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how to proofread essays by apricitystudies

(section one: before beginning) ideally, you should finish writing your essay a few days before the due date so you can step away from it for a while. this helps you to 'forget' what you wrote and allows you to proofread with fresh eyes. after staring at the same piece of writing for so long, your brain tends to fill in the gaps itself as you read, leading you to miss mistakes.

(section two: the key to effective proofreading is to edit in rounds) each round, focus on and attempt to fix a different issue. this requires you to have a little bit more time to edit, which is why you should finish writing early.

(round one: content) argument: does your argument make sense? is it strong? is it logical? evidence: is your research robust? are your points all backed up with sufficient evidence? is every piece of evidence necessary and relevant to your argument? elaboration: is your argument well developed? is every piece of evidence explained, analysed, or critiqued? is the research you provide linked back to and used to support your argument?

(round two: flow) map: have you provided a clear and concise roadmap of your essay? linking: are your paragraphs linked? do the last sentences of each paragraph flow into the next? have you shown how your points are connected? coherence: is your argument logical? is the order of your points easy to follow? is the reader able to see the progression of your argument? TIP: put all the topic sentences of your body paragraphs into one single paragraph. do they make sense together?

(round three: language) vocabulary: have you repeated words/phrases excessively? is your paraphrasing accurate? sentence length: are your sentences overly long? can they be split up? cohesion: does your writing flow? does it sound stilted or clunky? is everything you've written clear? punctuation: are your quotation marks correct? have you used em dashes, colons, and semicolons accurately? small errors: are your spelling and grammar correct?

(round four: format) referencing: are your in-text citations/footnotes correct? is every piece of evidence referenced? style: have you used the correct font size/style? is your line spacing correct? are your paragraphs justified/indented if they're supposed to be? page setup: are your margins set up properly? are your headers/footers/ page numbers correct, if required? bibliography: are your bibliography entries correct? are they in alphabetical order? is the line spacing and indentation correct?

(section three: other tips) 1: change your font to something like comic sans. this makes your brain work harder to read and stops it from skipping words/phrases. 2: print out your essay and go over it with a red pen. mark as if you were a teacher and pick out as many mistakes as you can. 3. read it aloud or use a text-to-speech function. listening to your writing helps you to identify awkward writing and repeated words.

(title) a guide to essay writing by apricitystudies

(background section)

before you start: essay preparation. understand the requirements, dissect the question, create an essay plan, and create a research log. i go into more detail about this stage in my essay preparation post linked below!

the essay’s components:  from your planning, you should already have a working thesis, a list of main points, and a body of research. these are the building blocks around which you'll construct your essay. it's alright if they change as you go along! all you need is a rough idea of where you want to take your essay.

(introduction section)

introductions should go from general to specific.

1. the preamble. start with some background information on your topic. what is it about? why is it important? are there any terms you need to define? what you include here depends on the type of essay you're writing, but in general, a good preamble is one that can take a person with absolutely zero knowledge of your topic and bring them up to speed.

2. the thesis. this is where you'll state your thesis: how you plan to answer the question. a good thesis should be clear, straightforward, and relevant to the question. a reader should walk away from your thesis with a firm grasp of what your stance on the essay topic is.

3. the roadmap. this is an overview of how you will prove/expand upon your thesis. essentially, you'll list your main points briefly to show clearly how you will explore the topic and justify your thesis. a good roadmap should outline the flow of your essay and explain to the reader why you believe your thesis is true.

note: the introduction isn’t final! the introduction is (in my opinion) the most fluid of essay sections. it's perfectly fine if you choose not to start with the introduction or only write parts of it before moving on to the main body of the essay. what you want to say in your introduction often becomes clearer only after you've written the rest of it.

(the essay body section)

this is the main portion of your essay (the patty of your essay hamburger, if you will). here, you'll prove your thesis by illustrating how your main points relate to and support it. a typical body paragraph will go like this:

the topic sentence. this is the first sentence of your paragraph, and it states clearly and succinctly what the main point of the paragraph is. a good topic sentence should relate to the essay question AND support your thesis.

explanation. here, explain exactly what your topic sentence means and give reasons to back it up. for example, if your topic sentence is that the theme of loyalty is a source of conflict in 'Romeo and Juliet', your explanation could state that the main characters' are forced to choose between the opposing loyalties to their families and to each other, creating the central problem in the play.

