define editing in an essay

How Do You Edit an Essay?

Correct errors and clear up clutter to polish your prose

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Editing is a stage of the writing process in which a writer or editor strives to improve a draft by correcting errors and making words and sentences clearer, more precise, and as effective as possible. The process of editing involves adding, deleting, and rearranging words to cut the clutter and streamline overall structure.

The Importance of Editing

Whether you're working toward completing an assignment or hoping to get something published, tightening your writing and fixing mistakes can actually be a remarkably creative activity. Thoughtful revision of a work can lead to clarification of ideas, a reimagining of images , and sometimes, even a radical rethinking of the way you've approached your topic .

The Two Types of Editing

"There are two types of editing: the ongoing edit and the draft edit. Most of us edit as we write and write as we edit, and it's impossible to slice cleanly between the two. You're writing, you change a word in a sentence, write three sentences more, then back up a clause to change that semicolon to a dash; or you edit a sentence and a new idea suddenly spins out from a word change, so you write a new paragraph where until that moment nothing else was needed. That is the ongoing edit...

"For the draft edit, you stop writing, gather a number of pages together, read them, make notes on what works and doesn't, then rewrite. It is only in the draft edit that you gain a sense of the whole and view your work as a detached professional. It is the draft edit that makes us uneasy, and that arguably matters most." —From "The Artful Edit: The Practice of Editing Yourself" by Susan Bell

Editing Checkpoints

"The final step for the writer is to go back and clean up the rough edges... Here are some checkpoints: Facts: Make sure that what you've written is what happened; Spelling: Check and recheck names, titles, words with unusual spellings, your most frequently misspelled words, and everything else. Use a spell check but keep training your eye; Numbers: Recheck the digits, especially phone numbers. Check other numbers, make sure all math is correct, give thought to whether numbers (crowd estimates, salaries, etc.) seem logical; Grammar: Subjects and verbs must agree, pronouns need correct antecedents, modifiers must not dangle (make your English teacher proud); Style: When it comes to repairing your story, leave the copy desk feeling like the washing machine repair guy who has nothing to do." —From "The Effective Editor" by F. Davis

Editing in Class

"A large portion of everyday editing instruction can take place in the first few minutes of class... Starting every class period with invitations to notice, combine, imitate, or celebrate is an easy way to make sure editing and writing are done every day. I want to communicate with my instruction that editing is shaping and creating writing as much as it is something that refines and polishes it... I want to step away from all the energy spent on separating editing from the writing process, shoved off at the end of it all or forgotten about altogether." —From "Everyday Editing" by Jeff Anderson

Tinkering: The Essence of Writing Well

"Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost... Most writers don't initially say what they want to say, or say it as well as they could. The newly hatched sentence almost always has something wrong with it. It's not clear. It's not logical. It's verbose. It's klunky. It's pretentious. It's boring. It's full of clutter. It's full of cliches. It lacks rhythm . It can be read in several different ways. It doesn't lead out of the previous sentence. It doesn't... The point is that clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering." —From "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser

The Lighter Side of Editing

"I hate cross-outs. If I'm writing and I accidentally begin a word with the wrong letter, I actually use a word that does begin with that letter so I don't have to cross out. Hence the famous closing, 'Dye-dye for now.' A lot of my letters make no sense, but they are often very neat." —From "There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say" by Paula Poundstone

• Bell, Susan. "The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself." W.W. Norton, 2007
• Davis, F. "The Effective Editor." Poynter, 2000
• Anderson, Jeff. " Everyday Editing ." Stenhouse, 2007
• Zinsser, William. "On Writing Well." Harper, 2006
• Poundstone, Paula. "There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say." Three Rivers Press, 2006
• revision (composition)
• Explore and Evaluate Your Writing Process
• The Drafting Stage of the Writing Process
• The Basic Characteristics of Effective Writing
• 5 Ways to Cut the Clutter in Writing
• The Whys and How-tos for Group Writing in All Content Areas
• Outlines for Every Type of Writing Composition
• Overview of Baroque Style in English Prose and Poetry
• Editing and Proofreading Marks in Composition
• Should You Write Your Own Recommendation Letter for Graduate School?
• Definition and Examples of Correctness in Language
• When and How to Use Strikethrough
• An Essay Revision Checklist
• What Is Style in Writing?
• What Is a Dangling Modifier?
• sentence fragment

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Learning Objectives

By the time you complete this section, you will be able to:

• Distinguish between proofreading and editing

Editing and Proofreading

What do you know about proofreading and editing? Take this quiz to identify what type of editor you currently are. Then, continue on to learn more about editing and proofreading.

