Before you turn in your next essay, check for these 3 things to improve your work
I know it’s old-school, but when I was teaching English composition a few years ago, I always suggested my students print out their essays before they turned them in. There are a few things that just the act of printing an essay would help them notice, from spelling mistakes to unclear ideas. Sure, they could have checked for them on a screen, but there’s nothing like seeing a hard copy to recognize careless errors.
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I even provided them a checklist of things to look out for before turning in a paper to ensure it’s actually complete and meets the requirements. I’d recommend they use the list to review their hard copy the night before the paper was due, so they have time to make adjustments.
Sure, some of the things were specific to each individual assignment, but three of the guidelines were copy-pasted from list to list and can apply to any written submission. In fact, I still use them when I’m writing today. I’m doing them right now.
To help you improve your writing work (and hopefully your grades!), do these three things before turning in any paper.
1. Check your formatting
Be sure that the format you used for your essay matches the format your professor specified, whether it’s APA, MLA or anything in between. One quick way of doing this on the front end is by saving a correctly formatted document as a template and then editing a copy of it for each essay. Microsoft Word even has pre-formatted templates that you can download. Just click “File” then “More Templates,” and type in what you need.
The most important part of formatting, though, is that you hit any minimum requirements for the paper. With the hard copy in your hand, you’ll know immediately if you only wrote three pages for a four-page minimum or if you’re holding 20 pages when your professor capped it at 15. It will also be very obvious if you forgot to include a cover page or table of contents, if the assignment asked for it, or your works cited page (which can sometimes result in an immediate zero on plagiarism grounds).
2. Find your thesis
When reviewing the requirements of the assignment for formatting, you should also make sure that your essay actually does what the prompt asks you to do. So many times, I’ve been about to turn something in, and realized, “Wait, I didn’t directly answer their question.” In my head the connection was obvious, but because it was so obvious to me, I never actually made it clear on the page.
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In a finished essay, you should be able to immediately locate your thesis. The hope is, you’ll realize the disconnect, add in a part of a sentence or a short paragraph to cinch it all together, and then be off to the press.
Another common mistake here is not getting to the thesis until the very end of your paper. That’s fine for more colloquial writing, but when it comes to the academic stuff, your thesis should be at the very beginning — the last sentence in your introduction, at the latest. If you’re able to locate your thesis but it’s at the end of the essay, look for a way to incorporate your big idea in your introduction. After it’s secured at the top, make sure that every paragraph’s topic sentence supports that thesis in a more specific way, too.
3. Read it aloud
It’s hard to edit your own work. When my students got frustrated at this step, I’d remind them it’s something everyone struggles with. Of course, you understand what you’re trying to say — the trick of writing is to help someone else understand it.
Reading your work aloud can slow you down enough to notice proofreading mistakes or awkward sentences that you skimmed over after staring at your piece for hours on end. It can also help you sort through ideas — you may notice places where your logic breaks down or the point you thought you made is unclear. It will feel a little silly, but it’s so valuable it’s worth pushing past the weirdness and making time for this step.
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If you have trouble reading and editing at the same time, use your phone to record yourself reading your work aloud. Then play it back, following along with your eyes and making sure everything tracks. This tactic can be especially helpful for neurodivergent learners.
I almost never make it through all three of these steps without revising my work in some way, so don’t expect the first essay you print out to be your final draft. Make updates, print it again and go through the steps until you feel you can do no more improving. Then, you’re ready to submit.
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