Editing

Revising, Editing & Proofreading

ana.lacerda@mail.utoronto.ca — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:35:35 +0000

Revising, Editing & Proofreading ana.lacerda@ma… Wed, 08/14/2024 - 16:35

Skills Categories:

Academic writing

Skills Keywords:

Editing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Writing process

This Resource Page Will Help You:

Understand the differences between revising, editing, and proofreading.
Apply these different techniques to your writing process.

Roadmap presenting the fours steps to prepare an academic paper or literature review and indicating you are currently in step 4, part 2, revising, editing and proofreading.

Introduction

After drafting your paper, you need to review it carefully. The review process is divided into three steps: revise, edit and proofread. Contrary to what many people assume, these are not synonyms – they involve different goals, procedures, and outcomes – but each one is integral to a quality written product.

Step 1: Revising

What is Revising?

Revising involves focusing on the content and organization of the overall text and considering sections, passages, or paragraphs that need to be changed, added, or removed.

Think about whether your writing

contributes to the overall purpose of the paper
flows logically and smoothly from one section to another
contains all the important information
avoids unnecessary information.

How to Revise your Paper: Reverse outlining

This is helpful after you’ve written a rough draft and especially when you want to check the logical flow of ideas within a section or paragraph.

Re-read each section of your paper and create an outline of the key points and evidence therein.
Analyze the structure and flow of the paragraphs within a section
If needed, re-organize the paragraph into a more logical order, or recognize points that need to be added or removed.

Reverse outline (example) (48.14 KB, PDF)

This example with annotations shows how a student revised a paper section by identifying the key points to make sure they flow logically.

Tip: Take a break/ask a friend

After completing a rough draft, take some time away from your paper so that you can revise it with a fresh set of eyes or more objectively. You can also ask a friend or classmate to read it over, asking them to pay attention to the clarity of ideas.

Step 2: Editing

What is Editing?

Editing involves focusing on clarity and accuracy of language at the sentence level.

Editing considerations include

Sentence structure
Clarity
Concision
Vocabulary usage
Grammatical accuracy
Tone and formality
Consider the audience (e.g., understanding the differences in writing for a generalist or specialist reader)

How to Edit your Paper

1. Sentence Structure

Using a variety of different sentence structures is most effective in creating a dynamic and readable text. As you edit, make sure that you aren’t using the same structure repeatedly.

One of the most common issues to look out for is the balance between passive and active voice. The passive voice is fine when used selectively but can make a text overly wordy, repetitive, and unclear when overused.

Examples below are taken from: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/formandstyle/writing/scholarlyvoice/activepassive

Example: Overuse of Passive Voice (Unclear ‘doer’ of the actions)

A survey was administered. Using a convenience sample, 68 teachers were invited to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. Email addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation were provided by the principal of the school. The teachers were emailed an information sheet and a consent form. Responses were collected from 45 teachers…

Example: Overuse of Active Voice (‘I’ is quite repetitive)

In this study, I administered a survey. I created a convenience sample of 68 teachers. I invited them to participate in the survey by emailing them an invitation. I obtained email addresses from the principal of the school…

Example: Balance between Active and Passive

In this study, I administered a survey using a convenience sample. Sixty-eight teachers were invited to participate in the survey. The principal of the school provided me with the email addresses of teachers who fit the requirements for participation. I emailed the teachers an information sheet and a consent form. A total of 45 teachers responded…

2. Clarity

There are numerous considerations when focusing on clarity, such as providing ample explanations of your points (rather than assuming the reader will understand) or using technical terminology appropriately (see point 7 below).

Here is an example of how to use language effectively for clarity by avoiding unclear pronoun references.

Unclear Example

The income gap between rich and poor has continued to widen over the past decade, contrary to mainstream economists’ predictions. This indicates that new models are required to understand this.

Clear Example

The income gap between rich and poor has continued to widen over the past decade, contrary to mainstream economists’ predictions. This disparity between theory and reality indicates that new models are required to understand this trend.

3. Concision

In the field of Education, the audience for our scholarly works consists of other researchers but also practitioners like school administrators and teachers, sometimes even parents. As such, it is important to use concise and direct language rather than long and complex explanations. Concision makes your writing easier to read and thus more accessible to a wider audience.

