Why is Paraphrasing Such a Big Deal at University?

If you’re an academic, a graduate, or student currently enrolled at a university or college, you’ll know all about the joys, difficulties, and complexities of paraphrasing. What you may not know is that paraphrasing services provided by professional paraphrasers and document rewriters are available on-demand to help you with this tricky task.

The purpose of a paraphrasing service (or rewriting service) is to help you articulate a passage of text in your own words (i.e., rather than using the words in the original text) without losing or changing any of the original meaning. If you’ve ever been assigned a paraphrasing task in an academic context, you will be familiar with the extensive investment of time and effort required to do this to a high standard. For this reason, using Proofreading services can prove invaluable in terms of their time-saving and even its sanity-preserving effects.

You may be wondering, as a student or even as a professional academic, why it is that paraphrasing and rewriting skills are emphasized so strongly in the academic setting. After all, wouldn’t it simply be easier to use a direct quotation? Furthermore, if another author has already taken the time to express a thought or argument very concisely, eloquently, or powerfully, what’s wrong with reusing their words to make the same point in another context?

In many cases, there is absolutely nothing wrong with directly quoting another author. However, it must be added here that this is only permissible practice – both practically and ethically – if a clear attribution is made to the original author. After all, if you had spent a great deal of time on a particular task that you were passionate about, only to find that somebody else illegitimately took credit for it, you would not feel happy about it.

So, if directly quoting other authors – which is a common practice in academic works – is acceptable, why do most universities make their students develop paraphrasing skills? And why do many professors within universities dock marks from students who fail to paraphrase and, instead, rely heavily on direct quotation?

There are several reasons why this is the case, the most prominent of which is the belief among many university officials and university educators that developing paraphrasing skills is an essential part of a well-rounded education. Many educators perceive that if a student can express another author’s ideas in their own words, this is evidence of their adequate understanding of those ideas. On the other hand, if the student simply quotes the author, it is difficult to tell whether they have even read the quote let alone understood it.

All in all, paraphrasing is certainly a big deal for students at universities and colleges around the world. Furthermore, if you develop the capability to paraphrase the words of other authors with confidence, you will find yourself with a much stronger command of language, and you will also likely learn a substantial amount. If you’re unsure about how to go about paraphrasing a text, though, working with or talking to a professional paraphraser can be a valuable learning experience.

 

3-Bad Writing Habits and How to Correct Them

As you develop as a writer, you are likely to pick up some habits along the way. Some of these habits will be useful, such as being able to whip-up a draft rapidly in a positive stream-of-consciousness style, but other writing mistakes may derail your message or even frustrate your future readers.

Leveraging professional proofreading services can account for bad writing habits if they are spotted in the professional proofreading process, but it’s still worth knowing what these habits are. Thus, to help you improve as a writer, this article highlights some of them with solutions.

1. Procrastination – Alternatively, use blocks of time

Procrastination is one of the most well-known habits associated with writing. It is also one of the most pernicious, often leaving you stressed and deflated about how you are progressing.

To solve it, block out periods of time in your calendar that you can dedicate to writing, editing and proofreading, during which you will commit to doing nothing else. If procrastination is a major issue for you, be sure to keep these blocks of time as short as possible as this will help ease you in.

Image: Blocking out time in your calendar can help solve procrastination

2. Run-on sentences – Alternatively, use punctuation well

A run-on sentence – commonly referred to as a fused sentence – occurs when two independent sentences are compressed into one without using proper punctuation (e.g., a semi-colon or a full stop) or a suitable coordinating conjunction. Long sentences are not necessarily run-on sentences, but it is often the case that the most egregious run-on sentences are extremely long and difficult to understand.

To correct this popular writing habit, professional-grade proofreading – which, in fact, you can provide yourself if you are attentive, careful, and have a good grasp of language fundamentals – is a key option. During the proofreading process, try to spot areas that have a natural pause in them. In these areas, introduce suitable punctuation (e.g., a semi-colon or a comma) to chop up the run-on sentence, helping your reader absorb your message better.

