(The following is a guest article by Kay Hedges who lives in Arizona. Kay’s busness is commercial proof reading in the Phoenix area. She maintains the website Proofing Point.)

Writing, proofreading, audience, purpose, evidence

There are several ways to improve the writing quality of any document paper before its submission. These have to do with the finished document rather than with the actual research and will positively add value. Most errors in any article or paper have to do with sentence structure, content, spelling, and organization. It only takes a few minutes to proofread the paper and check for any of these oversights.

To fulfill any writing assignment, certain elements are assembled into a persuasive structure. The goal is for readers to understand the topic and how it has been developed to the conclusion. There are several questions to ask.

• Did you achieve the purpose of your writing?
• Is your supporting evidence sufficient to prove your theory?
• Did you use sources to support your outcome?
• Is the overall impression of your paper sufficient to cover the topic?

The overall impression relates to grammar and construction related mistakes. It is possible to have the best thesis, research, and conclusion; but if spelling and punctuation are neglected, the document isn’t as effective. The opinions of a proofreader should help to identify these problems. That person should be able to make suggestions to improve the paper.

All terms should be defined correctly and used in the appropriate content, necessary background information should be provided and considered with perspectives on feelings about the topic of the document. Ensure and double check that the wording cannot be taken in the wrong way.

Any document should have two aims: to make a claim and then to prove that claim. Support should be provided for those claims with ample evidence, good reasoning, examples, and details. Abstract concepts must be clear and support for them must include adequate documentation.

The supporting evidence should come from materials already published. Conduct a search for possible sources, evaluate them, and then decide which ones to quote to support the claim. Choices will be made of when to summarize and when to paraphrase. Make sure that appropriate credit is made to the authors. Using sources correctly builds credibility as a writer.

Within the boundaries of any topic, there is much flexibility and chance for freedom of expression. The wording in any document must explore all possibilities and come to a logical conclusion. A certain amount of time is involved in gathering information and writing the paper.

Every document, paper, or article starts with the decision to try. If a different outcome happens, then evaluate that outcome and see what can be learned. The goal is not to be better than anyone else. The goal is to be better than yourself.