Technical Editing
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Write an engaging college essay to make your application stand out! A great essay could help you to pave the way to a brighter future.
Most college essay questions are designed as a way for colleges to learn more about you. So this is your chance to tell colleges about yourself. The first step to writing a successful college essay is choosing the right topic. Pick a topic that allows you to give colleges the best idea of who you are as a person. What are your interests? What are your dreams? What is important to you? These are all aspects of your personality that colleges are interested in.
Approach your college essay as you would any of your previous school essays. Begin with an outline detailing the structure of your essay, as well as emphasizing the main points. Think about your strengths and weaknesses, and then choose one or two positive aspects of your personality to demonstrate to the college committee. You can structure your essay in several basic ways. In your essay, you can focus on a single strength that you possess, elaborating on it in detail. Or, you can choose two or three significant aspects of your personality to discuss, devoting only a paragraph to each aspect. The narrative essay is also a common and effective format; in the narrative essay, begin with a short and engaging story about yourself, and then explain how that story relates to your personality. Illustrate your positive traits through the story, perhaps talking about an event that highlights your creativity, problem-solving skills, or your ability to help others.
When writing your essay, make sure to clarify the strengths of your personality, rather than simply stating things that you’ve done (ex. “I volunteered at an animal shelter”). Go the extra step to demonstrate how your activities reveal your personality and values (ex. “All my life, I’ve been extremely passionate about animal welfare and animal rights. While volunteering at the local animal shelter, I was able to put my passion into practice.”). Talking about your strengths and values gives a much deeper insight into your personality than merely listing some of your activities.
Finally, proofread and edit your essay. Make sure your writing reads smoothly, clearly, and is free from grammar and spelling errors. It never hurts to send it to a professional editing service for polishing, such as FirstEditing.com. Not only would a professional editor check for basic grammar errors, but an editor could also give you valuable feedback about the content of your essay. Also, many college essays have word count requirements; a professional reduction edit could neatly trim your writing down to the required word count.
A college essay is a great chance for you to show colleges your strengths. Approach it with confidence and dedication, and you’ll soon be off to a promising new future!
Tags: application, college essay, editing, editing service, essay, First, firstediting.com, How to, professional editor, student, successful, tips
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Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Editing, whether it is for an academic journal, a short story submission, or a non-fiction manuscript for publishing, always follows basic rules of grammar and punctuation. This blog will help you learn the basic rules of em dashes and ellipses, and how to use them accurately in your work. While this blog will assist fiction writers most often, this is a useful skill to have in your writing arsenal.
The em dash
 Em Dash The em dash is a longer dash that is similar to a hyphen. It is used to show a pause in a quote that is all one sentence, and it is also used to show when one sentence trails off and another begins.
For example,
“I hope that you have told me the truth – you don’t always.” This quote is all one sentence, but there was a pause in between the words truth and you that are represented by the em dash.
OR
“He just walked right in through the – He didn’t even think to announce his presence!” This shows that one sentence trailed off and another began – NOTE the capital letter to begin the second sentence.
When typing in Microsoft Word, you can prompt one of these dashes by placing a space after the last letter of the word, hitting the hyphen key (next to the zero) and then pressing your spacebar again before typing the next word. Most Microsoft Word applications use an auto format that will insert the em dash for you.
Ellipses
 Ellipsis
In contrast, the ellipsis is used to show when a thought trails off and the sentence is incomplete. It is a series of three dots.
For example,
“I just couldn’t believe what he was…” she muttered, as if to herself.
These quotation marks most often trip up fiction writers, as they’re used often in dialogue. However, whether you are writing a fiction piece, or working on an academic submission, please remember that the professional editors at Firstediting.com are always here to assist you with your work. Happy Writing!
