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How To Edit A Research Paper

Last updated on: Sep 3, 2024

How to Edit Research Papers With Precision: A Detailed Guide

By: Betty P.

11 min read

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Published on: Mar 6, 2024

How to Edit a Research Paper

After you’re done with writing your research paper comes the time for another tedious and time-consuming task, the editing process!

Research paper editing is a mentally challenging task that requires a high level of concentration from the author. 

It goes beyond simply rearranging all elements of the paper in an organized manner. You have to check for grammar, clarity, and logical coherency, and analyze the content of the research document. 

Most research students often skip the editing process, and even some researchers save editing for the last. These common mistakes will always hinder the progress of your research paper.

In this blog, we’ll share practical insights on how to edit your research paper with perfection. Continue reading to understand how you should edit your research paper effectively.  

How to Edit a Research Paper

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What is Research Paper Editing?

Research paper editing is the process of reviewing and improving a research paper to make it clear, well-organized, and error-free. It involves checking and correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. 

Other than that, the editing process makes sure that the paper follows a logical structure and is written clearly and concisely. Editors also look for consistency in writing style and formatting.

Unlike revising, which primarily focuses on restructuring and refining the content and overall argument, editing hones in on the finer details of language, style, and formatting.

Before learning how to edit your research paper, you should know that there are different types of research paper editing. 

What are the Different Types of Research Paper Editing?

There are different editing processes for research papers. All of them have the same focus, to take the research document toward perfection. You have to use a combination of these editing types to make sure your paper is as close to perfection as it can be. 

Content Editing

  • Purpose: Analyze the organization and presentation of the research paper
  • Focus: Ensures the paper makes sense, has a good flow, and develops and communicates arguments clearly
  • Questions to Address: Does the paper have logical consistency, and are there any major gaps in reasoning?

Copy Editing

  • Purpose: Focuses on corrections related to spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice, and overall writing quality
  • Focus: Enhances the overall quality of writing while editing research papers

Line Editing

  • Purpose: A 'line-to-line' check focusing on word choice and writing impact, similar to copy editing
  • Actions: Involves making changes to strengthen the paper, addressing issues like imitative phrasing and run-on sentences
  • Focus: Emphasizes clarity and simplification to ensure the meaning is clear and not overly complex

Mechanical Editing

  • Purpose: The final editing step after addressing structure, content, coherence, style, flow, grammar, and word choice
  • Focus: Ensures strict compliance with the style guide specified by the chosen journal for publication

Once your paper goes through each strategy and steps in the process of editing one by one, it becomes ready for submission to a journal or presentation. 

Strategies for Editing Your Research Paper

Here are the vital strategies that your research paper editing process should go through. Follow these, and you'll have a well-polished paper ready for submission.

Double-Check the Outline

“ How to edit a research paper outline?”

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of editing your research paper, take a moment to double-check your outline. The outline serves as the roadmap for your paper. It guides both the readers and yourself through the logical progression of ideas. 

Here are some key considerations:

Confirm Structural Coherence

The structure of your paper should align with the outlined plan. Each section should naturally lead to the next, creating a natural progression of ideas.

Check Transitions

Review transitions between paragraphs and sections. Smooth transitions enhance the readability of your paper. This makes it easier for readers to follow your thoughts.

Outline Accuracy

Verify that your outline accurately represents the content of your paper. Each point in your outline should encapsulate the essence of the corresponding section in your research paper.

You should never skip checking the outline in editing research papers. An accurate outline lays the foundation of polished and well-presented academic work.

Edit in Stages

Editing research papers becomes very tedious if you try to edit different aspects of the paper without a plan. 

For example, while reviewing your paper for mistakes, you discover a logical error in the outline. You jump straight to correcting it and after that, you notice a factual error. You start working on correcting that as well. This is the wrong approach! 

  • This approach takes too much time, and you might lose track of what you’re actually doing
  • It is always a great practice to break down the editing process into phases
  • You should devise a plan that breaks down what issues to fix first

As a result, editing research papers will be much easier, and you’ll have a focused approach throughout.

It's a personal preference whether you want to tackle grammar or punctuation first, or focus on the overall logical structure of your research paper. 

Make Your Paper Logically Sound

With a solid outline in place, shift your focus to verifying the overall logic of your research paper. It's important for a reader to understand something logically. 

Here's how you can enhance the logical coherency of your paper:

  • Organize Your Paper Effectively

Start by looking at how your paper is organized. Make sure your research paper introduction , literature review , methodology , discussion , and results follow a clear and logical order. Each part should fit together smoothly.