evidence and elaboration. now, support your topic sentence with proof. this is where your research will come in. insert a piece of evidence that supports your argument, followed by an elaboration on how it does so, & repeat until you feel your point is sufficiently proven. your aim is to convince the reader of your argument and lay out how your research led you to your conclusion (i.e. your topic sentence).

link. this is the final sentence of your body paragraph, and it essentially reasserts your topic sentence. a good link will summarise everything you've just written and relate it back to your thesis.

a note on ordering your body paragraphs: your aim here is to make your essay flow as naturally as possible.  sometimes, the sequence of your points will be clear. one point leads to another. in this case, your paragraphs will already be in an order that makes sense and moves logically through your argument. sometimes, not so much. your points stand alone and have little influence on each other. in this case, place your strongest point last and your second-strongest first to make a good first impression and have a lasting impact on the reader. your weaker points should go in-between.

(conclusion section)

conclusions should go from specific to general.

1. restate your thesis. begin your conclusion by restating your thesis. what did the reader just read? try and paraphrase your thesis as much as possible to avoid being repetitive. this sentence should remind the reader what your argument was and what you were aiming to prove in your essay. again, it should be related to your main points.

2. sum up your main points. repeat the main points of your body paragraphs (i.e. your topic sentences). don't include any evidence or elaboration here; your goal is to recap how you have explored your thesis and answered the question. if this portion of your conclusion doesn't match the previous one, you probably need to revise your essay.

3. provide a final comment. this is the most freeform part of your conclusion, and it depends on your essay topic. it should illustrate why your thesis is important. does your thesis affect society? does it add to an existing, important dialogue? can it help to solve a problem? is there another aspect that needs to be explored further? are there future ramifications? your final comment could be:

X continues to be relevant even today, as its impact on ... remains clear in ...

X stands as an interesting and novel viewpoint on the question of ..., challenging the long-held notion of ... and offering a new and welcome perspective.

The issue of ... could perhaps be examined through the lens of X, which provides several possible solutions to ...

However, another factor to be considered in X is ...

X serves as a poignant warning of ...

essay preparation: a guide by apricitystudies

(section one) the planning stage: getting ready to write

1. understand the requirements: all the things you need to know before you start doing anything else. what’s the word count? how many and what types of sources do you need to use? what’s the required referencing style? what criteria will you be graded on?

2. dissect the question by examining three types of terms. key words, or terms that dictate the topic and focus of your essay. instructional words like ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘discuss’, ‘compare and contrast’, and ‘explain’, which tell you how you should answer the question. scope words, which determine the scope of your essay through location, time period, or people.

(next are two examples which i annotated by hand, so i’ll try my best to express them in text form! sorry if the meaning is unclear.)

example 1: breaking down an easy question. what effect does economic hardship have on the rise of totalitarianism? discuss this relationship using examples from the 20th and 21st centuries. here, ‘what’ is an instructional word and ‘effect’ is a key term -- the question is asking you to identify the types of effects. ‘economic hardship’ and ‘the rise of totalitarianism’ are key terms, and this is the relationship the question is focusing on. ‘discuss’ and ‘using examples’ are instructional words telling you how to got about identifying the effects in this relationship. the ‘20th and 21st centuries’ are scope words.

example 2: breaking down a vague question. was the cold war a real or imagined conflict? ‘was’ is an instructional word telling you that this is a yes-or-no question. ‘cold war’ is a key term and  the focus of the question. (end of examples)

3. creating an essay plan, which comprises three parts. a working thesis, or how you will answer the question, the main points of your essay, or how you will prove your thesis is true, and the order of those points, or how you will organise your answer.

an example essay plan based on the earlier question: was the cold war a real or imagined conflict? working thesis: the cold war was a real conflict because it had real, unquestionable, and lasting impacts. main points in order: the impact off the arms race on modern nuclear arsenals, the impact of the korean and vietnam wars, and the impact of the ideological division of europe. this is a highly oversimplified plan! (end of example and planning section)

(section 2) the research stage: gathering information

1. determine what you need to know using these three questions to help narrow the scope of your research. what types of sources do you need? (e.g. journal articles, primary sources, books, etc.) what information are you looking for? what evidence do you need to back up your main points?

2. make a research log: a single document that contains all the information you need to write your essay. below is a screenshot of a table. the top row is a colour-coding system to split evidence by body paragraph. below, the left column is for in-text citations or footnotes for each source. the next column is for the page numbers of each quote. the final and largest column is for the quotes or evidence themselves.

final note: make sure to create your bibliography as you go!