Tags: editing, editors, ellipses, firstediting, Professional Editing, Proofreading, The em dash, writing tips
Posted in Book Editing, Book Editors, Business Editing, Christian Writing, Copy Editing, Editing Skills & Services, Fiction Editing, Manuscript Editing, Newsletters, Novel Editing, Proofreading, Technical Editing, Thesis/Research Writing, Writer's Tips, Writing for Publication | No Comments »
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Editing, whether it is for an academic journal, a short story submission, or a non-fiction manuscript for publishing, always follows basic rules of grammar and punctuation. This article will be the first in a series to help you enhance your writing skills.
Basic editing skills are a must for any writer or editor. Good writing is a hallmark of professionalism; unfortunately, it is also a chance to make a first impression upon a client, supervisor, or potential publisher. While not all of us are born excellent writers, basic grammar and punctuation rules can be learned. Please allow this article to be of assistance.
Capitalization is a necessary grammar skill that can tangle even the best writers.
Please allow this professional editor a few moments to provide you with a few basic rules of capitalization:
* Capitalize the first word in each sentence.
* Capitalize the first word in a quoted sentence.
* Always capitalize I, no matter where in the sentence it appears.
* Capitalize proper nouns.
Some easy ones to remember (and some examples):
* States and countries – Texas, Canada
* Brand names – Gucci, Dr. Pepper, Disneyland
* Religions – Judaism, Roman Catholic
* Days of the week, months, holidays – Thursday, March, Easter
* Magazines, newspapers – Martha Stewart, Detroit Free Press
* Movies, TV shows – New Moon, American Idol
When you have a question about when or when not to capitalize something, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “Is this specific?” For example, while you would not capitalize school (noun), you would capitalize “Parkside Elementary School.”
Directions are tricky- Do not capitalize north, south, east, or west, when referring to direction, such as “Go east along I-4.” Capitalize them when a part of the name of a specific location, such as “North Carolina.”
Names and titles can be difficult as well, but the following should help clarify when and when not to capitalize:
Titles are always capitalized when they precede a name or an organization. For example, “Inspector Lukas,” or “President of the United States of America.” A title should not be capitalized when it is referred to in text with no name, no organization, and it is not part of dialogue. For example, you would not capitalize mayor in the following sentence:
“Are you really the manager?”
Capitalize any title when used in a direct address, e.g.
“Are you ready, Inspector?”
I hope that this has been helpful. Please remember that having a professional editor, such as the editors at Firstediting.com, will ensure your document is perfected and ready for publication.
Alison
Editor Specializing in Fiction Editing Services for FirstEditing.com
Tags: editing, editing tips, editors, fiction editing, firstediting, Professional Editing, writers tips
Posted in Book Editing, Book Editors, Copy Editing, Editing Skills & Services, Fiction Editing, Manuscript Editing, Novel Editing, Proofreading, Technical Editing, Writer's Tips, Writing for Publication | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
You’ve written undergraduate papers and even graduate-level papers, but now you’re getting ready to work on the biggie: your master’s thesis. Panic sets in as you realize that this is beyond the scope of your previous academic research and writing experience…and maybe even skills, you’re thinking now. “What was I thinking?” you groan, clutching your head.
Take a deep breath and relax. While writing that thesis may not be painless, it’s not as difficult as you’d think. Below are six steps to make the process less intimidating:
- Choose your thesis topic carefully. While original research is expected in a thesis, you want to be sure that your work isn’t so original that there are no sources for you to refer to for research. The childhood of A.A. Milne might be utterly fascinating and help explain why he wrote his series of Winnie the Pooh books, but if there are few sources that discuss his childhood; this might not be a good thesis topic. On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln’s childhood has been over-researched, and while plenty of sources exist, it would be difficult to add anything new to them, and so this might also be a poor choice for a thesis topic. You want to hit that middle ground, where sources exist in enough quantity to be helpful but not to give the impression that your topic has been over-worked by previous researchers.
- Review your course papers. Look at your existing graduate and even undergraduate research papers for topics that might mesh with your thesis topic. If you’ve been wise and had the opportunity in your graduate courses, many of your existing papers should be in the same general area as that of your thesis topic. It’s not too difficult to revise a stand-alone paper on the Lend-Lease Act and make it a chapter in a thesis on American foreign policy during World War II. For that matter, perhaps one of your graduate papers could be expanded into a full-blown thesis.