  • Establish Logical Connections Between Ideas

Think about how your ideas connect. Check that each point logically leads to the next. Your paper should read like a coherent story, with one idea naturally flowing into the next.

  • Maintain a Consistent Tone

Throughout the writing process, maintain the same tone in your paper. Avoid sudden changes in tone that might confuse your readers. Make sure your tone matches the formal nature of academic writing.

One thing to note here is that each sentence in your paper should somehow support the thesis statement . There should be no contradictions in your writing. 

Edit Out any Grammatical or Punctuation Issues

To make your writing clear and professional: 

  • Focus on fixing grammar and punctuation issues. Check each sentence for problems like wrong verb use or confusing structure
  • Pay attention to using commas, periods, and other punctuation marks correctly, and keep the style consistent
  • Make sure each sentence is easy to understand and says what you mean
  • Use spell check to catch any misspelled words, especially in technical terms

Tools like Microsoft Word can significantly improve your grammar by offering built-in features such as grammar check, style recommendations, and thesaurus as well. 

Verify Adherence to Guidelines 

One of the vital steps in editing research papers is to make sure that your paper aligns with the required research paper format and guidelines. Check the instruction manual provided to you by the concerned publication or the journal. 

Verify Source Accuracy

Verifying that your research paper sources are accurate. Make sure that your in-text and bibliographical citations are correct, and that they follow the required formatting guidelines 

(e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

  • All references should follow a consistent formatting style throughout your paper
  • Double-check that your in-text citations accurately correspond to the sources you've referenced
  • Confirm that all necessary details are included in each reference, such as authors' names, publication titles, and publication dates
  • Cross-verify against your sources to guarantee accuracy and completeness

Seek Feedback

Don't hesitate to ask others for their thoughts on your work. Seeking feedback is like having a fresh pair of eyes on your paper. It helps you catch things you might have missed and gives you different perspectives. 

Share your paper with peers, colleagues, or mentors and ask for their opinions. Are your ideas clear? Does your argument make sense? Feedback helps you improve your paper before submitting it, making sure it meets the expectations of your audience. 

Do a Final Analysis of Your Research Paper

The final step is to analyze your paper for one final time. In this step, you should look out for the following key points: 

Think about changing sentences that have extra describing words.

  • Use Active Voice and Step-by-Step

Make sure everything has been described by using an active voice. 

  • Keep It Short

Rephrase any sentences that seem too long. Break them to enhance the clarity of your text.

Now that we have addressed every strategy to edit a research paper, following a checklist always comes in handy. An editing checklist makes sure that you never miss out on even the smallest of details. 

Here is a great video that brilliantly explains and simplifies how to edit research papers effectively:

Research Paper Editing Checklist

For precise editing, a research paper checklist will always help you out. Below is a comprehensive checklist to follow:

- Clear thesis and aligned research question

- Logical structure and smooth transition

- Well-supported arguments without unnecessary details

- Correct grammar and punctuation

- Varied sentence structures 

- Clear and concise language without jargon 

- Address run-on sentences 

- Verify subject-verb agreement

- Consistent document formatting 

- Accurate research citations, both in-text and bibliographical

- Peer feedback considered and addressed 

- Optional: Professional editing services explored

- Corrected typos and spelling errors 

- Read aloud for clarity and coherence 

- Check and correct abbreviations and punctuation marks

- Adherence to specific guidelines and additional instructions

Check out our blog on research paper examples if you want to get help from perfectly edited research documents.

How to Edit a Research Paper - Examples

Look at the following examples of how to edit a research paper for a better understanding.

How to Edit a Research Paper

How to Edit a Research Paper Introduction

How to Edit a Research Paper in APA Style

How to Edit a Scientific Paper

How to Edit a Research Proposal

How to Edit an Academic Paper

To conclude, the journey of editing, from content to mechanical details, transforms your research paper into a polished and cohesive masterpiece. Each step addresses distinct aspects and guarantees clarity, precision, and compliance with publishing standards. 

By following this guide, you can be sure that your edited research paper possesses the quality to meet the highest academic standards. We hope that now, you feel confident about editing your research paper.

However, letting professionals handle your research papers is also a great idea!

You may not have the time to edit your research document, or you might be having a difficult time trying to make your paper error-free. This is where SharkPapers.com will lend you a helping hand.

