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Editing and Proofreading

What this handout is about.

This handout provides some tips and strategies for revising your writing. To give you a chance to practice proofreading, we have left seven errors (three spelling errors, two punctuation errors, and two grammatical errors) in the text of this handout. See if you can spot them!

Is editing the same thing as proofreading?

Not exactly. Although many people use the terms interchangeably, editing and proofreading are two different stages of the revision process. Both demand close and careful reading, but they focus on different aspects of the writing and employ different techniques.

Some tips that apply to both editing and proofreading

• Get some distance from the text! It’s hard to edit or proofread a paper that you’ve just finished writing—it’s still to familiar, and you tend to skip over a lot of errors. Put the paper aside for a few hours, days, or weeks. Go for a run. Take a trip to the beach. Clear your head of what you’ve written so you can take a fresh look at the paper and see what is really on the page. Better yet, give the paper to a friend—you can’t get much more distance than that. Someone who is reading the paper for the first time, comes to it with completely fresh eyes.
• Decide which medium lets you proofread most carefully. Some people like to work right at the computer, while others like to sit back with a printed copy that they can mark up as they read.
• Try changing the look of your document. Altering the size, spacing, color, or style of the text may trick your brain into thinking it’s seeing an unfamiliar document, and that can help you get a different perspective on what you’ve written.
• Find a quiet place to work. Don’t try to do your proofreading in front of the TV or while you’re chugging away on the treadmill. Find a place where you can concentrate and avoid distractions.
• If possible, do your editing and proofreading in several short blocks of time. Your concentration may start to wane if you try to proofread the entire text at one time.
• If you’re short on time, you may wish to prioritize. Make sure that you complete the most important editing and proofreading tasks.

Editing is what you begin doing as soon as you finish your first draft. You reread your draft to see, for example, whether the paper is well-organized, the transitions between paragraphs are smooth, and your evidence really backs up your argument. You can edit on several levels:

Have you done everything the assignment requires? Are the claims you make accurate? If it is required to do so, does your paper make an argument? Is the argument complete? Are all of your claims consistent? Have you supported each point with adequate evidence? Is all of the information in your paper relevant to the assignment and/or your overall writing goal? (For additional tips, see our handouts on understanding assignments and developing an argument .)

Overall structure

Does your paper have an appropriate introduction and conclusion? Is your thesis clearly stated in your introduction? Is it clear how each paragraph in the body of your paper is related to your thesis? Are the paragraphs arranged in a logical sequence? Have you made clear transitions between paragraphs? One way to check the structure of your paper is to make a reverse outline of the paper after you have written the first draft. (See our handouts on introductions , conclusions , thesis statements , and transitions .)

Structure within paragraphs

Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence? Does each paragraph stick to one main idea? Are there any extraneous or missing sentences in any of your paragraphs? (See our handout on paragraph development .)

Have you defined any important terms that might be unclear to your reader? Is the meaning of each sentence clear? (One way to answer this question is to read your paper one sentence at a time, starting at the end and working backwards so that you will not unconsciously fill in content from previous sentences.) Is it clear what each pronoun (he, she, it, they, which, who, this, etc.) refers to? Have you chosen the proper words to express your ideas? Avoid using words you find in the thesaurus that aren’t part of your normal vocabulary; you may misuse them.

Have you used an appropriate tone (formal, informal, persuasive, etc.)? Is your use of gendered language (masculine and feminine pronouns like “he” or “she,” words like “fireman” that contain “man,” and words that some people incorrectly assume apply to only one gender—for example, some people assume “nurse” must refer to a woman) appropriate? Have you varied the length and structure of your sentences? Do you tends to use the passive voice too often? Does your writing contain a lot of unnecessary phrases like “there is,” “there are,” “due to the fact that,” etc.? Do you repeat a strong word (for example, a vivid main verb) unnecessarily? (For tips, see our handouts on style and gender-inclusive language .)

Have you appropriately cited quotes, paraphrases, and ideas you got from sources? Are your citations in the correct format? (See the UNC Libraries citation tutorial for more information.)

