EDITING YOUR WRITING

EDITING YOUR WRITING

¢ WHY?

¢ WHEN?

¢ HOW?

¢ WHO?

¢ WHAT?
 THE STANDARDS OF GOOD WRITING
► Clarity in presentation of the ideas, in
appropriate grammar and in the use of
vocabulary.
► Accuracy: To express your ideas precisely and
exactly. Avoid ambiguity.
► Fluency: smoothly flowing ideas through unity
and coherence. Avoid broken sentences or abrupt
switch of ideas.
► Correctness in grammatical matters.
 EDITING: WHAT IS INVOLVED?

Three distinct ways:

- editing for structure
- editing for language and style – good use of
grammar and consistency in writing style
- proof reading – gets rid of the spelling errors,
inconsistent formatting and other annoying typos

Do not expect immediate perfection;

Do not try to accomplish everything all
through one reading.
 THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN PREPARING
YOUR WRITING FOR SUBMISSION

When redrafting When editing

¢ grammar
— verb tense
¢ organisation
¢ sentences
¢ argument
— word use
¢ evidence — length
¢ cohesion between
— ideas
— sentences
— paragraphs
¢ formatting
CHECK THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

General questions:
► Does your writing focus, and adequately
support your research statement?
► Does your writing have a clear introduction,
body, and conclusion?
► Have you organized your writing logically and
clearly in structure?
► Have you used transitions throughout to
connect the ideas into a coherent whole?
 QUESTIONS ABOUT INTRODUCTION

► Will the introduction engage your readers’

attention?
► Does the introduction present your
research statement clearly?
► Does the introduction include some
background information for your topic?
 QUESTIONS ABOUT CONCLUSION

► Does your conclusion summarize the main

points that you have presented in support of the
writing?
► Did you repeat the major argument, or restate
your research in the conclusion of your writing?
► Does your conclusion have a satisfactory
sense of completion?
(Have all the parts of the writing been
supported? Have you addressed all those most
likely questions about the topic?)
 QUESTIONS ABOUT BODY
► Does the body of your writing present evidence
from a wide variety of reliable sources?
► Are materials from your sources presented in a
combination of summary, paraphrase, and
quotation?
► Are there any gaps in your argument? Are
there any points that are inadequately
supported?
► Have you deleted all unnecessary or irrelevant
materials from your writing?
 QUESTIONS ABOUT STYLE
► Have you achieved variety in style by using
different kinds of sentences?
► Have you avoided wordiness? Have you
deleted unnecessary words, phrases, or clauses?
► Have you used clear, concrete examples? Have
you defined key terms?
► Have you avoided colloquial language, slang,
jargon, and dialect in your thesis?
 WORD CHOICE &
PERSPECTIVES ON SENTENCES

► In word choice, avoid being too chatty or

conversational. Use serious and intelligent
vocabulary.
► Avoid using Jargon, Euphemisms, slangs,…
and Vietnamese English.
► In sentence structure, try to write sentences
that are more varied and complex in structure.
► Write with a style appropriate for academic
writing.
 AVOID SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

The owner went to church. Leaving me in

charge of the store.
=> The owner went to church, leaving me in
charge of the store.

Along with population explosion many problems

occurred. For instance, natural resources,
education, etc.
=> Along with population explosion many
problems occurred, for instance, natural
resources, education, etc.
 AVOID RUN-ON SENTENCES

Human nature is seldom as simple as it appears

hasty judgment are therefore often wrong.
=> Since human nature is seldom as simple as it
appears, hasty judgment are therefore often
wrong.

We had no lack of fun during the time which we

spent in the city, which seemed very attractive.
=> The city seemed very attractive that we had
no lack of fun during our stay there.
 AVOID DANGLING PHRASES

1. Opening the door, an amusing scene caught

my eye.
=> Opening the door, I saw an amusing scene.
2. After reading the letter, my heart throbbed
violently.
=> After I had read the letter, my heart throbbed
violently.
3. To be admitted to college, the entrance
examination must be passed.
=> To be admitted to college, a candidate must
pass the entrance examination.
AVOID STRUCTURAL & LEXICAL AMBIGUITY
1. Jane told her friend Ann that she had won a
lottery.
=> Jane told her friend Ann, “ I have won a
lottery. ”
2. The old men and women like gardening
=> The old people, both men and women, like
gardening
3. The student used some mixed metaphors in his
composition, which the teacher disapproved of.
=> The teacher disapproved of the student ’s use
of mixed metaphors in his composition.
 AVOID WORDINESS
1. The narrator gives a suggestion to all people
as to their attitude toward and perceptions of
the land....
=> The narrator suggests that man ’ s attitude
toward and perception of the land …

2. Her private world is apparently representing

the season of spring, for the narrator is showing
us the image of flowers.
=> Her private world apparently represents
spring as the flower imagery suggests.
 QUESTIONS FOR “SMOOTH” CITATION
► Do transitions enable the reader to move
easily from one section of the paper to another
and to see clearly the relationship between the
sections?
► Are the quotations smoothly woven into the
text?
► Can lengthy quotations be eliminated or
shortened by using ellipses?
► Can they be clarified by inserting a few of
your own words in brackets?
► Is the reference information presented
correctly?
 TENSE ABOUT TENSES?