Below are eight strategies you can follow to make your text more concise.

Eliminate unnecessary words

Career growth was an important factor in why participants chose to enroll in continuing education. -> Participants enrolled in continuing education for career purposes.

Avoid repetition

TOO REPETITIVE: In my opinion, I think that...
CORRECT: In my opinion...

Cut long introductions

TOO LONG: This point is further supported by the fact that…
CORRECT: Furthermore
TOO LONG: For all intents and purposes, this project will…
CORRECT: This project will

Delete “filler” words

UNNECESSARY FILLER: This reveals that the approach is clearly qualitative…
CORRECT: This reveals that the approach is qualitative…

Construct active sentences

PASSIVE: The error message was written by robots.
ACTIVE AND CONCISE: Robots wrote the error message.

Substitute phrases with a word

A majority of… -> most
Due to the fact that… -> because
At all times… -> always
At the present time… -> currently

Replace “wordy” sentence structures such as relative clauses with adjectives, noun phrases, etc.

Educators face issues that are very serious -> educators face serious issues
A course that focuses on language methodologies -> a course on language methodologies OR a language methodologies course

Replace sentence structures “it is + adjective + that...” or “it + verb + that...” with one verb

It is important that teachers attend professional development courses -> teachers should/must attend professional development courses
It seems that students prefer constructive feedback -> students seem to prefer constructive feedback

Editing for Concision (example) (84.5 KB, PDF)

This example shows how to use concision strategies in a paragraph.

4. Vocabulary usage

There are many vocabulary issues to pay attention to. Examples include

countable/uncountable nouns (Research vs. Studies)
preposition combinations (Research in a field vs. Research on a topic)
function of transition words (Although vs. However)

Here is an example combining all three issues:

Incorrect Example

Although, researches on the field of education argue that students’ social and emotional well-being is as important as their cognitive development.

Correct Example

However, research in the field of education argues that students’ social and emotional well-being is as important as their cognitive development.

5. Grammatical accuracy

Common grammatical errors to be aware of include subject-verb agreement, article usage, and appropriate verb tense among others. Let’s use the same example above to demonstrate:

Incorrect Example

However, research in field of education argue that students’ social and emotional well-being is as important as their cognitive development.

Correct Example

However, research in the field of education argues that students’ social and emotional well-being is as important as their cognitive development.

6. Tone and formality

For different assignments or text types, your academic tone and formality will change. For instance,

traditional research paper: more formal with a “standard” academic style and language
reflective writing: less formal with a more narrative style.

One of the most common strategies to use for a formal academic style is avoiding phrasal verbs and upgrade them to more formal sounding academic verbs.

Example with Phrasal Verbs (not very formal)

Given our fast-paced society, academics must routinely put creative solutions to unexpected problems into practice.

Example with Academic-style Verbs (more formal)

Given our fast-paced society, academics must routinely implement creative solutions to unexpected problems.

7. Consider the audience

With a generalist audience, you need to communicate your thoughts more simply and directly. You can do this by defining key terms and/or avoiding too much jargon (technical terminology).

However, a lot of the writing we do in grad school is for a specialist audience who already know a lot about your topic. In this case, you need to avoid the definitions and explanations provided for generalists because specialists will already be aware of them. When editing your paper, for example, think about how much knowledge your professor (the reader) has about your topic and adjust your language accordingly.

In the following examples, the same sentence is written using specific vocabulary (appropriate for a specialist audience) and explanations of concepts (more appropriate for a generalist audience).

Text for a specialist audience

In the field of language teaching and learning, scholars in the plurilingualism and translanguaging traditions have been working to break down a monolingual approach that has been widely accepted for more than a century.

Text for a generalist audience

In the field of language teaching and learning, scholars who promote theories about using all of one’s languages for language learning have been working to break down a monolingual approach that believes in the strict separation of languages and has been widely accepted for more than a century.

Note: In the generalist example, you can use technical terminology as long as you explain what they mean (e.g., “monolingual”)

Step 3: Proofreading

What is Proofreading?