When you think of editing, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Many people view the main task of editing as finding and fixing grammar or spelling mistakes. However, editing is much more. Editing is a process that involves revising the content, organization, grammar, and presentation of a piece of writing. The purpose of editing is to ensure that your ideas are presented to your reader as clearly as possible. Proofreading focuses on checking for accuracy in smaller details of your work. It is a part of the overall editing process, and is best done as the final stage of editing. In the next section of the workshop, you will discover how to implement an editing process that moves from big picture concerns through to the final step of proofreading.

Reflection Questions

• What do you do now to  edit   your writing?
• What do you do now to  proofread   your writing?

Effective Editing Copyright © 2019 by Christina Page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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What is Editing an Essay?

• Structural editing ensures that your essay is clear, coherent, and logical. The editor may change the order of your sentences, add or delete paragraphs, or suggest you cut down your word count. It also involves checking that your essay structure is appropriate for the task and audience.
• Substantive editing - This type of editing concentrates on the content of your essay. If you have missed important points in your argument, the editor will draw these to your attention. Also, suggest ways to bring out their significance. This may involve restructuring paragraphs or sections of your essay so that they flow better or adding more evidence to strengthen arguments.
• Copy-editing � This ensures that you have a grammatically correct essay with standard spelling, punctuation, and sentence structures. Also, ensures that it follows academic conventions such as citation style and referencing.
• Proofreading - The proofreader's job is to check for final typos and errors after the editor has finished working on your essay. The proofread essay is the final check before it is submitted for grading.
• Step 1: Put your essay aside for a few days before starting the editing process. This allows you to look at your essay with fresh eyes and helps you identify any errors or areas that need improvement more easily.
• Step 2: Identify the main idea of your essay and write it as a complete sentence. The main idea of this essay is that you should edit your essay.
• Step 3: Have someone else read your paper aloud to you. They will often catch mistakes you missed when reading through your paper.
• Step 4: Print out a hard copy of your essay so that you can make changes to it directly rather than on the computer screen. (This is also less likely to strain your eyes.)
• Are all your words spelt correctly?
• Did you use punctuation correctly? Are the commas in the right places? Are the semi-colons used properly? Are the apostrophes where they belong?
• Are there any grammar or spelling mistakes (like dropped letters, misplaced modifiers, or improper verb tenses)?
• Are there any long sentences that you could break into two or smaller sentences?
• Is the tone of your paper consistent throughout (i.e., formal, casual, friendly)?
• Do you have enough details and examples in each paragraph to support your main idea?
• Do all of your paragraphs consist of a topic sentence and conclusion? Do they resonate with the reader? Would any sentence(s) be better as a topic sentence?

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What is the essay editing and proofreading process?

This is the fourth and final chapter  Essay Writing . To complete this reader, read each chapter carefully and then unlock and complete our materials to check your understanding.   

– Describe an effective essay editing process

– Explain each of the five processes individually

– Provide examples of each process to guide the learner

Chapter 1: What are the basic sections of an academic essay?

Chapter 2: What is the essay planning process?

Chapter 3: What is the essay writing process?

Chapter 4: What is the essay editing and proofreading process?

Before you begin reading...

• video and audio texts
• knowledge checks and quizzes
• skills practices, tasks and assignments

Once you’re confident you’ve written as much of your essay as you can, and you’re happy with your argument structures and that you’ve sufficiently answered the essay question , the next set of processes you should follow before you hand in your final submission are to do with editing the essay. A well edited and proofread essay should impress your tutors, help you to score extra marks, and show that you have a careful eye for detail, even if you’ve misunderstood or omitted some concepts in the body of your essay .

