People will spot a small dot across an entire whiteboard. In a similar way, they will also pinpoint and pick mistakes in your paper, no matter how great is it. In other words, it is these small things that matter that we ignore the most. Submitting a paper is not just the content that matters, but also how well is it presented.

Certain post-writing rituals will keep you well guarded from letting your paper look below standard. I didn’t know this until my friend gave me these simple pointers to keep in mind on my request to get someone to write my uni paper; because I used commit so many mistakes. In fact, I got to know that a well-proofread paper has much higher chances of being regarded as the best as that which is not.

The ‘small things’ that matter are as follows:

Do a Thorough Spell Check before Submitting your paper

When we write a paper or an essay, we want to pen down our thoughts as soon as possible. That’s great. But in our quest for speed, we commit more often than not spelling errors which don\t look good while reading. In many cases, it also alters the meaning of the paper. Words such as ‘though’ and ‘through’ may completely change the meaning of a sentence.

Sequence of ideas

A logical flow of ideas is crucial to have your paper sound consistent and rational. Though referring to ideas mentioned earlier is fine, but if the entire structure of the ideas contained in a paragraph is not in order, then you have very few chances of your writing being appreciated.

Grammar and Syntax

The reason the world stresses so much on the importance of grammar is that people are attuned to reading the language in a particular manner. Thus we have ‘rules’ of grammar so that whatever you write is understandable to everyone that is proficient in that specific language. Therefore, in writing a paper – research, academic or essay – not only are you tested on the subject matter that you are writing, but also how well you adhere to the mores of grammar and syntax.

Punctuations

Just imagine what would happen if you put a ‘comma’ instead of a ‘full stop’; or an ‘exclamation mark’ in place of a ‘question mark’. It changes the entire meaning of the sentence. Also, as a writer, it would portray you as casual and will take your work less seriously. And this is not just for paper writing, but in all types of writing – emails, letters, articles, editorials etc.

Proofreading by others

After you are done doing all of the above and are sure that your written stuff is neatly packed, this is the time to give it for proofreading to someone else. The reason for is that many a time, we are so stuck with a kind of vocabulary or its usage in a particular sequence, we might not know where have we erred. Hence, it becomes important that your writing goes under the lens of someone who is good with language and sentence construction. Many a time even spell checkers online are not able to detect all mistakes of a particular language.

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5 Small Things That Mean a Lot While Writing a Paper