You have spent months and weeks writing your dissertation. You have edited and proofread it by spending countless nights. What if a small technical error is left unattended during the proofreading and editing stage? Of course, you are doomed forever. The dissertation that you have been working on for months will not be able to get the required grade. In this scenario, it is important that you look for each technical issue in your dissertation that may harm its quality. It is only possible when you know what those technical issues are.
In order to strengthen your knowledge about technical issues, we have decided to dedicate this post to proofreading and editing. There will be a mention of all the technical errors and issues that you may face and have to rectify during these two important stages. So, let’s get started with today’s topic of discussion.
What does it mean by proofreading and editing?
Editing and proofreading are two different stages when writing a dissertation. Editing is the process in which you look for major errors in your dissertation. These could be correcting an entire paragraph, its structure, or its language. Editing is of three types: line editing, content editing, and copy editing. On the other hand, proofreading is about correcting the minor mistakes present in the text of your dissertation. Those could be spelling mistakes or incorrect use of punctuation. Hence, this is what it means by proofreading and editing.
Technical issues you may face during editing and proofreading
Editing and proofreading are no easy tasks when working on a dissertation. As the editor or proofreader, you may face several technical issues. Do you know what those issues are? As guessed, you do not have any idea about those technical issues. Therefore, a brief description of all the technical problems is as follows:
Lack of technical understanding
The first and most important issue is the lack of technical understanding of the subject under study. It is important that you have a full idea of the text under your observation. The reason is that if you are unaware of its technical aspects and do not have a deeper understanding, you cannot locate the contextual mistakes present in the dissertation. In addition to this, you cannot know what the author is talking about. Therefore, the lack of technical understanding of the dissertation content is the first issue you may face.
Checking for accurate language
It is tempting to think that you only need to correct the spelling mistakes in your dissertation during proofreading and editing. However, it is not the case in reality. The editing and proofreading stages are much more than this. As the editor and proof-reader, you also need to ensure that the language in the dissertation is correct and accurate. It is necessary because every field of study has some pet terminologies and expressions. If those are missing, the dissertation is no more a quality dissertation. So, checking for accurate language is another issue.
The research process
It does not matter how capable you are; sometimes, you need to research before starting the editing and proofreading process. It is the third technical issue that you may face during the editing process of a dissertation. The reason is that you may not have the proper research skills to find the most relevant articles and research papers for your dissertation. It takes more than an internet connection to look for the best and most relevant articles. So, aside from other things, you must have a knowledge of how to research.
Making sure the intended meaning is clear
Words are funning things. It is the words that change the entire meaning of something. Sometimes, you write a sentence that is clear to you, but it could not be very pleasant for your readers. This is another technical issue that you can face in proofreading and editing. Everything you write, undoubtedly, makes sense to you, but you must not forget the understanding level of the ones who are going to read it.
Maintaining a single style and voice
When editing and proofreading a dissertation, changes are inevitable. But the changes bring change in the style and voice also. The more changes you make, the more deflections in your style and voice. So, as an editor and proof-reader, you need to do two things: maintain consistency in the style and voice and protect them throughout. However, if you are unable to do this, you can always take help from dissertation editing services.
Conclusion
Conclusively, these are the technical issues that you may face in proofreading and editing a dissertation. The most important of all is maintaining a single style and voice throughout the dissertation. So, you must pay close attention to it and edit the dissertation accordingly.