Tips to help improve with academic writing

Good academic writing is essential for every student, academic or researcher. There are several things that you can bear in mind that will help you to improve your academic writing.

First you should create a focused and informed argument out of your good ideas and intended topic. Your argument needs to be true and arguable. At the beginning you should think of your argument or hypothesis as changeable; as you test your argument, your ideas will become more focused. Academic writing requires analysing and not summarising your focused argument by first considering your topic from all sides and then examining how these parts relate to each other or to the whole. When you analyse, you break the whole into parts so that you might see the whole in all the different ways your readers might. Some readers may agree with you, some may not. Think about how you want to own your ideas; and how you will leave your mark on your ideas, either by analysing them in a new way, organising materials in ways that make your ideas stand out, or by offering a counter argument that no one has thought of.

Also consider: Who is your audience? When writing an academic paper, you must not only consider what you want to say, you must also consider to whom you are saying it. It’s important to determine not only what you think about a topic, but also what your audience is likely to think. What are your audience’s biases and values, expectations and knowledge base? Remember, your audience is NOT you.

Additionally you should ask yourself: What is your purpose? If your audience knows less than you do on the topic, your first purpose is often instructional or an informative stance. If the audience knows more than you do, your first purpose is usually to display familiarity, expertise, and intelligence. Be as specific and detail oriented as possible. Don’t expect your readers to know what you know. You are the expert in this study.

A few more tips to bear in mind are as follows:

1. Create an objective, confident voice

Use the third person (this means not using 'I')

Most of the time you will be expected to use the third person as it enables you to show that you are being objective.

2. Use appropriate language for your audience and purpose

Academic writing need not be complicated, but it does need to have an element of formality. Your choice of words for an academic assignment should be more considered and careful.

After you have completed your academic paper and have checked it repeatedly, you may want to consider using a professional academic proofreading service. Express Proofreading offers a specialist academic proofreading service and is widely recognised as the leading company in this field.

Why use a CV checking service?

A CV is designed to convey your professional achievements in a concise and clear format to potential employers and recruiters. A CV will typically be one or two pages long depending on your exact professional status. It will cover not only your career history but also your other achievements, such as academic, personal, and your hobbies and interests. It essentially should give a potential employer a snapshot of what you are like. The employer will look at your CV against a checklist of their criteria and determine whether you are a suitable candidate for the job. They will also then decide whether to invite you for an interview or not.

Therefore, getting the CV absolutely right for you based upon your achievements showcasing them to the maximum extent is essential. It is estimated that employers spend on average under a minute looking at a CV so you have to present the information in the most effective way. CV checking services are therefore a good option to consider in order to enhance you CV and give it that extra edge that it may be missing otherwise.

What does the CV check involve?

A CV check will be carried out by a professional CV checking service. The CV service will most likely use their experience in enhancing and improving the CV. As part of their CV check they will look at the content and the structure of it, they will break down the information into sections so it is clear where all information goes. In addition to this they will try to present the information in very simple and logical segments, this will aid the employer in picking up on the information quickly. They will also use bullet points and various fonts to make the writing and presentation look clear and attractive. However, most importantly they will rephrase and reorder information so that it is clear what types of skills you have gained from different experiences as the transferrable skills will be essential for any job.

Overall it is clear that the CV is incredibly important, it is your first chance to create a good impression. The CV has to get the reader’s attention and it has to do this quick as most employers will have numerous CV’s to go through. Therefore, to enhance the CV and to make it stand out it is worth getting your CV checked by professionals, as they have experience working with many CV’s and improving them. There are many such CV reviewing services so when you find one that is right for you make sure that you ask them exactly how their CV check can help you. This is key for setting realistic expectations.

Academic Proofreading Increases Chances of Being Published

Every year many academics begin the long and arduous journey of attempting to get their works published in academic journals. Publishing academic work in a prestigious journal can be difficult because the standards are so high. Many journals will have their own standards, however in general all will have certain minimum standards. For example it is absolutely essential that writing is clearly written, sentences are well structured and that there are no punctuation errors and also grammatical errors. Maintaining these standards is essential for academic journals, therefore before you submit your writing you have to thoroughly proofread and edit your writing to be sure that it meets these standards.

