Editing or proofreading your research paper or thesis can be a crucial step before submitting your final document. The self-editing or proofreading process can uncover both minor and major flaws that can determine whether or not your document qualifies for final approval.
Proofreading and editing your research paper, thesis, or manuscript can be done through one of four options:
Self-editing: Proofreading and editing yourself
Using paid AI proofreading software
Hiring a personal professional editor
Professional editing from a big online editing company
In this article, we discuss when you should use professional proofreading as opposed to proofreading yourself. I also talk about the advantages of professional proofreading services in general and the disadvantages of using each of the four proofreading options.
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What is self-editing?
Editing your own work or self-editing is the process of checking and correcting your own written work to make sure that the final version is free of errors. Self-editing is usually the last step of the writing process. Even if you eventually rely on a professional editor, you should still have a final stage of self-editing before handing your work over to a professional.
It can be perfectly fine to proofread and edit your document on your own. That means you won’t have to pay for someone to do so. Thus, saving you money. This is a good option if you are a native English speaker or have native English level proficiency in the English language.
If you do plan to carry out proofreading by yourself, here are a few tips to follow:
1. Work against a style sheet. To proofread properly, you first need to know what you are looking out for. This can be achieved with the use of a style sheet. What is a style sheet? A style sheet is "A record of terms kept by a manuscript editor to document particular usages for a specific manuscript" (CMoS 17, 2017, p. 988).
A style sheet will include:
The style guide being used. For example, APA, CMOS, or MLA.
Deviations or exceptions from the style guide that should be followed in your manuscript
Spelling and abbreviation lists
Required formatting for headings and tables
Punctuation rules. For example, using Oxford comma
2. Give your manuscript distance. This simply means allowing time to pass between your first edit and final proofreading. Working intensively on a manuscript may blind you to glaring flaws or mistakes. Allowing one to three days to pass may give you “new eyes” that can see what was missed before.
3. Use a second pair of eyes. In addition to distance, having someone else look at your manuscript would make it possible to discover mistakes that you are unable to uncover by yourself. Again, too much investment in a work can lead to biases and blind spots. A friend may be free of such biases and blind spots.
Self-editing can help in producing A-grade manuscripts. However, you need to have the experience, English expertise, and the discipline. Here is a self-editing checklist to pay attention to:
Using proofreading software for self-editing
Using proofreading software can be seen as an aspect of self-editing. There is highly specialized software that can be used to edit your manuscript. Many of them have only been developed only in the past few years.
However, not all proofreading software is built equally. There are only a few proofreading software designed specifically for academic editing. They include but are not limited to:
PerfectIT
Sribendi AI
Scribbr’s proofreading AI
This type of software is ideal for long documents such as theses and dissertations. They ensure stylistic consistency, such as using abbreviations, proper spelling, and heading/subheading formatting style throughout the article.
For example, if you are using a foreign word in a 10,000-word article that needs to be in italics as required by the APA style guide, you can simply click a button to make sure that word is italicized throughout the article.
However, proofreading software is not a replacement for a human proofreader. It's hardly possible to achieve the best proofreading results with paid proofreading software alone. They are best used alongside or even by a professional proofreader.
Using Grammarly to proofread
You should pay special attention when using proofreading software. Some software are designed for professional or business editing. That means you should use it for emails, and blogs, and other business documents. Grammarly falls squarely in that category.
Grammarly is excellent for professional writing, such as business emails and blogs. However, for research writing, it would be best to rely on proofreading software optimized for academic writing, such as PerfectIt, Scribendi AI, and Scribbr’s AI proofreader.
Lastly, it should also be remembered that a tool is as good as the person using it. Proofreading software is best used by someone who has a high level of English skills to begin with. Without the proper editing or proofreading skills, proofreading software may not have the intended effect.
For the time being, proofreading software is best used in conjunction with a professional proofreader. They are by no means a substitute for a proofreader. Also, with the rapid rise of ChatGpt, some may wonder if it can be used to edit content.
ChatGPT can be used for proofreading, but it has not been optimized for academic editing and proofreading. It would be best to use professional proofreading and editing software designed and trained specifically for academic writing. However, teh software may be used for non-academic writing such as blogs.
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How Eminentedit can help
Self-editing should be seen as part of the full editing process which ends with professional proofreading services. It's not a matter of having to choose between self-editing and professional editing.
Even when you feel that you are a competent enough writer, you should consider having a friend assist you with reading and revising your manuscript. Even professional editors often rely on this kind of pair system of editing.
Proofreading tools, such as PerfectIt can help make both the self-editing and professional editing process smoother. However, if you are not skilled in academic writing, it would be best to allow professional proofreaders and editors to use these tools in editing your manuscript.
EminentEdit provides premium content editing services to ensure that your customer-facing content gains the trust and interest of your readers. We make sure that even before any work gets done we both are on the same page. Take a look at our editing SOP below.
Our services don't just start with proofreading the final manuscript or document. It also includes help from the very start, such as editing and double-checking your content briefs or proposals. Our content editing services include the following:
Editing for tone of voice
Substantive editing to improve the quality of your writing on a sentence level
Proofreading to make sure your writing is grammatically correct with proper spelling and punctuation
Help with editing according to academic style guides such as APA, MLA, etc.
Help with editing AI-generated content
Get in touch through our contact page here: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, August 15). How to Edit Your Own Writing. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/self-editing-your-own-work |
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