This process involves looking for smaller technical errors on the levels of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Depending on the formatting style of your discipline or department (APA at OISE), proofreading also means making sure that you have correct citations, font style and size, references list, etc.

How to Proofread your Paper

1. Find a sample APA paper

There are many minor formatting considerations to take into account with APA and very little room for creativity. In addition to the list above, there are also specific requirements for your cover page, headings, and paragraph spacing. The best way to apply and learn all these specifications is to access a sample APA paper online and then format your paper accordingly.

Make sure it is the correct edition (APA 7th Edition at the time of writing), as the American Psychological Association changes its formatting requirements every few years.

For more information about APA, check our Resource Page on Citations and APA Style.

2. Upgrade your punctuation

Beyond the period/full stop, many students struggle with comma, semi-colon, and colon usage. Take some time to learn the different ways of using the above punctuation, which will contribute to more varied sentence structures and more advanced writing overall. Also, become acquainted with major sentence structure errors so that you can avoid them.

Below are some common punctuation issues with examples.

Incomplete sentences

WRONG: Protests against immorality which became very strong by 1928.

Feedback: The use of ‘which’ means that another clause is needed after ‘1928’.

CORRECT: Protests against immorality became very strong by 1928,
CORRECT: Protests against immorality, which became very strong by 1928, divided the nation.

Run-on sentences & Comma splices

A run-on sentence combines two (or more) complete clauses without punctuation or linking words. This type of sentence is wrong and needs to be broken up.

Example: The results were tabulated they were statistically significant.

A comma splice combines two (or more) complete clauses with a comma. This type of sentence is wrong and needs to be broken up.

Example: The results were tabulated, they were statistically significant.

The sentences above need one of the following:

a “stronger” punctuation mark to break the two clauses (e.g., period/full stop, or semi-colon)
a conjunction (e.g., and) between ‘tabulated’ and ‘they’ to break up the two complete clauses

Correct Examples: The results were tabulated. They were statistically significant. (period / full stop)
The results were tabulated; they were statistically significant. (semi-colon)
The results were tabulated, and they were statistically significant. (conjunction)

Learn more about

Example Paper

Editing, revising and proofreading a paper (student sample) (91.3 KB, PDF)

This example with annotations shows how a student revised, edited and proofread the introduction paragraph of a paper on language policies in Beijing.

Our Tips

Keep the three steps separate. It can be difficult to focus on a paper’s global elements (Revising) and local elements (Editing, Proofreading) at the same time. Review your paper multiple times focusing on these elements separately.
Use technology for editing. AI applications or Grammarly are becoming increasingly effective in pointing out editing issues such as awkward wording, overly long or confusing sentences, or grammatical accuracy.
Use technology for proofreading. Use the spell/punctuation checkers on Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Basic errors on these levels can leave a bad impression on professors during the marking process.

Use vocabulary resources. On freecollocation.com you can search for collocations (i.e., high frequency word pairings), such as preposition combinations and noun-adjective combinations.
Think before you submit. Before submitting, re-read your paper one last time, zoom out, and reflect on your revising, editing, and proofreading processes. Is there anything you missed? Is there anything that could be improved?
Ask for help. Visit the OISE Student Success Center (OSSC) and book an appointment with an advisor to get help at any of the above stages. OSSC advisors don’t proofread your papers, but give you feedback on portions of it that you can apply to the rest of your written work.

Help & Additional Resources

Related Resource Pages on ASH

Additional Resources

On Campus Services

Citations and APA Style

ana.lacerda@mail.utoronto.ca — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:40:34 +0000

Citations and APA Style ana.lacerda@ma… Thu, 08/31/2023 - 10:40

Skills Categories:

Academic writing, Research skills

Skills Keywords:

Citations, Editing, Plagiarism, Writing process

This Resource Page will help you:

Learn what citations, reference lists, and APA style are
Understand when and why you need to cite
Create proper citations and reference lists in APA style

What does "citing" mean and what is APA style?

When writing an academic paper, you often need to refer to other people’s research and ideas to support your own arguments and ideas. When you engage in academic writing, you are contributing to an ongoing conversation, so it is important to give credit to other researchers’ contributions. This is why when you refer to other researchers’ work, you should cite the sources you consulted.

