Dissertation Writing Tips For Students: How To Edit Your Paper

It takes a lot of time and effort to write a dissertation. Once you have finished your paper, start editing it. Be aware of the deadline, keep it in mind and make sure that you have several days or even a week for revising your writing. Firstly, take a break and calm down in order to become focused. Any silly mistakes may spoil the quality of your work. Consider the following tips and guidelines while revising your writing.

1. Edit the structure first.

Read the paper to see whether it is well-organized and planned. Use transition words to ensure the smooth segues between chapters, sections, and paragraphs. Remove the irrelevant information if any. Add some more details or examples if you consider them to be important. Make sure that every paragraph has a topic sentence and presents one clear idea.

2. Check the style and language.

Use appropriate formal academic language from the beginning to the end of your dissertation. Slang and colloquial phrases are not acceptable. Use gender-neutral language. Ask the supervisor about the style requirements set by the relevant department.

3. Correct mistakes.

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing. Look through your paper attentively, read sentence by sentence. Check it for spelling, grammatical, punctuation, and content flow. If you have poor knowledge of the language, use word processing tools to correct the first three types of errors or ask a professional editor to help you in this matter. The second option seems to be more reliable.

4. Format the dissertation properly.

Find out the formatting standards that have to be applied throughout the research work. Don’t forget about the title page, abstract, table of contents, introduction, conclusion, reference page, and bibliography. Verify whether all the necessary diagrams, illustrations, and tables have been added. Find out and adhere to the dissertation requirements of your university or relevant department if you don’t want to have to redo the paper.

5. Don’t rush through the research paper.

Be calm, find a quiet place, and move slowly from one sentence to the next. It’s better to have a hard copy of the work for proofreading. Those students who panic usually overlooka great deal of mistakes because they are unable to think clearly.

All in all, while students are editing their research papers they should focus on the accuracy of the text and consistency of the structure. It is also extremely important to collaborate with the supervisor and meet his or her demands.