Image: If reading the sentence feels like running a marathon, something has to change

3. Overuse of exclamation marks – Alternatively, think about your tone

In text messages and social media messages, exclamation marks are pretty much ubiquitous. However, in your blog writing or any other pieces of writing your produce, overuse of exclamation marks can have a comical effect, which ultimately detracts from the message you are trying to convey.

As an alternative, think first about the attitude or tone you are aiming to convey in your written work. Tone is influenced by factors like punctuation, syntax, and word choice, and if you manage these elements carefully, they can have a much greater effect on your readers than even an infinite number of exclamation marks. 

Image: Overuse of exclamation marks can undermine your tone, even in light-hearted text

How to Edit Documents

One of the easiest ways to edit any document – whether an academic essay, a poem, a novel, a blog article, or anything important – is simply to order editing and proofreading services. Most companies that provide these types of services, including companies offering book proofreading services UK, have a pool of writing and editing professionals who can help you on any writing-related task you may have.

However, if you are committed to editing a piece of writing yourself, there are a few tricks of the trade that are important not to overlook. This article covers the main points that will help you do a great editing job irrespective of the type of document you are working with.

 

1. Use an editing checklist

Any wordsmiths out there will know how valuable it is to use an editing checklist. This is what professionals use when they provide editing and proofreadingservices as it enables them to ensure that nothing is neglected when working on a piece of writing. No matter what type of document you have in front of you, having an editing checklist to hand will prove invaluable.

For almost all editing tasks, a standard checklist that can be applied fruitfully to improve the document will focus on the following issues:

·         Clarity

·         Concision

·         Punctuation mistakes

·         Spelling mistakes

·         Incorrect use of prepositions and conjunctions

·         Formatting errors

·         Consistent tense

·         Consistent tone

·         Subject-verb agreement

If you approach the editing task with a checklist like the one above beside you, you’ll find that you can edit almost anything!

 

2. Choose the right words and phrases, not the most complex-sounding ones

Oftentimes, writers will favour words that are complex or long, which is generally an unnecessary and undesirable practice. It’s understandable that writers sometimes do this, especially when they need to appear authoritative about the topic they are addressing. However, in writing, bigger is not always better.

When editing, therefore, if you keep in mind the general rule that you should aim for concise words and phrases rather than complex-sounding ones, this will go an extremely long way toward improving the quality of the document you are working on. After checking over the version of the document you edited using this general rule, the writer will likely be impressed as they will be able to easily understand what they previously wrote much more effectively than they originally could.

 

3. Kill your darlings

Being ready to “kill your darlings” – which is to say that you are ready to get rid of parts of your writing that you may be very proud of – is an essential part of the editing process. If you are willing to eliminate any sections of your document that don’t contribute to its purpose, and if you act on this during the editing process, you’ll be well-positioned to optimise any type of document you are working on.

A Comprehensive Guide to Essay-Writing

Editing and proofreading services, and even book proofreading services in the UK, should always be a writer’s go-to when they are nearing the end of the writing process. In the case of proofreading services, these are ideal when you have finalised your writing and need to add extra polish, while editing services are useful at an earlier stage when you are trying to optimise the way your writing comes across to its intended audience.

However, if you are nowhere near the stage of making use of editing and proofreading services, it’s useful to know about some of the resources and strategies that can help you along. For example, essay-writing – which is the focus of this article – is an often-daunting activity that editors and proofreaders cannot help you with, and so it’s worth learning about how to complete this particular task well.

 

What are the main types of essays?

Every scholar out there has their own classification system for essay types, but here are a few of the most common ones:

• ·         Persuasive essay: Seeks to convince the reader of a certain point of view.
• ·         Admissions essay: Explain why the candidate is interested in applying to a particular institution.
• ·        Expository essay: Comprehensively introduces a given topic, ideally in an objective and unbiased way, to increase the awareness and knowledge of the reader.
• ·        Comparison essay: Describes a pair of opposing issues, arguments, or – for that matter – anything else (e.g., artworks, computing systems, and so on).
• ·         Personal essay: Communicates anecdotal events and typically written in a narrative structure.