1. Edit the Essay

The editing process is where you read over your essay carefully, checking for accuracy in concepts, ideas and arguments. When editing, you should also make sure that your essay is logically ordered, cohesive and coherent, and that all elements such as thesis statements and topic sentences connect and support each other. Some sentences may need rewriting, some pieces of evidence removing, or some ideas and arguments changing altogether. The most important thing when editing is that you’re not afraid to make changes to your writing. If a sentence, paragraph or even section of your essay is unconvincing or beyond fixing, then simply discard it and start again. Remember also that the editing process is not a one-time event. You’ll likely need to edit your essay multiple times throughout the writing process to get that writing to the best of your ability. 

2. Proofread the Essay

Proofreading is different to editing in that instead of checking for content and logic errors, you’re now checking for spelling , punctuation , grammar and vocabulary  issues, as well as the odd typo. It’s important to note here that you should proofread after editing, as you may have to change that content anyway.

To proofread effectively, you’re going to have to read your essay multiple times, checking extremely carefully every word and element of formatting . Some people prefer to print out their essay and proofread it by hand instead of digitally, and some people even ask their friends to have a look over their writing to check for errors or typos that the writer just sometimes cannot see. If you do decide to do the latter, make sure you don’t share your work with anyone that’s doing the same assignment for fear of being accused of academic misconduct through collusion. 

3. Check the Referencing

After editing and proofreading , and to make sure that you’re not going to be accused of plagiarism (accidental or purposeful), the next stage is to check the referencing throughout your essay. Make sure that you’ve provided citations for every instance that you include another author’s ideas, concepts or arguments in your own writing, as well as a matching reference for each source you cite in your reference list . Furthermore, should you use the exact words of another author as a quotation , don’t forget to include clear quotation marks and page numbers for your citation if you wish to follow accurate processes of referencing . 

4. Apply the Formatting

One final aspect of the editing and proofreading  process is to double check you’ve carefully followed all of the formatting requirements set out in your module handbook or as instructed by your tutor or module convenor. Formatting usually concerns areas of page layout, font sizing and style, margin width, indentation , headers and footers, as well as whether or not you must include a cover page  or even bind your assignment. Again, if you’ve carefully followed these guidelines, the assessor of your submission will likely feel positive about what they’re about to read before they’ve even started reading.

5. Submit the Final Draft

Now that you’ve completed the planning and writing processes and have edited, proofread, referenced and formatted your work correctly, you’re probably about ready to submit your final draft. Remember to submit it on time, and good luck!

To reference this reader:

Academic Marker (2022)  About Essay Writing . Available at: https://academicmarker.com/essay-writing/about-essay-writing/ (Accessed: Date Month Year).

• University of Birmingham
• University of Melbourne
• University of York

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What Is Editing ?

Home > what is editing.

Editing is the process that involves reviewing, organizing, correcting grammar and spelling, and formatting a piece of content.

Distinct from the content writing process, editing takes place after the content is drafted.

There are 4 main types of editing:

• Developmental, which focuses on the correctness and arguments of the writing to make sure the piece accomplishes its goals. Often there is a round of revision by the writer after this step. This step is best handled in-house by a subject-matter expert (SME).
• Line editing, which looks at each line of content and edits it for conciseness and clarity so that each sentence is as impactful as possible.
• Copy editing, which looks at the technical aspects of writing to make sure the piece aligns with the style and editorial guidelines given. Copy editing also looks at proper usage of words, readability, and grammar.
• Proofreading, which is the final step of editing yet should not be overlooked as it often catches the final errors and mistakes that can kill conversions.

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What Is The Typical Editing Process?

Great editing starts before a piece of content is even written. A writer should be given a brief that includes the topic, keywords that are being targeted (if the content is meant for SEO), the company style guide, and anything that needs to be included in the article (such as a call to action at the end or specific headings).

Once the article is returned, the real editing process begins. 

A Sample Editing Process, Outlined

First, an editor, usually an in-house subject matter expert, conducts developmental editing and reviews the piece for correctness and following the brief. They may have stylistic as well as substantive content edits to make, and the draft will usually go back to the writer for those changes before it is ready for line editing.

Next up in the process is in fact line editing . Line editing is where an editor, either an in-house expert or an outside provider, reads the piece of content in-depth and works the writing so that it does its job as well as possible. They look for conciseness, word choice, clarity of thought and argument, and more. This is the editing that makes a piece of content perform.

After line editing is  copy editing , which is the practice of technically editing a piece of content for adherence to brand guidelines, adherence to the grammar style of choice, and more. The copy editor, usually an outsourced person, makes sure that the content across a brand is consistent.

