A perfect research document is a stepping stone to successful PhD degree. But writing a research document is not as easy as pie. No matter how carefully you have penned down the research document, you will be stunned to find glaring errors within each section on the second visit. Hence, before submitting the research document to the review committee, it becomes a necessity to proofread it.
Proofreading, the final step of the writing process, is not the same as reading! You cannot simply “read over the writing” and find all the errors. Proofreading takes time and effort. We proofread to find grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors, typos and omitted or extra words. As per the editors offering top-notch thesis proofreading service, some of the proofreading tips that can effectively polish your research document are:
1. Check capitalization and acronyms
Names, titles, terms, and headings should all be written in a similar manner. To find inconsistencies in them, go through your document for every usage of a term, and ensure that each instance is written the same way. Not just this, acronyms should also be used consistently. Each acronym should be defined the first time it is used and should replace the term it represents thereafter.
2. Check hyphens, en dashes and em dashes
Hyphens, en dashes and em dashes look so similar! Isn’t it? Hence it is common to mix up hyphens (-), em dashes (—) and en dashes (–). Pay attention to the hyphenated terms and eliminate such pesky punctuation errors!
3. Check the spelling
Make sure the language is consistent throughout the research document. Plenty of online spell checkers are available these days. Use them to determine the errors in the spelling. But do not solely depend on them as they will not catch all the spelling inconsistencies. For example, realise and realize, both are accepted spellings. But realise is used in UK English, whereas realize is used in US English. There are many such words that need your attention. Ctrl+F and check for words ending with ze, se, ce, etc. if you are not aware of UK and US English spelling take help from the team delivering thesis proofreading service.
4. Check for headings and formatting style
Maintaining a consistent formatting style throughout the research document is very essential. Read each of the headings individually, and ensure they are all formatted consistently. Also check if the indentation and spacing are the same across all paragraphs. Most style guides recommend using one space after a period, not two.
5. Pay attention to non academic words
Do not just pay attention to the academic words. Non academic words too deserve your attention. Go through the words like when, where, what etc across each section in your research document and ensure they are used appropriately.
6. Eliminate the dead verbs
Verbs play a crucial role in a sentence. But often scholars fall back into dead verbs like is, are, was, were, etc. Ensure no such dead verbs are included into your document and if exists eliminate them immediately.
Proofreading is not an easy task for sure. Most of the time your mind would read what it wants to. To ensure your research document is free from all the errors and is approval ready, take some assistance from the editors providing thesis proofreading service.