Citing means referring to ideas from other authors’ works and providing enough information about these external sources (e.g., author’s name and when the source was published) so that readers can locate them in the reference list at the end of your paper.

Before you learn how to cite, you need to know what a citation style is and which style you should use. A citation style is a set of rules on how to cite (e.g., type and order of information that should be included, formatting, punctuation). There are various citation styles (e.g., Chicago, Modern Language Association). You can find information and guides for different citation styles from Citation Styles (University of Toronto).

At OISE, most of your course assignments will require you to follow the APA citation style. APA stands for American Psychological Association (APA), and the APA style is a type of citation standard normally employed by authors writing papers in social science fields, including education and psychology.

In academic papers written in APA style there are two main citation components:

in-text citations
reference list

What are In-Text Citations and How to Create them?

An in-text citation is a brief form of reference you insert in the main body of your work where you refer to the content from an external source. There are two types of in-text citations: Paraphrased citations and Direct quotes.

Check the presentation below to learn how to create paraphrased citations and direct quotes. Click on the arrows below the progress bar to move forward and backward through the presentation pages.

Learn more about in-text citations: In-Text Citations: The Basics and In-Text Citations: Author/Authors (Purdue’s OWL guides).
When should I use direct quotes and how can I introduce them? Check Using Quotations (U of T University College Writing Centre).
How can I talk about others’ research? Check [Resource page on how to talk about others’ research].

What is a Reference List and How to Create it?

The reference list is a list at the end of your paper where you include all the sources you used for your in-text citations so that readers can find the works you cited in your paper.

A reference list in APA style must

appear at the end of your paper
include every source you cited
include only the sources you cited (i.e., not sources you read or consulted but didn't cite in your paper)
include all the necessary information for others to find the sources you cited

Check the presentation below to learn how to create reference lists in APA style. Click on the arrows below the progress bar to move forward and backward through the presentation pages. Click on the blue dots to see what information must be included in your references.

To learn about other types of reference list entries, refer to:

APA Style Reference List - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University (check the left-hand menu for reference list entries of different types of publications)
“References” on APA Style .

When and Why to cite?

You need to cite when:

You use the exact words from others’ works (direct quote)
You paraphrase the words of others’ works in your own words
You summarize the general or a particular idea of others’ works
You draw on data or statistics from others’ works

When discussing common knowledge, consider several questions to decide if you need to cite. See the diagram on the right.

Our Tips

When citing literature, you should prioritize paraphrasing the content in your words over quoting from the text as it can better present your understanding of the literature and how it connects with your points. To learn about how to paraphrase other authors’ words and ideas in your own words, please check [Rana’s paraphrasing resource page].
When working on longer papers and for an easier experience with in-text citations and your references list, consider using citation management software like RefWorks or Zotero. The University of Toronto Library offers students such tools for free. For more information, you can check Citation management guide (University of Toronto).
The OISE Library offers reference and research services to support graduate students. You can book a free consultation with a librarian to seek out resources and services on research work search, and citation management strategies and tools.

Editing

Revising, Editing & Proofreading

Table of Contents

This Resource Page Will Help You:

Introduction

Step 1: Revising

What is Revising?

How to Revise your Paper: Reverse outlining

Step 2: Editing

What is Editing?

How to Edit your Paper

1. Sentence Structure

2. Clarity

3. Concision

4. Vocabulary usage

5. Grammatical accuracy

6. Tone and formality

7. Consider the audience

Step 3: Proofreading

What is Proofreading?

How to Proofread your Paper

1. Find a sample APA paper

2. Upgrade your punctuation

Example Paper

Our Tips

Help & Additional Resources

Related Resource Pages on ASH

Additional Resources

On Campus Services

Citations and APA Style

Table of Contents

This Resource Page will help you:

What does "citing" mean and what is APA style?

What are In-Text Citations and How to Create them?

What is a Reference List and How to Create it?

When and Why to cite?

Our Tips

Help & Additional Resources

Related Resource Pages on ASH

Additional Resources

On Campus Services