Finally, the piece is  proofread . Proofreading is the practice of reading a final draft before it is published. Coming from the world of traditional publishing and typesetting where it was very expensive to change the actual type letters once in progress, proofreading does a final review of the copy to catch any final typos or grammar errors before it goes to print (or before the Publish button is clicked on the internet). It is worth noting that some companies like proofreading to be done before developmental and line editing so that those higher-paid editors are not distracted.

Why and Does my content need editing?

Every piece of content needs editing. Whether you’ve been publishing on the internet for decades or are brand new to it, every piece of content needs to be reviewed before publishing because no writer is perfect.

Editors exist to help writers make their writing as good as can be so it accomplishes the writer’s goal.

Whether the writer is looking to generate an audience, capture leads, or simply educate their audience, an editor takes the written content and uses the levels of developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading to make that content stronger and to adhere to brand editorial guidelines.

What is editing (simple answer)?

Editing is the practice of revising text by looking for correctness of facts, clarity of argument, correctness of style and grammar, and review for typos and final errors before publication.

Is Editing A Trained Profession?

Yes, editing is a trained profession! While there are many “editors” in the marketplace who are not professionally trained, there are many who are professionally trained and have their MFA or an advanced degree to prove it.

These editors have studied for years and honed their craft so they can edit a piece of content correctly and confidently and return a top-of-the-line document.

Hiring Editors has changed.

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• Speak with editors you found yourself
• Try a few out
• See deadlines slip
• Get a bill bigger than expected
• Decide “editing doesn’t work for my business”
• Wait a few months
• Repeat the process

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  Editing: What Is It?

• Editing: What Is It?

The Definition of Editing

Editing involves making revisions to and suggestions about the content of a document. It includes improving the accuracy of language, the flow, the organization and structure, and the overall readability of the text. It also involves checking for grammatical and spelling errors.

In other words, editing involves a detailed review of a document while making additions, deletions, or other changes to conform to a specific, agreed-upon standard in order to prepare the document for a specific audience. A document should be edited at least once before it is proofread.

What's the difference between substantive and mechanical editing?

An editor must have knowledge of the style to which the document at hand must conform and must have the ability to make quick, sound decisions. Editors must also pay attention to every word on the page; however, the types of changes an editor makes depend on whether the client requires substantive editing or mechanical editing.

Substantive editing (also called developmental editing ) deals with the organization and presentation of existing content. Substantive editing involves rephrasing for smoothness or improved clarity; reorganizing, reducing, or simplifying documentation; and modifying explanatory tables, graphs, and charts.

Mechanical editing requires an editor to look for consistency in capitalization, spelling, hyphenation, and table formatting, as well as the use of abbreviations, punctuation, and numbers. An editor must also root out differences between the text and the tables, illustrations, and citations. While mechanical editing may seem a lot like proofreading, remember that editing is more comprehensive than proofreading. Mechanical editing can affect the content of the document, while proofreading should never affect the content of the document. We'll talk a little bit more about the differences between editing and proofreading shortly.

What makes a good editor?

Editing requires not only English language skills but also the intuition to know, at a glance, what is right or wrong on the page. An editor must gain a "feel" for a project's meaning and intention.

An editor must look for consistency and clarity and should be able to look at any piece of writing without bias.

An experienced editor recognizes unusual figures of speech and peculiar usage. He or she will know when to make an actual change, when to suggest one, and how to do so tactfully. Helping the author find his or her "voice" is a part of this process.

In work done by an effective editor, the mechanics are seamless and nothing is taken away from the author's message or the reader's experience.

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What is Editing and Why is it Needed?

INTRODUCTION

You may often wonder, ‘ What is editing in writing , and why does it matter?’ Editing is a part of the writing process that ensures the result is easy to comprehend, is free of errors and has the correct and even tone. The simplest way to define editing in writing is that it is the most important process in your writing journey that will make your work shine! 

After you are done writing your draft, an editor goes through it to check for grammatical and spelling errors. So to answer your ‘what is editing in writing ’ question, the editors also check the syntax and tenses and, when required, also ensure the work is factually correct. 

Besides your question of ‘ what is editing in writing ‘, it is also important to know that the editing process has various levels. So when you submit your work to the editor, let them know what you expect from them. 