As you edit at all of these levels, you will usually make significant revisions to the content and wording of your paper. Keep an eye out for patterns of error; knowing what kinds of problems you tend to have will be helpful, especially if you are editing a large document like a thesis or dissertation. Once you have identified a pattern, you can develop techniques for spotting and correcting future instances of that pattern. For example, if you notice that you often discuss several distinct topics in each paragraph, you can go through your paper and underline the key words in each paragraph, then break the paragraphs up so that each one focuses on just one main idea.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process, focusing on surface errors such as misspellings and mistakes in grammar and punctuation. You should proofread only after you have finished all of your other editing revisions.

Why proofread? It’s the content that really matters, right?

Content is important. But like it or not, the way a paper looks affects the way others judge it. When you’ve worked hard to develop and present your ideas, you don’t want careless errors distracting your reader from what you have to say. It’s worth paying attention to the details that help you to make a good impression.

Most people devote only a few minutes to proofreading, hoping to catch any glaring errors that jump out from the page. But a quick and cursory reading, especially after you’ve been working long and hard on a paper, usually misses a lot. It’s better to work with a definite plan that helps you to search systematically for specific kinds of errors.

Sure, this takes a little extra time, but it pays off in the end. If you know that you have an effective way to catch errors when the paper is almost finished, you can worry less about editing while you are writing your first drafts. This makes the entire writing proccess more efficient.

Try to keep the editing and proofreading processes separate. When you are editing an early draft, you don’t want to be bothered with thinking about punctuation, grammar, and spelling. If your worrying about the spelling of a word or the placement of a comma, you’re not focusing on the more important task of developing and connecting ideas.

The proofreading process

You probably already use some of the strategies discussed below. Experiment with different tactics until you find a system that works well for you. The important thing is to make the process systematic and focused so that you catch as many errors as possible in the least amount of time.

• Don’t rely entirely on spelling checkers. These can be useful tools but they are far from foolproof. Spell checkers have a limited dictionary, so some words that show up as misspelled may really just not be in their memory. In addition, spell checkers will not catch misspellings that form another valid word. For example, if you type “your” instead of “you’re,” “to” instead of “too,” or “there” instead of “their,” the spell checker won’t catch the error.
• Grammar checkers can be even more problematic. These programs work with a limited number of rules, so they can’t identify every error and often make mistakes. They also fail to give thorough explanations to help you understand why a sentence should be revised. You may want to use a grammar checker to help you identify potential run-on sentences or too-frequent use of the passive voice, but you need to be able to evaluate the feedback it provides.
• Proofread for only one kind of error at a time. If you try to identify and revise too many things at once, you risk losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. It’s easier to catch grammar errors if you aren’t checking punctuation and spelling at the same time. In addition, some of the techniques that work well for spotting one kind of mistake won’t catch others.
• Read slow, and read every word. Try reading out loud , which forces you to say each word and also lets you hear how the words sound together. When you read silently or too quickly, you may skip over errors or make unconscious corrections.
• Separate the text into individual sentences. This is another technique to help you to read every sentence carefully. Simply press the return key after every period so that every line begins a new sentence. Then read each sentence separately, looking for grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors. If you’re working with a printed copy, try using an opaque object like a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the line you’re working on.
• Circle every punctuation mark. This forces you to look at each one. As you circle, ask yourself if the punctuation is correct.
• Read the paper backwards. This technique is helpful for checking spelling. Start with the last word on the last page and work your way back to the beginning, reading each word separately. Because content, punctuation, and grammar won’t make any sense, your focus will be entirely on the spelling of each word. You can also read backwards sentence by sentence to check grammar; this will help you avoid becoming distracted by content issues.
• Proofreading is a learning process. You’re not just looking for errors that you recognize; you’re also learning to recognize and correct new errors. This is where handbooks and dictionaries come in. Keep the ones you find helpful close at hand as you proofread.
• Ignorance may be bliss, but it won’t make you a better proofreader. You’ll often find things that don’t seem quite right to you, but you may not be quite sure what’s wrong either. A word looks like it might be misspelled, but the spell checker didn’t catch it. You think you need a comma between two words, but you’re not sure why. Should you use “that” instead of “which”? If you’re not sure about something, look it up.
• The proofreading process becomes more efficient as you develop and practice a systematic strategy. You’ll learn to identify the specific areas of your own writing that need careful attention, and knowing that you have a sound method for finding errors will help you to focus more on developing your ideas while you are drafting the paper.

