Basic Thesis Editing Tips: How To Make Your Paper Shine

For your thesis to be fully complete, it means you have passed through the rigorous process of researching, writing and most importantly, editing your finished paper. When all these are accomplished, you can then say your paper is ready to be submitted to the committee. This task cannot be successfully completed if you are not sure of how to effectively edit your finished paper. This is simply because editing is not as easy as writing since it requires a keen eye before you can spot the typing and grammar errors. However, you have no need to worry as listed below are certain tips to help you polish your paper. They are:

• Edit by section: This entails going over each section of your thesis to ensure that all points made are relevant to the topic or issue being addressed. If there are certain sentences or paragraphs that don’t belong to a given section, don’t hesitate to cut and move to more appropriate sections. In reviewing the sections also, ensure that each one contains enough analysis as to help your target readers understand the point fully.
• Edit by paragraph: With the section done, you progress to editing the paper paragraph by paragraph, making sure that the idea you intend to pass on to your readers are introduced in the first sentence of each new paragraph. For instance, you can start a sentence by writing “Furthermore,” “In addition,” and “However,”. This goes a long way in relating the new paragraph to the idea you are working on.
• Edit by sentence: Working on a project as large as a thesis is one that is bound to come with several mistakes, both typing and grammar. Your sentences should be short and concise, not more than three line. You should also take time to review the punctuations in your work. All quotations should be in quotation marks which can be single or double. However, if you are going with a particular style of quotation, consistently use than one, don’t mix up single and double quotation marks. Look out for homophone errors like you’re/your, lent/length, there/their, its/it’s etc. If there are too many fluff words, don’t hesitate to cut them off. Pay special attention to spellings of incorporated theories. The same thing applies to key names. Your utilization of capital letters should be right and consistent.

In editing your thesis, even the topic is not left out. If the content of your project does not match with the title, you can simply rephrase the title. This way, you don’t end up getting your target readers confused.