To answer your next question on ‘ why do we edit ’, rewriting services could be required if your work requires more revisions. If it requires a structural edit, focusing on the most important things at the top and the remaining at the bottom, you need to avail the structural editing services. 

The importance of editing is such that even if your work may seem seamless to you, you will still require an editor to proofread it. Proofreading is going through grammar, sentence structures, punctuation, spelling, etc., and fine-tuning your work. 

Another thing you need to know about what is editing in writing is that you may be an excellent writer, but you will still require editing to have your work published. Every piece of published information you read has gone through a round of editing before it reaches you. So if you are thinking, ‘ Why do we edit ‘, you must know that editors are the ones who will add that magical touch to your work. The importance of editing is that editors will clean up your work while ensuring that your writing style is maintained. For example, your editor will remove redundant words and sentences from your work and replace a few words with more interesting ones – replace ‘said’ with ‘retorted’ or ‘asked’ with ‘questioned’ or ‘demanded’. These words tell you more about the speaker’s tone than just their action. 

Another answer to your ‘ what is editing in writing’ question is the flow. The editor will ensure your work is consistent in its narrative and is easy for the reader to understand. This can be done by removing redundancies, breaking or joining paragraphs and ensuring the tenses are consistent throughout. This will pretty much define editing in writing for you. 

Making mistakes is natural. So to answer your question, ‘Why do we edit ’, steps such as these will ensure your work is flawless and error-free. Editing skills are developed with years of experience. When you spend so much time writing your work, it is not possible to also find the errors. That is when the importance of editing comes into play. It is good to question, ‘What is editing in writing ’ because you need to be aware of the different types of editing that you may require. 

Another importance of editing is that your editor will ask you questions for more clarity on your work. At times these questions highlight redundancies or discrepancies. If you are still wondering ‘ what is editing in writing’, you must know that an editor will ensure readers can connect to your work. S/he will also ensure that your work is written for your target audience. There is a significant difference between academic writing and writing a fiction novel. While words such as don’t or can’t are fine to be used in a novel, they may be informal in academic works. Here the editor can use words such as ‘avoid’ or ‘refrain’. So now that we have finally answered what is editing in writing , there are various platforms you can avail of these services from. TrueEditors is one of the best in the editing and proofreading business and offers services at the most affordable rates for academic writers, authors, and businesses. 

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A Step-By-Step Guide to Essay Editing

Step 0: What, a step 0? Well, this is just a reminder about the essentials:

• It is recommended to print out each draft of your paper that you work on to make editing a more visceral experience.
• Read your writing out loud to involve more senses in the editing process. The more senses you involve, the easier it will be to spot mistakes.
• Read slowly and deliberately instead of speeding through the process. Take in each word and punctuation mark.
• Give yourself breaks between edits to refresh your mind and to be able to look at your new draft with new eyes.
• Make sure you go through at least three drafts of your essay.

Now that we got that over with, here are the actual steps.

Step 1: Look over your instructions.

You won’t believe how many times, even after two or three edits , students will find out that they have missed whole sections to include. Even worse, this happens sometimes right before the deadline! So, it is ideal to look over your instructions and requirements for the essay before doing any real editing work. Make sure your essay complies with the requirements in all detail. Say your teacher wants you to have three topics mentioned in your thesis statement. If you include two or four, you are not meeting the requirements. There is no use in playing with or trying to work around your teacher’s instructions. Do your best to follow the criteria according to its exact details. If you notice something is missing or that you added something that is not mentioned in the criteria, then fix these issues.

Step 2: Check out the main ideas

The first time you edit, you should not be too worried about miniscule issues like comma placement and a repetition of a word. Instead, concentrate on whether or not your main ideas are clearly expressed through your organization and phrasing. An essay is a formal document written to communicate a message. The most important aspect of an essay is whether or not you have communicated your main ideas, as without achieving this, your essay is useless. At this point, you should adjust your thesis statement, check out if your paragraphs flow smoothly, if your paragraphs are arranged in the right order to convey your message, and that your conclusion is more than just a summary (it should be more of a synthesis of what has been discussed in the essay and what this information means to the reader). The introduction is often struggled with, as not only are they difficult to write, but they are also tough to edit. Though the thesis statement is the most important sentence in the introduction, the hook and background information should flow well with the help of transitions. All information you present should be seamless, in that there are no awkward jumps in topics.