 

What structure should an essay have?

Although there are many types of essays, most tend to follow a similar structure:

·         Introduction: Sets the background and context for the essay, the key topics it will cover, and – by the time it has finished – clearly communicates to the reader what the focal point of the essay is.

·         Body: A series of paragraphs or sections and subsections, ordered in a logical and coherent way, that present evidence in support of the focus of the essay.

·         Conclusion: Wraps up the essay, potentially reiterating its key points and, if the word count allows, adds a new perspective for understanding the focus of the essay. Generally, conclusions should not introduce new evidence.

 

How can I write a strong essay?

As noted earlier, it is usually recommended to call on a professional editor or proofreader only once you have written all – or most – of your essay. Once it is finished, the editor or proofreader can help you to optimise the written work you already have, but they cannot write the document for you.

If you’re not yet at a point where you can do this, consider following the process described below to help you along:

• ·         Mapping ideas
• ·         Planning
• ·         Drafting
• ·         Revising

During the final revision stage, it may be useful to consult with an editor to see if you have gone in the right direction. Also, remember that after the revision stage, it is essential to proofread your work.

4 Good Tips When Proofreading Your Own Work

One of the surest ways to ensure that your document is free from errors, is to use a professional proofreading service. When you recruit an expert to provide proofreading services for your university work, novel, or journal article, you can rest assured that they will spot all of the embarrassing errors that you may have made.

However, ordering a proofreading service is not the most cost-effective way to ensure that your written work is in a pristine and presentable condition when it comes to publishing it. Rather than using proofreading services, if you check your own work, this can save you the expense and, if you do it carefully, yield the required results.

Proofreading your own work, though, is not a simple task. This is the reason why professional proofreaders train for many years, as it enables them to develop the complex skills needed to do the job efficiently and effectively. Nevertheless, if you are eager to get stuck in to the proofreading process, this article offers 4 quick tips that will help you improve the presentation of your work.

 

1. Use a good spellchecker

Using a high-quality spellchecker is the first crucial tip that you need to follow if you decide to proofread your own work. Many good spellcheckers are freely available, ranging from the array of software solutions built into programs like Microsoft Word ,to other online options such as Grammarly. Be sure to run through your work with a spellchecker both before you start proofreading and after completion.

 

2. Begin only after finishing your final draft

This is an often-overlooked point, but it is one of the most important ways to improve the speed and quality of your proofreading process. If you start proofreading your work before you have finalised it, then you are likely to need to make further changes even after you have finished the first round of proofing. This makes the process unnecessarily lengthy, meaning that you should begin proofreading only after finishing your final draft.

 

3. Check carefully for homonyms

Spellcheckers are an indispensable tool when proofreading your work, as noted in the first tip given in this article. However, spellcheckers overlook many issues that are obvious to the human eye, one of which is the so-called “homonym error”. A homonym is a word that has a similar pronunciation to another word but a different meaning and spelling (e.g., “bear” and “bare”), and – as you can check right now – your spellchecking software will reliably fail when it comes to spotting homonym errors. For this reason, you need to check your work carefully for homonyms.

 

4. Aim for consistency

A major part of a proofreader’s job, but one that’s often overlooked even by many professionals, is to ensure that all aspects of a manuscript are consistent. This ranges from consistency in spelling and grammar to consistency in capitalisation, numbering, punctuation, and many other areas. Therefore, before you finish proofreading, undertake a systematic check for any areas where consistency is desirable (e.g., Are headings all in title case? Does section numbering skip any numbers? And so on).   

Should I use a rewriting service?

Rewriting services, also commonly referred to as paraphrasing services, are an excellent all-rounder to use. This is because a paraphrasing service can be used to achieve almost any writing-related goal. In contrast to proofreading and editing services, which are mainly focused on correcting errors and other inconsistencies in your document, paraphrasing services are much more flexible.