To this end it is worth considering academic proofreading in order to increase the chances of the journal article being published. Academic proofreading is the process of reviewing a journal article for grammatical errors, punctuation errors, stylistic and syntax issues and typos. The detailed process of proofreading is aimed to remove and correct all these issues in order to increase your chances of the article being accepted and published.

If you have previously submitted an article to a leading journal and it has been rejected, the first thing is to review the feedback and the reasons for this. Next you should ask yourself whether you can make the necessary adjustments and changes yourself. If not, you should consider using a professional academic proofreading service. They specialise in helping academics get their works published. They work with you to take on board the feedback and make enhancements to your writing. Additionally, such services will hire editors with extensive experience doing this type of work, many of whom also have their own works published, it is for this reason they can guarantee an improvement.

If you do choose to use an academic proofreading service to help you to publish your work you need to find out some information prior to doing so. First you need to check that the proofreading company has experienced editors and that they have expertise in your speciality, this adds extra contextual benefits. Also make sure you confirm that they will take on board the feedback that you have already received. In addition make sure that they confirm a turnaround time with you so that you do not miss any deadlines. Once you have chosen the right company for you, it will no doubt make the difference and help you to get published.

Proofreading Services vs Grammar Checkers

Proofreading services and automated grammar checkers have both become essential to the online content industry, they ensure quality by providing the final checks before publication. However, both can have different degrees of success. In order to consider the benefits of each it is necessary to first define the role of a proofreading service and that of grammar checkers. A proofreading service provides human checks for errors, grammatical inconsistencies and punctuation and syntax issues. It involves an editor reading the text to correct the errors. Whereas, a grammar checker is often an automated software that will scan the document for inconsistencies against a predefined set of grammar and punctuation rules.

Benefits of human proofreading services

The benefits of the human proofreading service over the grammar checkers are that a qualified editor will have years of experience. It is also likely that they will have a similar background in the subject matter. Therefore they can bring that experience and background into the proofreading process to identify errors and making changes in context. These may be subtle changes, however they are changes that only someone with the relevant background will spot.

Negatives of the human proofreading service

There are also negative aspects to using a human proofreading service, for example using an editor to go over your text is a much longer process and will take more time. Also due to the length of time and the value of the experience, the costs of this type of service will be greater.

Benefits of a grammar checker

There are numerous grammar checkers available now, many of them will provide a free automated check of your document this in turn will help you to spot any errors and inconsistencies. The benefits of this are that it is instant, and much cheaper and in many case free.

Negatives of grammar checkers

Grammar checkers although quick and much cheaper will not pick up everything. In particular it is the contextual changes and issues that they cannot address, an editor with a relevant background will be able to pick up on contextual changes.

In conclusion

To conclude although both proofreading services and grammar checkers provide benefits, they are different degrees of benefits depending on what you need. A grammar checker as already discussed will be quicker and cheaper and is useful if you are in a hurry. However, it will not pick up on all the contextual issues that a human editor can do and a human editor will be more expensive. Therefore, you have to weigh up depending on your urgency, your budget and your needs which one is best for you.

Process Used By Academic Proofreading Services

Many academic proofreading services employ different practices and processes. Therefore this article will set out the industry standards of how academic proofreading should be conducted by a proofreading service. It is good practice to make changes made to academic writing using the Microsoft Track changes functionality. This enables the company to provide a comprehensive proofreading service that is clear, transparent and professional. Once your work is sent back to you should ideally receive two copies, a ‘Proofread Copy’ and a ‘Final Copy’.

The proofread copy will have been edited using Microsoft Track changes, the changes will be visible slightly differently depending on whether you are using Windows or a Mac. In Windows any deleted text will have a line through it and all inserted text will be underlined. However, on a Mac all deleted text will appear on the right hand margin and all inserted text will appear in the main body of the text highlighted. Also, comments made by the academic proofreading service editors regarding your work will appear on the right hand side of the screen in the changes column.

