How to Proofread a Thesis: A Guide

Anyone who has written one knows that a thesis is a monumental task. Months or even years of research, writing, and revision go into creating a thesis. The moment you type the last word, you may feel an incredible sense of relief. But you aren’t done yet! Now it’s time to begin the second most challenging part of writing a thesis: editing and proofreading. Your thesis will no doubt go through various rounds of editing as you reread and rewrite different sections, and your advisor provides their input. But even after all that, there is one critical step left, which is thesis proofreading. Is thesis proofreading that important? How can you go about thesis proofreading anyway?

What is Thesis Proofreading?
Proofreading is a separate step where you carefully review a text to ensure its technical accuracy. Thesis proofreading should be conducted after all of your major content editing has been finished. This is to save both time and effort. After all, why bother reviewing a section that will be deleted later? If you proofread before you are done editing, you may have to go back and proofread new sections that are added or changed during the editing process. Thesis proofreading should only take place once you are really, for real, finally done with editing.

In addition to technical accuracy, such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting, thesis proofreading should double-check that your word choice is correct. Proofreading your thesis will also give you the chance to check one more time for clarity and typographical errors. Finally, thesis proofreading will let you make sure that your word choices, use of abbreviations, and use of capitalization are consistent throughout your text. Thesis proofreading is a critical step because any errors in a written document make the document seem less professional and trustworthy. This is doubly true when it comes to academic circles. In this article, we talk specifically about English proofreading, but keep in mind that thesis proofreading is a critical step no matter what language you wrote your masterpiece in.

How Do You Proofread a Thesis?
When it comes to performing the English proofreading of your thesis, you have a couple of options. The first option is to proofread your own thesis. This can save you some money, but it can also involve a lot of time and difficulty. Proofreading your own work is always a challenge, thesis or otherwise, because you will bring your own bias as the writer to the table. You wrote it, and you know what you wanted to say. For that reason, it can be very easy to miss your own errors. This is why many thesis writers choose to hire thesis proofreading services. If you are a non-native English speaker, hiring thesis proofreading services to perform English proofreading is often your best option. English proofreading is difficult for native speakers too, and experienced dissertation editors employed by thesis proofreading services can often provide you with a very high quality of service.

Your thesis is probably long, and so it can help to do your thesis proofreading in sections rather than all at once. More importantly, do not attempt to proofread your thesis immediately upon finishing your final draft. You need as much time and space between you and your thesis as possible before you begin the proofreading process. If you aren’t engaging the help of thesis proofreading services, put your thesis on the shelf for at least 72 hours, preferably a week, before you begin the thesis proofreading process. That way, you can look at it with fresh eyes, and you’ll be more likely to catch the errors you have made.

What Should I Look For When Proofreading?
Anyone doing their own thesis proofreading should begin with a checklist of items to review. Common errors that should be looked for include:

• Inconsistent use of UK and US English (especially common among non-native speakers)
• Spelling errors (spell check is useful but will not catch everything)
• Typographical errors (abort instead of about is a nasty error but will be missed by spell check!)
• Inconsistent abbreviations (U.S. vs. US)
• Punctuation errors (improper use of apostrophes, inconsistent use of the Oxford comma, en dashes instead of em dashes)
• Grammatical errors (incorrect use of a/an/the, pluralization, etc.)
• Formatting

The easiest way to eliminate inconsistent use of UK vs. US English is to make sure the language of your document is set for your preferred version of English and then perform a quick spell check using the spell-check tool. This should take care of most spelling issues, but also keep a careful eye out as you read through your paper for any inconsistencies you may have missed.

One additional item you’ll want to take special care with is use of contractions (don’t vs. do not) and apostrophes. In general, academic writing is formal and use of contractions is discouraged. Some style guides (APA, for example) specifically discourage the use of contractions. Similarly, non-native speakers often have a tendency to overuse apostrophes with plural possessives. English proofreading and writing strongly advise against this, as native speakers are taught not to write this way. For example, “the dogs’ group” should be “the group of dogs” and “the publics’ opinion” should be “public opinion” or “the opinion of the public.” In addition, you should make sure that your formatting is consistent. Are headlines aligned the same way? Did you use bold for one section and italics for another? Are the margins correct? Always refer to the guide provided by your university to ensure you have properly formatted your thesis before submission.

Where Can I Find Help with Thesis Proofreading?
There are a number of helpful guides and tools out there to assist you in thesis proofreading. Google Scholar can help you double-check your citations, as can citation generators. OWL Purdue online also has many helpful writing tips. Thesis proofreading services, as mentioned above, are also a great resource. In addition to thesis proofreading services, academic proofreading services are also available. What is academic proofreading? Simply put, academic proofreading is specifically targeted to academics. Academic and thesis proofreading services employ experienced dissertation editors who are familiar with specific academic disciplines to review academic articles and thesis manuscripts. Because of their familiarity with the subject matter, they are fast and thorough.