We are a couple of weeks into school and by now, you understand what college is like. You understand how much reading is required for each class, to look at moodle on a weekly basis, check your school email, and to enjoy every minute of college.
However, a couple of weeks into school also means professors now feel comfortable enough to assign papers. You may struggle with the content of the paper for a bit, but what you really need to worry about is the revision process. There are some great tools to use, online or here on campus, when editing your paper.
If you don’t feel completely comfortable approaching another human to edit, there are online resources you can visit.
Grammarly is a great site to visit. You can upload your paper and it will check for grammar, spelling, and several other writing mistakes. It will suggest changes you can make to your paper. The basic grammar check is free to everyone, but if you wish to upgrade for more proofreading skills, Grammarly provides three different subscription options you can pay for.
Also, you can download Grammarly’s free browser extension, which performs the basic grammar checks to anything you write online. This can be a post on facebook or an email you are sending to a professor.
Another great online proofreader is PaperRater. With this site, you don’t need to download anything. You just paste the section, or paper, you want proofread and select your education level. The program looks at basic grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other writing errors.
Once it finishes editing, it gives you suggestions to changes you should make. The site explains a little more about the mistakes found in your paper, so you understand why you need to fix it. This is the free part of the site, but if you wish to have more features than there is a subscription available.
These two online tools are great places to visit for the simple mistakes you may have overlooked in your paper. However, you shouldn’t rely on these services to completely rid all of the mistakes made on your paper.
The best place to have someone look at your paper is our very own Writing Center. You can schedule an appointment with them on the portal site. Just login and click on “Writing and Tutoring services” under the “Quick Links” tab. This should take you to the Writing Center and Tutoring Services page where the links to the tutoring schedule and the writing center should be available.
[author image=”http://echo.snu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Jessica-De-La-Cruz.jpg”]
Jessica De La Cruz, Assistant Editor
Jessica is a senior English major destined for greatness. She’s currently working on world domination plans with her associate, Amy Calfy (graduate of SNU). However, that has come to a temporary halt until she receives her bachelor’s degree. [/author]