Step 3: Work on the content

At this interval, you should look at the meat of your writing: the examples, the quotations, your main phrases of interest, and the topic sentences you included. Many times, when we look back at our essays, we find that we can get better examples, quotations, phrases, and topic sentences to replace our existing content. Try not to be lazy and settle for the minimum, or less than that, just because you have already included something. In writing an essay , it is a normal part of the process to cut things and add new information. This step is often an easy task, as writers commonly look at and record many examples to use, quotations to insert, and ideas that were thought of before. Sometimes, it is only a matter of copying and pasting such information into your essay from a document you made for research and/or outlining.

Step 4: Check the thesis statement and organization again

Before jumping to work on looking at the finer details, it is best to once again check your thesis statement and organization after changing it (possibly radically) from the first draft. Read through your essay as a reader and see if the ideas make complete sense and if you are impressed by the reasoning and flow of the organization of thoughts. If you are satisfied with it, make changes accordingly to the thesis statement, transitions, and how paragraphs are arranged.

Step 5: Work out the phrasing

Read each sentence and see if it flows well. The word order should sound natural, with no awkward syntax. In addition, you should not overuse a thesaurus and insert the most complex words possible. Do your best to be communicative. There is no need to try to show off your vocabulary, or try to drown meaning in verbiage. Reading your essay out loud will allow you to spot such mistakes easier.

Step 6: Take a look at your tone and writing voice

The tone for essay writing is commonly formal, so if you’re using contractions, slang, and texting language, there is a need to change this. Furthermore, your writing voice can vary depending on the essay. Say you are writing a persuasive essay —you cannot write this in the same way you would write an expository essay. You need to write in a convincing manner. Your writing voice should match the content and purpose of the essay. Once again, it is good to look back at your criteria to be entirely certain what tone and voice you should use. If you make tonal and vocal errors, readers can be easily thrown off, and your meaning will not be properly conveyed.

Step 7: Be a grammar technician

Now is your time to check tense, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, verbs, pronouns, and so on. Check if each word in your essay makes grammatical sense. If your essay does not create meaning through grammar , then your essay will not be meaningful. Once again, it is key to read slowly in order to take in each word.

Step 8: Examine your punctuation

Punctuation can make or break a sentence. Each punctuation mark conveys a meaning and a mood. If you use a semicolon where a comma should be, for example, not only will your readers be distracted from your message, but they might get confused about what you are trying to say. Make sure to check the punctuation you use and to consider its accuracy. Also, some people have a habit of leaving out punctuation. Also, check if you have left out commas, periods, and the like while writing your essay.

Step 9: Read it one last time

Now that you have gone through all the official steps, you should print it out one more time and give it one more read with a red pen in hand to mark mistakes or areas to improve. It is best to give yourself at least a 15-minute break between edits to complete this last step. Preferably, a day is given to rest the mind to look at it freshly.

Step 10: Give it to a trusted person to read over

This trusted person can either be a tutor, friend, or colleague you believe has an eagle eye for catching mistakes in writing. You should not give your essay to a person at random. Print out a copy for him or her to read and mark up with his or her comments. Ideally, you can receive comments from several trusted individuals. This way, the commentary would be more comprehensive and valued.

Step 11: Check over the commentary from your trusted person

After you get commentary back from your friend, tutor, or colleague, look at what they have to offer, and fix your essay accordingly. You should consider each remark, weighing whether you should agree or disagree with the statements. There is no room for bias or pride: try to weigh the correctness of the remarks based on logic, rules, and gut reaction. You can even speak with your reader(s) firsthand to get a direct impression from him or her. Remind your reader to be completely honest and to not hold any criticism back. Editing requires you to be hard on yourself and your writing. In a way, you should be detached about what you write, seeing it rather as a product people are going to read, rather than something treasured by you (even though this may be the case).

Step 12: One last check, and formatting

Print out your essay one more time and read it over with the criteria in mind. Double check if you have met all the requirements, and that the formatting is the way it is supposed to be. Look at your citations and references list to guarantee that it is following the correct style ( MLA , APA , Chicago , or another one). Finally, after this step, you are now done with the perfect edit!

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