Think you’ve got it?

Then give it a try, if you haven’t already! This handout contains seven errors our proofreader should have caught: three spelling errors, two punctuation errors, and two grammatical errors. Try to find them, and then check a version of this page with the errors marked in red to see if you’re a proofreading star.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Especially for non-native speakers of English:

Ascher, Allen. 2006. Think About Editing: An ESL Guide for the Harbrace Handbooks . Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Lane, Janet, and Ellen Lange. 2012. Writing Clearly: Grammar for Editing , 3rd ed. Boston: Heinle.

For everyone:

Einsohn, Amy. 2011. The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications , 3rd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose , 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Tarshis, Barry. 1998. How to Be Your Own Best Editor: The Toolkit for Everyone Who Writes . New York: Three Rivers Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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The rules of academic writing can be confusing, so let an expert help. Your essay editor will check the formality and consistency of your text, making sure you follow conventions throughout.

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Top 7 Essay Writing Services: Reviews of the Best College Paper Sites

Need help writing a resume or essay? We have unbiased reviews of the highest-rated writing services in 2023! Check them out!

We will compare the prices and features of some top essay writing services in the US. These websites are the most dependable and well-known for hiring professional essay writers. However, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Penning essays appears effortless until you have to craft one yourself. As you already know, academic writing encompasses many complexities, including various types of essays with specific purposes and lengths.

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We are ranked Studdit as the best essay writing service in the U.S. overall

Studdit is our top pick for the best essay writing company in the US, offering an impressive combination of benefits.

When searching for an online paper writer, certain elements are crucial and Stddit excels in most of these areas, including high-quality writing, fast turnaround time, and reasonable prices for top-notch services.

Essays come in various forms with unique requirements. While all papers require some research, many essays require extensive research.

If you are short on time, consider using a professional essay writing service that specializes in complex papers such as dissertations. Studdit has higher pricing compared to other websites, but it also provides superior services.

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PaperHelp stands at the forefront of quality essay services in the US, with a team of carefully selected, expert academic writers – many of whom are non-native English speakers with proficiency comparable to native writers. Their comprehensive research process, along with editing, proofreading, and formatting, make PaperHelp a premier choice for essay writing service.

Furthermore, PaperHelp is student-friendly, offering substantial discounts and a loyalty program tailored for students. The company provides the best college paper writing services to meet the academic standards for different levels, including high school and college-level essays.

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While PaperHelp is renowned for delivering high-quality essays, it also remains a leading provider of research papers and dissertations.

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With numerous positive reviews in the US, its writers are carefully selected for their professional and knowledgeable essay writing abilities.

ExtraEssay is known for its fast turnaround time and speedy delivery, as the name suggests. You can hire a reasonably priced essay writer and receive a decent paper on time. While its content quality may not match other affordable essay writing services, ExtraEssay compensates with prompt delivery and exceptional customer service. With numerous positive reviews in the US, its writers are carefully selected for their professional and knowledgeable essay writing abilities.

With a wide range of expertise, you have a high chance of finding a suitable writer for your essays, even with tight deadlines. SpeedyPaper pays close attention to detail, despite its speed, and prioritizes confidentiality and privacy through its data policy and privacy protection.

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Other ExtraEssay benefits include good communication with the support team and a discount on your papers.

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Are you hesitant to hire a college essay writing service due to trust concerns? EssayPro is here to provide the assistance you need. With so many unreliable companies, it’s important to choose wisely.

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MyAdmissionsEssay – The Biggest First-Order Discount

MyAdmissionEssay is a recommended option for those seeking a college paper writing service in the U.S. with fast turnaround and affordable prices.