We have professional academic writers who provide research paper editing services for cheap! Our skilled experts exactly follow the required guidelines, and they’ll edit your research documents to be flawless.  

Give our paper writing service online a visit, tell us what sort of edits you require, and leave the rest to us!

Betty P.

Betty is an experienced writer and researcher who will work tirelessly to provide you with the best writing services possible. A voracious reader, Betty loves learning new things, which allows her to serve clients from a variety of academic disciplines. She has a taste for helping her students, so her work always results in positive feedback.

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How to Revise and Edit a Research Paper

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  • Your introduction engages the reader and clearly presents a thesis that responds to your assignment.
  • The body of your paper supports the thesis with laser-like focus.
  • Your conclusion convinces your readers of the importance of what you wrote.

Revision often requires changing the structure of your work to achieve a more logical presentation, one that is more descriptive, or one that ensures you have met the parameters of your assignment. More than anything else, it requires that you check all the facts and quotations you used and ensure that you have cited them properly and have not plagiarized a writer.

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Get 10% off with 24start discount code, check each part of your research paper.

The first step in the revising and editing process is to start reading your draft from the beginning and make sure that each part—the introduction, body, and conclusion—does the job it’s supposed to do. For each part of your draft, ask yourself the questions on the following checklist. If your answer to any question is “no,” make the revisions necessary to change your answer to “yes.”

Check Your Introduction:

  • Does your introduction capture your readers’ attention?
  • Does your introduction contain a thesis statement that clearly states the main idea of your paper?

Check the Body of Your Paper:

  • Does every paragraph in the body of your paper support your thesis statement?
  • Does every paragraph state a main idea in a topic sentence?
  • Does every sentence in each paragraph support the main idea of the paragraph?
  • Have you taken out any information that is irrelevant, or beside the point?
  • Do your paragraphs provide enough support for the main idea of your paper as it appears in your thesis statement?
  • In every paragraph, do you provide enough support for the main idea expressed in its topic sentence?
  • Do your paragraphs flow in a logical order?
  • Do the sentences in each paragraph flow in a logical order?
  • Have you used transitions?

Check Your Conclusion:

  • Does your conclusion sum up the main points in your paper?
  • Does your conclusion help readers answer the question, “So what?”

Your paper is really shaping up now. But a truly excellent research paper has to do even more than get a yes answer to every question in the preceding checklists. It needs to be well written. In other words, it has to sound good and be free of errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Spell Check

If you’re writing your paper on a computer, of course you can use the spell-checker function. That part of your word processing program picks up most spelling errors. But it doesn’t catch all of them. For example, if you’ve typed the word though incorrectly by leaving out the letter h at the beginning, the word comes out as tough. Your spell checker does not catch that as a mistake because tough is a word. So whether you work on a computer or not, be sure to read through your paper—word for word—to correct any spelling errors. If you aren’t sure how to spell a word, look it up.

Check Grammar and Punctuation

A good knowledge of the rules of language helps you make sure your paper is free of grammar and punctuation errors. You can use the following lists to help you avoid common errors. However, if you have specific questions about the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics, your language arts textbook explains all of the rules and offers further examples.

Avoid Repetition

If you find that in your paper you have used the same word over and over, replace the repeated word with another one that has a similar meaning. Too much repetition makes writing sound boring. Another kind of repetition to avoid is using the same type of sentence too many times in a row. This can make writing sound boring, too. Varying your sentences makes your writing livelier and more interesting to readers.

Proofread Your Research Paper

After revising and editing your draft, put it away for a day or two—if you have time, of course. Then look at it again. Mistakes that you might have missed pop out at you after you and your paper have had a little vacation from each other. At this point, do your final fixes, making sure everything is as good as you can make it. If you’ve written your paper on a computer, print it out for proofreading. Often, writers see mistakes on paper that they miss on a computer screen. After you proofread, you can type in your corrections.

Another way to catch mistakes and to find areas that still need improvement is to read your work aloud to yourself. Hearing the words in your paper is a particularly good way to call attention to problems such as repetition, improper use of pronouns, and mistakes in subject-verb agreement.

Another good idea is to ask someone else to read your paper and give you feedback. A pair of eyes besides your own can pick up details that you may miss. Your reader, whether a classmate or an adult, should not change your paper. He or she should only suggest additional changes and improvements, which you can make yourself.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism, in its most basic definition, means representing other people’s work and ideas as your own. Turning in a research paper that you borrowed, or stole from another student or downloaded from the Internet constitutes plagiarism. So does copying portions of text directly from your sources or from other texts you encountered in your research. It is a serious offense that, in school, can result in a range of penalties—from failing an assignment, earning a black mark on your academic record, to even being expelled. In the workplace, it can result in the loss of your professional reputation and the respect of your colleagues. It can affect your ability to earn promotions or find another job.