Image: Paraphrasing services come in handy for all sorts of writing tasks

Given the greater flexibility of a proofreading service compared to the work undertaken by editors or proofreaders, it is important to ensure that such a service actually suits your case use. Otherwise, if you work with a rewriter when you only needed an editor, you’ll needlessly have to pay a higher fee. This is due to the greater complexity, skill, and time required to rewrite a document compared to editing and proofreading documents.

One of the most well-known use cases of professional rewriting services is to avoid plagiarism. There are computer programs and software available today that are marketed as solutions for this issue, but many students and academics recognize how inadequate these programs are. For example, some of the leading automated paraphrasing systems cannot produce coherent text, let alone capture your unique authorial voice while reducing plagiarism.

Other than helping to avoid plagiarism, rewriting services play a valuable role in speeding up the process of conducting research. In addition to this, researchers and academics can exploit rewriting services to increase the comprehensiveness of their procedures. For example, if excerpts from scholarly articles are collected, arranged, and sent for rewriting to a professional paraphraser, the application of a rewriting service leads to the production of something like a literature review. When this mechanism is used for research purposes, it serves as a tremendous accelerant.

Taking the easy way for once is advisable. Many researchers overload themselves with diverse tasks, ranging from writing to teaching to fieldwork to editing to design (e.g., preparing experiments). If they reduce the number of tasks they are coordinating, such as by working with a professional document paraphraser or rewriter, this can allow them to focus on where their strengths lie. For individuals who are in this position, this represents one of the ideal occasions to use a rewriting service.

As a final reason to use case for rewriting services, which may help you decide when to use such a service, consider a situation where somebody needs to summarise one or several documents, or they have to reduce the word count of a single document. In this scenario, recruiting an expert in paraphrasing can help you solve the fairly dull and time-consuming task of summarising documents or reducing  word counts.  

 

The role of editing and proofreading when writing your thesis

In many ways, writing a thesis is like writing a book. Just as there are book proofreading services UK for people writing novels or short stories, there are also editing and proofreading services that can make it easier to write your thesis. Oftentimes, working with an editor or proofreader who specialises in your subject area can help you optimise your thesis.

When you work with an editor or proofreader to improve your thesis, you save substantial time and you also ensure that your ideas are conveyed in the clearest possible way. This represents a double-win: you can allocate the time you save to other important academic tasks, and you can also benefit from a high-quality document. This helps to ensure that you receive the best mark that you can for your all-important final submission at your university.

Many users of editing and proofreading services wonder about how these services actually work to improve their written documents. What exactly is the role of editing and proofreading in enhancing your document? How is it that cooperating with an editor or a proofreader can change my thesis? These are critical questions that this article seeks to help answer.

Above all else, the role of editing and proofreading in the thesis-writing process is concerned with a collection of carefully applied steps. These steps cover the following issues: language, consistency, and progression of ideas. At the outset, it is also important to ensure that your writing, formatting, and referencing styles satisfy the requirements published by your university.

For example, your department may ask you to use the Harvard, Modern Language Association of America (MLA), or American Psychological Association (APA) styles. Always remember to pay attention to the edition of the style guide you are using as there is a substantial difference between, for example, the 6th and 7th APA style guides. It is worth noting that sticking to the style guide as you write your thesis can save you a significant amount of time when reviewing your work. This can also save you money if your proofreader or editor does not need to spend as long revising your document.

Regarding the important steps involved in editing and proofreading your thesis, these are mentioned above: language, consistency, and progression of ideas. Language refers to the dialect or the regional/national variation that exists in the language used (e.g., US or UK English). It is important to ask your department about the dialect of English to be used. Consistency refers to the overall use of terms, tense, numbering, formatting, abbreviations, and referencing in your document. Finally, the progression of ideas is concerned with the coherence and logical flow of your writing.

When you work with a professional editor or proofreader to improve your thesis, you can benefit from dramatic improvements in language, consistency, and progression of ideas. Coupled with the benefits of time-saving and freeing you up to complete other tasks, working with a proofreader or editor typically plays a valuable role in optimising your thesis.