Common Dissertation Proofreading Mistakes

Technology has developed exponentially over recent years and as it continues to develop and become an ever greater part of our lives, it affects our social behaviors and changes patterns. As everyone now has a smartphone people are focusing less on what they are typing as they are aware that autocorrect will pick up and correct their errors. The increasing use of text speak is also affecting peoples use of grammar. This reliance on technology is having a direct effect on academic writing. For example if you are preparing a dissertation and are at the final stage of this undertaking dissertation proofreading, you will be less likely to pick up on errors as the patterns and mistakes that would have been made have become engrained within society. Therefore it may be necessary to consider using a dissertation proofreading service.

It is also worth considering some of the basics if you do choose to proofread your dissertation yourself. When dissertation proofreading some common mistakes include incorrect use of the words 'they're', 'their' and 'there', as well as 'your' and 'you're'. Considering these examples in further detail, once a person understands the definition of each term, it is much easier to use them correctly:

•    ‘They’re’ – this is a contraction of ‘they are’, They’re going to the shops
•    ‘Their’ – refers to belonging to a person, They forgot their lunches
•    ‘There’ – this is where something is, I found my glasses over there
•    ‘Your’ – describing belonging to you, Is that your car?
•    ‘You’re’ – this is a contraction of ‘you are’, You’re going to be late for school

On the whole, contractions do confuse many people. Therefore to decide whether or not you are using a contraction in the correct form, first use the contraction within the sentence. 

If ‘they are’ would still make sense in the same sentence, then the contraction ‘they’re’ can be used.

Moreover it has also become common to confuse words such as 'genuinely' and 'generally'. The two words have very different meanings, and therefore using them incorrectly in an academic piece of writing would be a very significant mistake:

•    ‘Genuinely’ – authentic, real and true, I genuinely passed my exam
•    ‘Generally’ – usually, as a whole, in general, I generally don’t enjoy jazz music

Furthermore, it is also common for people to now confuse and make mistakes in relation to punctuation. Confusing commas is particularly common, commas have many uses, many people however simply put them in the wrong place, or do not use them in a sentence where they could be beneficial to the writing. Commas can be used to separate articles in a list:

•    ‘I went to town and bought a bag, a purse, three pairs of jeans, and a pair of boots’ (the last comma is optional, known as an ‘Oxford comma’)