Plagiarism is not always deliberate. It can happen inadvertently when students do not understand how to properly present others’ work within their own papers. Even when you go to great lengths to write a paper, plagiarism can occur if you fail to properly cite the words and ideas of others. Plagiarism can happen if:

  • You borrow short phrases from your research sources but fail to cite the source.
  • You paraphrase an idea from your research using your own words but you fail to cite the original author.
  • You represent another students’ work, even a short passage from it, as your own.
  • You turn in a paper that you previously submitted as an assignment for another class. (Yes! It is possible to plagiarize yourself.)

More often than not, plagiarism results from a writer’s failure  to properly paraphrase or summarize another’s work or to correctly cite quoted material. Therefore, it is important to understand how to avoid plagiarism and to incorporate strategies for avoiding it in your writing routine. Plagiarism is easy to avoid if you have properly documented your research and if you follow the guidelines of an editorial style book, such as those published by the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA), to properly cite the research sources you documented.

Choosing a Documentation Style

“Style” refers to the way you present information and write what you have to say. Style guides prescribe conventions for writing and documenting your sources. Numerous styles abound.The three main styles are:

  • MLA (Modern Language Association) style: used by the vast majority of high schools, colleges, and in literature, linguistics, and the humanities programs.
  • APA (American Psychological Association) style: widely used in the scientific community. Most of example research papers on this site use APA style
  • Chicago Manual of Style: typically used in books, magazines, corporate publications, and other popular outlets.

Styles aim to bring consistency to the way in which information is presented.They are designed to promote intellectual integrity and protect writers against plagiarism by specifying the ways in which information should be reported,quoted, paraphrased, and summarized.

In the vast majority of cases, students producing research papers will follow MLA style, although APA style is also used in the academic community.MLA style is widely used among high schools and in undergraduate courses at the college and university level. Straightforward and easy to master, MLA style was developed more than 50 years ago and is also widely used by collegiate presses and scholarly publications.

Upper-level and graduate-level science courses, and other disciplines that present findings in case studies, whitepapers, and reports, typically follow APA style. Your selection of style, however, should always be based upon what your teacher or professor assigns.

Learning the Basics

we review some of the basics of each style and provide a sample paper to illustrate basic MLA format.Students and serious researchers are advised to refer to the style guide of the association whose style they will follow.

Volumes have been published on the rules and recommendations of both styles. The MLA publishes the widely used  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research , as well as the  MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing  which offers more detailed guidance for graduate theses, dissertations, and papers to be published in journals. The APA offers a variety of style guides, including  Mastering APA Style and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , as well as extensive information online, including a narrated tutorial, at  www.apastyle.org .

Numerous online writing labs (OWLs) sponsored by university writing programs, such as the ones below, also provide extensive resources to help you brainstorm, outline, and write papers, as well as avoid plagiarism:

  • Purdue University:  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
  • University of Wisconsin:  http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Documentation.html
  • University of North Carolina:  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/

Basic Formatting Guidelines

  • Never submit a handwritten paper.
  • Papers should be typewritten on plain white 8 1⁄2 x 11-inch paper.
  • Use 1-inch margins on all sides.
  • Double-space the paper.
  • Text should be justified flush left, leaving the right-hand margin ragged.
  • Create a header to run consecutively on all pages, flush right, one-half inch from the top of the page.
  • Use quotation marks around the titles of articles and underline or italicize the titles of books and other long works.
  • Avoid using all caps, underlining, or italics for emphasis.

Other formatting considerations are particular to the style you choose.

