Proofreading Checklist: Student Essay

Academic proofreading can be a great source of work for freelancers. But what should you look for when proofreading a student essay? In this essay proofreading checklist, we set out the issues that often affect essays, from basic typos to errors with citations and formatting.

Mechanical Issues

No matter the document type, a proofreader can never ignore mechanical issues related to spelling, grammar, and punctuation. So make sure to check for:

• Spelling errors and inconsistencies, especially for terms that won’t be picked up by a spellchecker (e.g., proper names and technical terminology).
• Typos and inconsistencies related to spelling and punctuation, such as comma splices, missing full stops, or incorrect use of quotation marks.
• Errors or clarity issues related to grammar, such as sentence fragments.
• Incorrect or inconsistent capitalization.

Issues like these are the bread and butter of proofreading, so make sure to check for these regardless of the type of document you’re proofreading.

Academic Writing Style

Academic writing has a distinct style, which is often very formal and technical. However, good academic writing will balance this against readability and clarity. When proofreading a student essay, then, you will need to be aware of the following:

• Use of slang and other informal language, such as contractions.
• Inappropriate use of the first person or other subjective language.
• Excessive wordiness and repetition.
• Unnecessarily gendered or biased language.
• Unclear or incorrectly introduced abbreviations.
• Overly complex or flowery language that detracts from clarity.
• Over reliance on the passive voice when the active voice would be clearer.
• Inappropriate use of quotations and paraphrases.
• Passages that flow poorly due to poor transitions between parts of the text.

And while student essays might not be as “academic” in tone as a published research paper, you should still make sure to correct or highlight issues with the above.

Referencing Issues

Referencing is a big part of most academic writing. So, once you know what referencing style your customer is using, don’t forget to look out for:

• Citations and references that don’t match your client’s chosen style.
• Missing or incomplete citations in the main text.
• Missing or incomplete entries in the reference list/bibliography.
• Errors or inconsistencies in repeated author names or titles.
• Incorrectly formatted quotations (especially block quotes).

Don’t forget, though, that you should be careful about correcting references directly. This is partly a pragmatic issue – without access to the sources your client has used, you cannot be sure that the changes you’re making are correct. But it is also about safeguarding against accusations of plagiarism, which is always a factor with student work.

Images and Charts

Some student essays will include images and charts. In these cases, make sure to check:

• All figures, charts, and tables are labeled with a caption.
• Caption text is error free and clearly identifies the relevant image.
• Images and charts are positioned appropriately in the text (e.g., that a chart showing the results of a test is in the part of the essay that discusses the data).

For images borrowed from another source (e.g., found online or copied from a book), you will also need to make sure they are cited correctly, as you would any other citation.

Essay Formatting

Essay formatting will depend on where your client is studying, so there are no definitive rules on what to look for. However, common issues that need to be addressed include:

• Missing or incorrect page numbers.
• Inconsistent margin sizes.
• Inconsistent font sizes and typefaces.

If you spot issues with these, either make a correction or highlight the problem in a comment. In addition, if your client specifies a style guide to work with, you can use this to ensure formatting is correct (e.g., checking the page numbering style, and so on).

Professional Academic Proofreading

The proofreading checklist above can be a handy tool, helping ensure that you don’t miss anything that needs checking in a student essay. However, different documents will have different requirements depending on the essay type and subject matter. A reflective essay, for instance, will use the first person far more than other essays.

As a result, you should always adapt your edits and comments to fit the text at hand. And for more advice on proofreading, try a free trial of our Becoming A Proofreader course today.

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