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GradeMiners – Personal statements at their best

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The professional paper writers on the site are mostly non-native English speakers, available to hire at student-friendly rates. They cater to a wide range of academic papers, including essays, theses, and issertations.

EssayService – The Fastest Essay Writing Service

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Does a professional writer write my essay?

Reputable and trustworthy academic writing companies recognize the importance of producing high-quality essays, and as a result, only hire experienced and knowledgeable experts to handle their writing projects. These writers, who are either native English speakers or skilled English as a Second Language (ESL) specialists, possess skills comparable to those of native speakers. Some essay writing services allow you to choose who will work on your project, providing you with the opportunity to review writers’ credentials and select the one best suited for your essay. Other paper writing websites are transparent about their writer screening and selection process, ensuring customers are aware of the measures the company takes to guarantee the quality of its services. While not all essay writing companies in the U.S. require a degree, many do. This means that professionals with degrees in the relevant field or a related field often write your essay, ensuring a high level of expertise.

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Buying anything online comes with a risk as there is no guarantee. The online space is prone to scams, so it’s important to be cautious. However, there are many trustworthy companies available, you just need to know where to look. Reputable companies prioritize their customer service as it reflects on their reputation. The reliability and reputation of a paper writing service speaks to its confidentiality and safety for purchasing essays. Look for websites that place high importance on confidentiality and privacy. To find a trustworthy service, read independent reviews from reputable agencies and avoid the reviews on a company’s official site, as negative feedback is unlikely to be posted there. When choosing a legitimate essay writing service, consider its policies, offerings, and core values, as well as the emphasis they place on confidentiality, originality, and privacy.

Are essay writing services legit?

Using a paid essay writing service is both legitimate and safe. It is legal to pay someone to write essays for you, as long as you don’t turn in a plagiarized paper. Reputable companies focus on originality and run multiple plagiarism checks, ensuring you have nothing to worry about in terms of authenticity. However, it’s important to review the website’s Terms and Conditions before hiring an online essay writer. Some services allow you to use the work as your own, while others are intended solely for research and as examples and cannot be submitted as your own work. In this case, you may face legal issues. When searching for a reliable essay writing service, thoroughly review their policies and ask questions about your specific purpose and rights to use the essay.

Can I request a revision if I am not satisfied with my paper?

These writing websites design their services to minimize customer dissatisfaction with their work. They often include free revisions as a value-add to ensure customer satisfaction. These revisions provide an opportunity for the writer to address any concerns and make necessary changes to the paper. However, in the unlikely event of dissatisfaction, it is important to review the company’s policies and guarantees before making a payment. Some services offer limited revisions, and any changes must comply with their policy. Meanwhile, others offer a money-back guarantee in case of customer dissatisfaction. To ensure a positive experience, it is best to avoid low-priced writing services with unclear policies regarding revisions and satisfaction.

Which are the main drawbacks of essay writing sites?

There are potential downsides to hiring an essay ghostwriter, especially if you don’t choose a reputable one. One issue is receiving a paper filled with errors, typos, and grammar mistakes. Not all essay writing companies thoroughly screen and select their writers, which can lead to subpar work. Research and data accuracy are also important factors in essay writing and can pose risks if not done properly. Organization and flow are also crucial in essays, but some companies may divide the work among multiple writers to meet tight deadlines, leading to a disjointed essay. Plagiarism is a common concern in the essay writing industry, but most reputable companies have measures in place to prevent it. This is often reflected in their pricing.

When selecting an essay writing service for your college papers, certain crucial factors should not be overlooked, such as turnaround time, originality, revisions, customer service, pricing, and content quality.

On our list of the best companies, we have Studdit as the overall best essay writing service. Considering its quality writing, quick turnaround time, and fair pricing, it is the most popular and versatile option.

Studdit’s solid research process, editing, proofreading, and formatting make it a top-tier choice. If you are also looking for specific services like personal statement writing and high school homework help, we also cover that in this list.

