The Skills Pod
Members of the University of Chester’s Academic Skills Team chat all things Academic Skills, sharing advice and anecdotes from their own experience in higher education. We have episodes on skills like referencing, critical thinking, maths and statistics, and time management.
Listening to The Skills Pod is a great way to learn hints and tips to help you during your academic journey while getting to know the Academic Skills Team.
The Skills Pod
Proofreading and editing
Join Jen and Liz for a podcast on proofreading and editing on 'The Skills Pod'. Grab your cup of tea and biscuit, sit back and relax whilst Liz and Jen give you tips and hints to take you through their experiences of proofreading and editing, and different tools that may assist you.
Running order of the proofreading and editing podcast
Writing an assignment is a messy process – ideas/points and evidence all need to be discussed
Tidying up that assignment to get it ready to submit is not something you can do efficiently if you are still trying to write
Books and magazines have editors who take an overview and see where tidying is needed
You have to do this process yourself – if you can step back even for a day between finishing your assignment and editing it you will distance yourself emotionally and be a more effective editor
Finish writing
Have a break
Start editing in earnest
Have one goal in mind each time you look through your work – it can be useful to go through and highlight your work when you find what you are looking for
Start by going back to the question you were set
Have you answered the question?
Have you considered and evidenced all the learning outcomes?
Have you included evidence to go with each point?
Look at places you can save words – the word VERY is an easy one to get rid of.
Can you rephrase a sentence to get to the point more quickly?
Can you reduce redundancy?
Can you save 15 words and use them to include more evidence, or draw another conclusion that could potentially get marks?
Look at the flow of your work
Does the order make logical sense?
Did you follow your plan? – If not why not?
Does each paragraph have one point?
Did you use signposting in your writing?
Does each piece of evidence have a reference in your reference list?
Look at your list of references
Have you used academic sources?
Have you used material from the reading list and beyond?
Have you over-relied on one source?
Have you only considered one viewpoint or theory?
Have you believed the evidence without questioning it?
Can you get word or a friend to read your work out loud to spot partial sentences or typos?