The Microsoft Track changes function can be turned on or off by navigating to the ‘Review’ tab at the top of the screen, followed by clicking ‘Track Changes’.

Once you receive the proofread version back from any academic proofreading services you will see the changes that have been made. You can then either choose to accept each individual change by clicking either ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’. Alternatively, once you have reviewed all of the changes that have been made and you are satisfied and are happy with all changes, you can select the option to ‘Accept All’, this will apply all changes made to the text.

The changes most proofreading services will make

Academic proofreaders will make a wide variety of changes, these changes will depend upon the nature of your work and context. However as a minimum the changes made should address and correct the following areas;

• Academic Tone
• Vocabulary
• Consistency of verb tenses
• Sentence and paragraph structure
• Grammar and punctuation
• Presentation and layout
• Consistency of reference and bibliography

If there is a particular area of your work that you would like the academic proofreaders to specifically focus on then you should let the academic proofreading service know before placing your order.

Writing A Personal Statement For University

There are many articles online regarding how to write a University personal statement. However, it is often difficult to find consistent, reliable advice. In this article we will cover the basics of writing a University personal statement. As well as how best to create a personal statement that captures the reader’s attention to create the best impression when applying to your chosen University. 

The first thing to remember when writing a personal statement is that it has to be personal and unique, if you copy someone or if you get someone else to write it, this will no doubt be apparent at later stages. Therefore, it is always good to take your time, start early and prepare. You will not be able to write your personal statement overnight so you should prepare and set as much time as possible to write it.

Writing a university personal statement is a daunting prospect at times, as there can much pressure on it. After all it is one of the most important aspects of the university admissions process. This is why you should first write a plan. In this plan you should set out how you will structure the personal statement, what are the key things you want to get across and think about things that are unique to you that no one else is likely to say, this will help ensure your personal statement is personal.

You should also write down key bullet points about what you will address in each paragraph this is because you want the writing to flow naturally but at the same time cover all the key points that will best sell you as a good candidate.

Following this you should start the writing process take your time and think about each point that you are making each sentence should be relevant addressing your strengths so you do not waste any of the word count. Your university personal statement should generally conclude with why you believe you are the best candidate and end in a natural manner.

After you have completed a first draft you should put it away and come back to it later, as you may want to edit or change things. It is unlikely that you will get it spot on the first time. You need to read it again and again to ensure that you are happy with it. You should then start the process of proofreading the university personal statement, you can do this yourself. You can also show it to friends and family to get their opinions and advice as to what they think, they will also be able to proofread it to ensure that there are no errors. Once you are happy you can then submit it with confidence!

University Personal Statement Writing Tips

The university personal statement is a one to two page document that you write when you are applying to university. Some may think that it is not important or that they can do this last minute. However, the university personal statement is absolutely essential in your application for a university place. This is because many universities will have similar grade requirements and may not conduct interviews. Therefore when people have similar grades and the university is not interviewing, it becomes extremely difficult to select the right candidates. Thus the university personal statement becomes important in separating the candidates. When it comes to writing your university personal statement you will want to take a number of different factors and approaches into account.

Firstly before you even begin it is important to understand the purpose of the personal statement, as already stated this is used to distinguish candidates and separate people to pick amongst many equally strong candidates. So this is your chance to highlight your strengths and say why you should be offered a place. Therefore the first step is to write a plan, your aim is to write the best piece of writing about yourself in a limited word count this requires careful planning. You should plan for around five or six paragraphs each one with a heading so you know what you will discuss in each one. Often people will start with an introduction about why they have chosen their particular course and then move to more specific reasons linking to their personal experiences. This is a good idea as you will want your personal statement to flow naturally.

One of the most important things to remember when you are writing your university personal statement is that it has to be unique and should not be copied from anywhere. Your personal statement is your chance to say why you should be offered a place over anyone else. Therefore it is expected that you highlight your strengths being original in the process. This is why you should take your time and plan ahead, speak to friends and family to get ideas. Once you have a first draft get your university personal statement proofread several times by different people to ensure that it is perfect and ready to be sent in your application.