There are generally no hard and fast

rules about which tense to use when
but
the following guidelines will help you
decide what tense to use when.
 PRESENT TENSE – COMMON USES

¢ a fact or situation that is always true or

continues to be true,
=> genetic information is encoded in the sequence
¢ An aspect of your thesis, a table or a figure etc,
=>Figure 6 shows the distribution of older women…
¢ the implications of your or others’ work,
=> These results suggest that nutritional
supplements contribute to substantial weight gain.
 PRESENT TENSE – CONT.
¢ for generalisations,
=> Research students usually feel downhearted at some
stage of their candidature.

¢ to report the position of a theorist/ researcher

with whose work you feel some proximity, either
in time or allegiance,
=> Ballard and Clanchy (1991) present only a limited
understanding of the ways in which learning strategies
assist learning. In contrast, the work of Biggs (1996)
demonstrates that memorisation serves this purpose.
 PAST TENSE – COMMON USES

¢ describing your methodology

=> We hypothesized that milk production would
decrease slowly.

¢ reporting your results

=> In the final experiment the response was
unexpected.
 PRESENT PERFECT – COMMON USES
¢ indicate
that research in the area is still
continuing, or has immediate relevance
today
=> Several researchers have studied the effect
of binge drinking on the cognitive functioning
of adolescents.
¢ generalise about past ongoing research
=> Software has been tested manually for most
of the last four decades.
 REFERRING TO THE WORK OF PREVIOUS
RESEARCHERS – CHANGING TENSES
¢ Smith (2008) reported ¢ Previous research
that adult respondents showed that children
in his study confuse the source of
remembered 30 percent their memories more
more than children. often than adults
(Lindsay et al 1991).

¢ The study was ¢ The research was

completed in the past conducted in the past
but this finding was but the finding is an
specific to that study. accepted fact.
 FUTURE TENSE
¢ tostate what will be done later
(usually used in drafts or future
research)

¢ to state intention, e.g. in a proposal.

DIFFERENT SECTIONS, DIFFERENT TENSES
– GUIDELINES NOT RULES
Abstract
¢ Past when referring to what was done and what was
found at each stage of the research.
¢ Present to comment on the significance of your
research/findings.

Introduction
Often present
¢ Sixty-six percent of high school adolescents and middle
school pre-adolescents experience social isolation from
peers and report loneliness to be a significant problem
(Culp, Clyman, & Culp, 1995) while 20% state that it is
persistent and painful (Brennan, 1982)
DIFFERENT SECTIONS, DIFFERENT TENSES
CONT.

Literature review
¢ You can use the present, present perfect or
past.
(Think carefully about your choice as it will
have subtle influences on your meaning.)
 DIFFERENT SECTIONS, DIFFERENT TENSES
CONT.

Materials and Methods

¢ Past and usually passive,
Forty trees were selected because of their height.
They were used to …

Results
¢ Past when focus is on the study,
The species which visited the trees was more
diverse than…
¢ Present when you mention tables, figures
Table 1 shows …
 DIFFERENT SECTIONS, DIFFERENT TENSES
CONT.

Discussion
¢ Present and/or present perfect to explain
significance of a study and to interpret results,
e.g. These results indicate… This study has
established the usefulness of ….
¢ Past to summarise,
e.g. The species were evident in numerically
significant numbers …
 COHESION
Transition words link
— ideas
— sentences
— paragraphs

They indicate the

— direction
— order
— flow
of your ideas.
 EDITING TIPS

¢ Make necessary corrections and print a clean,

revised copy; allow room to mark corrections.
¢ Read your essay out loud.
¢ Be cautious of spell-check and grammar-check.
¢ Get feedback from peers.
¢ Work with your teacher/ supervisor/ reviewer.
¢ Never move to peer review without first
completing a self-review (revising & editing)
 PROOFREADING CHECKLIST
► Spelling errors, Capitalization
► Mixed up homophones (Words that sound the same
but are spelled differently)
► Incorrect word usage
► Sentence fragments, Punctuation
► Run-on sentences
► Citation format, Quotation marks
► Ambiguous references and pronouns (especially it,
that, this, these, and those)
► Consistent verb tense
 SUMMARY: EDITING FOR GOOD WRITING

¢ Respect Yourself and Your Ideas

¢ Strive for Clarity

¢ Avoid Common Grammatical Errors

¢ Write It With Style

¢ Double-check for the final draft

 ACADEMIC WRITING:
TAKE IT EASY! MAKE IT FUN!

🆘🆘 Thesis presentation/ defense is NOT seeking to

fail your graduation
► It is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your
understanding of your research topic and share your
argument with your professors and students.
► Sometimes examiners would like to challenge you with
a difficult question or counter argument to create a mood
of debate and argumentation.
=> Then, DO YOUR BEST, JOIN THEM AND HAVE FUN.
Good luck to your academic writing.

Good luck to your oral presentation.

Good luck to future studies/research.