MLA Style Formatting Basics

  • Include your name, your instructor’s name, the name of the course, and the date in the top left corner of the first page.
  • Use a 12-point font that will be easy to read, such as Times New Roman or Arial.
  • Use 1-inch margins for all sides of the paper—top and bottom, right and left.
  • Create a header with your last name and the page number to appear in the upper right-hand corner of all other pages that follow the first page.
  • Avoid separate title pages. Instead insert one blank line (no more) beneath the date and center the title.
  • Never add blank lines or extra white space to the paper. Your teacher will suspect you are wasting space to fill a page requirement.
  • Type the title in title case, capitalizing the initial letter of keywords.
  • Center the title two lines under the header and just above the first line of text on the first page.
  • Insert one blank line (no more) beneath the title and begin writing.Do not include extra white space above or below the title.
  • Do not boldface or italicize the title and do not use special fonts.The title should be the same size and typeface as the rest of the paper.
  • Justify your text flush left.
  • Indent quoted excerpts by five spaces on the left and right-hand sides of the quoted text.
  • Double space the entire essay including header information, your works cited page, and quoted excerpts.
  • Be sure your works cited entries are formatted in the same style and size text as your paper.This is something you should especially watch if you used a citation generator; most produce the citation in their own fonts.
  • Indent paragraphs five spaces, or 1⁄2 inch; do not add extra white space between paragraphs.
  • Use one space after punctuation.

APA Style Formatting Basics

APA style was developed by social and behavioral scientists to govern the structure and presentation of scientific writing. Unlike MLA style, APA style calls for a separate title page and unique sections within the paper.The sections include:

  • The title page
  • An abstract summarizing the paper
  • An introduction
  • A description of the scientific methodology the researcher used
  • A summary of the results
  • A discussion of the issues

The references page is equivalent to the MLA’s works cited page. It is a list of the sources cited within the paper. As in MLA style, the referenced works should be alphabetized by author’s last name, listed separately, and formatted with hanging indents. Unlike MLA style, APA style makes liberal use of headings and uses five different levels of headings,each with unique formatting requirements. Check the APA Web site or style guide for details.When using APA style, remember to:

  • Use a serif typeface, such as Times New Roman, for the text.
  • Use a sans serif typeface, such as Arial, for headings.
  • Create separate pages for the title page, abstract, the beginning of the text, references, and each appendix, figure, illustration, or table you use in the paper.
  • Use captions with charts, tables, figures, illustrations, and other graphics.

Using Quotations/Citations

Any direct quotations or specific information you use from your sources must be attributed to your source, either by mentioning the author in the text or through an in-text citation. Quotation marks must appear around any words or phrases that appear exactly as they did in the original document. If you mention the author to introduce the quotation, you will need to follow it with a page citation to ensure that you avoid plagiarism, as shown in the example below:

Anne-Marie Minnow explained the importance of the Hadron supercollider as “an innovation that will advance scientific understanding by light-years.” (127)

If you do not include the author’s name in your text, you will need to incorporate the author’s last name in front of the page number in the citation, as shown in the example below:

The Hadron supercollider promises to be “an innovation that will advance scientific understanding by light-years.” (Minnow 127)

Note that the first example is a narrative reference in which the writer mentions the full name of the author in order to introduce, or set up, the quotation. In the second example, the citation follows the quotation to identify who the author is. In both cases, it is clear the words being quoted belong to Minnow and, in addition to using in-text citations like those shown above, you will need to cite the source on your works cited page.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrasing and summarizing are ways of discussing the work and ideas of others without quoting them directly. We summarize a discussion or reading to make it more succinct so that it can fit more neatly into our own discussion.We paraphrase a discussion in order to make it clearer or more relevant to our thesis and our audience. For all practical purposes, summary and paraphrase mean the same thing—using your own words to represent another’s ideas. It is equally as important to cite authors whose ideas you summarize or paraphrase as it is to cite those you quote.

Tips for Summarizing and Paraphrasing

  • Whenever you summarize or paraphrase, write your understanding of the text you are summarizing. Avoid looking at the text as you do.This will help ensure that you do not inadvertently borrow the writer’s phrases. When you have finished, compare what you have written to the author’s words and correct any inaccuracies, again using your own words. If you used significant words or phrases from the original text, be sure to enclose them in quotation marks.
  • As you incorporate your summaries and paraphrases into your paper, cite them as carefully as you cite quoted material.
  • Be especially cautious when using word processing tools like Microsoft Word’s AutoSummarize. AutoSummarize shortens a page of text, highlighting key points and phrases that can be inserted into a research paper. Instructors are aware of these features, and many do not consider them legitimate. It is arguable, after all, whether this is you or the word processor doing the job. If you do use this feature, be sure that you edit the autosummary to quote the words and phrases that the word processor extracted from the original and be sure that you cite the source.
  • Whenever you summarize or paraphrase, begin with a signal phrase to introduce the material. Be sure to cite the material as you would cite a quotation.

Now we came to the final part in writing.

Back to  How To Write A Research Paper .

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