How Proofreading and Editing Are Different in Dissertation

This is without any doubt one of the biggest debates for writers and has been the bone of contention between the literary groups for a long time as no one seems to agree on the differences and the similarities between proofreading and editing. It is because while editing and proofreading are different and produce different outcomes for writers, the goal of both the exercises is to make the paper readable and give readers a good experience regarding the content.

If you are student who has been assigned a dissertation writing task by the teacher, you must be very careful in writing the paper and make sure to edit and proofread it once you are done with the writing part. It is because you will end up making a number of small but significant mistakes that could cost you the good grades you are looking forward to succeed in class. You must look up both and understand what function each of them performs; this will give you an idea on how you should treat your dissertation as this will help to work most efficiently on your paper and you will be able to present the most top quality dissertation to the teacher. 

This article is a guideline that will actually help to understand the main difference between proofreading and editing and how each of them contributes in making your dissertation completely error free:

What is editing 

Editing is all about making changes and suggestions in a text that improve its overall quality, particularly the language and the expression. After editing, the text becomes sharp and consistent, the expression clean and the overall readability of the writing is highly enhanced. The main purpose of editing a paper is that it should give the impression of writing being a native English writing, even if he or she is not a native speaker or writer. Some of the most important points that the editor will have to keep in mind when working and editing a piece is the overall quality of the writing and how it can be improved, the right use of language, how to make expression better, how to remove errors and inconsistencies and how to increase the impact of text for readers. 

The editor will focus on the choice of words that are being used to express your ideas so that you use words and expressions that readers can relate to and understand. In addition to this, the editor will ensure you are using passive voice to compel the readers to take action. 

What is proofreading?

On the other hand, proofreading is lesser invasive than editing but it continues to play a key role in enhancing a text. It is the process of getting rid of all surface mistakes such as grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation as well as other language errors that make the text childish and unassuming. The main goal of a proofreader is to find out and correct all types of spelling, grammatical and typing mistakes, ensure that text is consistent and properly formatted and the writing style is good which ensures better readability.

The proofreader will see if all the full stops, commas, colons and semicolons are in the right place, words that sound similar but deliver different means have been used correctly and the quotations and apostrophes have been used correctly and if the entire text has been properly spaced which not only enhances its intelligibility but also makes good for presentation. 

It is important to know that when you are working on your dissertation, both proofreading and editing play a key role in ensuring the document has been fully checked and is ready for presentation to the teacher. You cannot just pick one of them while leaving the other one as both play their parts in helping to get the paper ready for submission. 

The best thing to go about it is first editing the paper so that you have ruled out all inconsistencies to ensure the entire text contains one tone and structure and once this has been accomplished, you should move on to proofreading to make sure there are not grammatical, punctuation or typing mistakes that can irritate the professor who is assessing it with childlike mistakes. You are given to write a dissertation at the graduate or post graduate stage which means you are big and responsible enough to come up a high quality and meaningful paper. You should keep the significance of editing and proofreading in mind so that you can check your paper with a critical eye and ensure it is simply perfect and gets you good grades. 
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