- Break down your work into manageable chunks. Start with a very general outline or perhaps a short essay describing what you plan to do. This is for your own reference, so it doesn’t have to be perfect or even grammatically correct—free-associate, scribble, doodle—whatever helps you focus on the direction you want your research to go. Then work on a chapter at a time, possibly following the same process for each chapter before you actually begin writing the final product.
- Don’t procrastinate. While many passable undergrad—and maybe even some decent graduate-level—research papers have been written in the wee hours of the morning on the day the paper was due, this is not an advisable approach with something as major as your thesis. If you know the thesis committee wants to see a reasonably polished draft in three months, take the time to sit down and figure out how to have that thesis written in two and a half months. That way, if something comes up at the last minute, you’ve got a little time to spare.
- Back that sucker up in several places! Don’t rely just on your hard drive: what if it crashes and takes two months’ worth of work down with it? Copy everything you do, every day, to a flash drive, a CD, an external hard drive—some backup source (or maybe several sources) that will protect your work. In fact, there are those paranoid souls (and I’m one of them) who even suggest keeping a copy of your work in a safety deposit box at your local bank. Hey, a little paranoia is a good thing when it comes to protecting months of hard work!
- Hire a professional editing firm such as FirstEditing (www.first editing.com) to give your thesis a final review before you turn it over to the committee. Professional editing can save you much embarrassment by catching silly slip-ups that your spell/grammar checker missed and can also ensure that your citations and references are in the correct format, as set forth by your committee.
While these steps won’t guarantee a painless thesis experience or the instant approval of the committee, they can certainly make the entire process less daunting and improve your chances of approval for your completed thesis.
Vonda
Editor Specializing in Technical Research Editing Services for FirstEditing.com
Tags: disseration, editing, editors, firstediting, Professional Editor, research, Technical Editing, thesis
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Monday, April 6th, 2009
You’ve lost sleep, skipped meals and as for a social life-what’s that? But you have that paper well-researched and have just put the finishing touches on the last draft. Now you want someone else, a professional, to examine your baby and make sure it’s as perfect as possible. After all, a course grade-maybe a degree-is riding on that sucker.
But what sort of editing do you need, standard or technical? What level of editing will ensure that the fruits of your labor are presented as clearly and accurately as possible?
For term papers, research papers, theses, dissertations and even journal articles, your best bet is technical editing. Why?
Well, let’s look at standard editing first: an editor doing a standard edit will check for subject-verb agreement and other grammatical gaffes, make sure verb tenses are correct in context, alert you to continuity problems and often suggest fixes, and so forth.
“But that’s what I need, right?” you ask, scratching your head in confusion.
Well, yes, you need that and more-and that’s where technical editing comes in.
When an editor does a technical edit, s/he does all of the above plus-and this is a very important plus-checks your citations/footnotes, references, captions, headings and subheadings for accuracy and adherence to the style guide required by your instructor, committee or journal, in addition to providing feedback on how the paper reads and alerting you to areas that might confuse the reader or that look as if they’re missing citations.
“Oh, nobody ever really looks at the citations and references,” you laugh, shrugging.
Trust me: they do. Profs can be almost insanely persnickety about things like margins and proper in-text citations, and if your content is amazingly well-written but you used the wrong margins or the wrong style guide, what you’ve written won’t matter: the prof will fail you, anyway. After all that hard work, your paper could be rejected because of easily-fixable errors that a professional editor could have caught and corrected.
This is where technical editing can be a lifesaver…and maybe a degree-saver, too. Take the time to have your paper edited by a professional, and be sure to ask for a technical edit. Professional technical editing by a firm such as FirstEditing can make sure your glowing content isn’t obscured by glaring technical errors.
Tags: citation, Professional Technical Editing, references, Standard Edit, Standard Editing, Technical Edit, Technical Editing
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