Essay Writing: The Basics

Editing Your Essay

Most essays are dramatically improved by careful editing. Good essays are the product of writing and rewriting. If you have time, put your essay aside for a few days before you begin to edit. This gives you time to gain a perspective on what you have written and to think further about your answer and arguments.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Have I answered the question as fully as possible?
• Is my essay clearly structured?
• Does my argument make sense? Is it well balanced and researched?
• Are my paragraphs and arguments clearly connected and coherent?
• Are my examples and quotes relevant to and supportive of my answer?
• Have I used a consistent referencing style?
• Have I referenced all my quotes and paraphrases?
• Have I remained within the set word limit?

For more about editing, see our Editing Checklist.

Don't despair when you find faults in your essay - this is part of the editing process. If you find that you need more information, or your argument has holes in it, keep calm and concentrate on fixing any problems.

Once you have a well-organised and fairly complete draft:

• Revise sentences. Make sure the words you use mean what you think they mean. A good dictionary is a useful tool.
• Check transition signals - be sure that a reader can follow the sequences of ideas from sentence to sentence, and from paragraph to paragraph.
• Check punctuation and spelling.

Next Step: Handing in your essay

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