Mop, Broom, and Cleaning Supplies

You finally got it! Your thesis is coming together nicely. For once, your research is paying off and you actually have it figured out…

Now it’s time to clean it up and make it look good for that red pen catwalk.

Read over your paper. Understand that what sounds absolutely phenomenal to you may sound like trash can music to someone else, especially your instructor. It is always a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes read over what you wrote. Can’t find the eyes? Read it out loud, even record it so you can hear it back. Nine times out of ten, reading it out loud can catch those sneaky little errors that manage to get into anyone’s writing.

Using Word can be a major plus in your writing. When it comes to filler information, you know that you can find yourself stating the same thing over and over, just to make a word count. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can find a mental broom and sweep away extra words that really can be replaced with something more fulfilling. Using the find and replace, search your paper for every time you have used the words and, that, it, then, may be, and of. You will be very surprised at how many times these words have been used along with how easily you can get rid of them. This not only gets rid of the filler, but discard repetition in your work as well.

Even the best online colleges expect your papers to be smooth, flowing and on topic. Using your mop, straighten out any run-on sentences, comma splices, preposition errors and other grammatically incorrect things you can find. Think your paper is perfect? Try again. Not one paper is ever completely perfect, but it can be the best that you put for the effort to make it.

Now that you have swept and mopped your paper to a glorious shine, pull out that cleaning rag a make it sparkle. Read your paragraphs. Are they in the right order? Do they mix well with the following paragraph? Is the entire thing a good match for what the instructor asked for? If your answer is yes to every one of these questions, congratulations! Print that baby out and turn it in. If not, you know exactly what to do to change that no into a wondrous YES!

Now that you have primed, proppered, cleaned, polished and sparkled that document to its best, its time to sit back and pat yourself on the back. Great job!