represented by a verb, which is the part of speech that anchors all complete sentences.
• While passive voice isn’t completely forbidden in a piece of writing, it’s usually a good idea to keep your tone energized, as it keeps your readers reading.

1. Edit line by line. A good editor will systematically go through a piece of writing line by line, and that is what you should do as well.

• However, it may take time and be a painstaking task.
• Still, suppose you’re editing your own work.
• In that case, you’ll need to look closely at the words you’ve written to find any outstanding issues like grammatical errors or typos.

1. Get familiar with style guides- Professional editors may come equipped with extensive editing skills.

• Still, it’s possible to learn what they know.
• First, look up which writing style guide applies to your writing.
• For example, you’ll likely want the AP style guide if you are copywriting. In contrast, fiction writing will use the Chicago Manual.
• Follow the proper guidelines and add them to your editing checklist: Are all the commas appropriately used?
• Do you check where they should be for a particular piece? Are words properly italicized or quoted?
• Knowing what to look for can not only expand your editing experience but help you become a better writer.

1. Avoid clichés – While cliche words or phrases may appear in good writing every so often, they are mostly dull.

• Unless you have a unique spin on them or can integrate them in a way that doesn’t seem tiring.
• Popular assignment editors will suggest you better phrases to include in your writing so that you don’t have to think much.

1. Embrace re-reading – Editing isn’t a one-time process. Chances are, you will need multiple read-throughs to find all of your weak sentences, grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, and spelling errors.
2. Mind your syntax – Be on the lookout for grammar and word choice issues.

• Certain words can change the whole mood or feeling, and using weak verbs and weak adjectives will only exacerbate that.
• Make sure your writing feels solid and transparent, and use a thesaurus with caution.
• If you are unsure how to use that word, you will go for another term.

1. Save the proofreading for last – Whether copy editing for content marketing or writing the first draft of an assignment, proofreading is the final step you should take when self-editing.

• As you go through your piece, you may need to rewrite sentences and paragraphs.
• Thus, keep looking for grammatical errors or a spell check before your final draft will only waste more time.

It’s okay if you spot errors along the way. However, when you have the skill of proofreading yourself, nothing can get better than that.

Author Bio: Samantha Donovan has a PhD in Linguistics and is a professor hailing from the US. She is also an associate of the academic helping brand Assignmenthelp.us as an editor and grammar checker. In addition, Donovan loves to read books and enjoy gardening in her free time.