7 Best Ways to Shorten an Essay

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Published: May 14, 2024

Are you removing a lot of words and paragraphs from your essay but still not seeing the word count budge? Whether you’re meeting a strict word count or refining your message, reducing your essay’s length without sacrificing content quality can be challenging.

Luckily, besides just aiming for the minimum word count, there are some pretty simple solutions, like using artificial intelligence, conducting thorough research, and trimming unnecessary words. But there’s more.

In this guide, we’ll unpack some practical tips to help you make your essay concise and impactful. Time to make every word count!

7 Best Ways To Shorten an Essay

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the best ways you can shorten your essay:

1. Use Artificial intelligence

When we talk about academic writing, artificial intelligence (AI) can be a game changer, especially when it comes to reducing the length of your essays.

Tools like Smodin can help make your content more concise while enhancing overall quality. AI can help you shorten your essay through the following methods:

• Automated rewriting : AI rewriting tools can reformulate existing content to make it more straightforward while maintaining the original meaning.
• Sentence simplification : Algorithms can analyze your sentences and suggest simpler alternatives, helping eliminate redundant information and reduce word count.
• Research assistance : Certain platforms have AI-powered research tools that allow you to quickly gather the most relevant information. This ensures that every word in your essay contributes to your argument without unnecessary fillers.
• Plagiarism check : Ensuring your essay is plagiarism-free is crucial. For example, Smodin’s plagiarism detection tools help you identify and replace copied content with original, concise expressions.
• Instant feedback : Receive real-time suggestions on how to streamline your text, focusing on the essentials to effectively communicate your message.
• Reference generation : Automatically generate and insert citations in the correct format, which helps save you time while maintaining the academic integrity of your essay and keeping it short.

2. Identify Unnecessary Words and Remove Them

One of the simplest yet most effective ways to shorten your essay is by identifying and eliminating unnecessary words.

This approach helps decrease word count and sharpens your arguments, making your writing more compelling. You can identify and remove extra words by doing the following:

• Spot wordy phrases : Often, phrases can be condensed without losing meaning. For example, the phrase “due to the fact that” can be replaced with “because.” Be on the lookout for wordy phrases that increase word count needlessly.
• Remove unnecessary prepositional phrases : Prepositional phrases can be redundant or add unnecessary detail. Evaluate whether these phrases add value or just extra words. Cutting them can make sentences more direct.
• Avoid redundancies : Redundant pairs like “absolutely essential” or “future plans” can be reduced to one word without losing informational value.
• Trim excess adjectives and adverbs : Adjectives and adverbs can make writing better but can also lead to over-description. Use them sparingly, especially when they don’t contribute additional meaning to the nouns and verbs they modify.
• Fewer words; more impact : Aim for brevity by using fewer words to express the same idea. This will help to reduce the word count while making your writing more impactful and clear.

3. Tighten Sentence Structure

Tightening your sentence structure is crucial for making your essay more concise and readable. Use active voice to make your writing clearer and more dynamic. This is especially important in academic writing, where you have to get to the point quickly.

In academic essays, shifting from passive voice to active voice can shorten and strengthen your sentences. For example, instead of writing, “The experiment was conducted by the students,” you can say, “The students conducted the experiment.” This reduces the number of words and places the action directly with the subject, making your sentences more direct.

Combining two separate sentences into one can streamline your ideas and reduce redundancies. Look for opportunities where sentences can be merged without losing their significance. For example, “He wrote the book. It became a bestseller.” can be rephrased as “He wrote the book, which became a bestseller.”

Also, avoid unnecessary qualifiers and modifiers that don’t add substantial information. Sentences often become bogged down with these extras, making them cluttered and long.

4. Conduct Thorough Research

When writing essays, extensive research can make the final output a lot shorter. Effective research helps you gather precise information that’s relevant to your topic. This means you’ll write more directly and avoid needless elaboration. Here’s how you can conduct research effectively:

• Define the scope of your research : Determine what information is essential to the argument. This initial step will help you focus your research efforts and prevent irrelevant data.
• Identify key sources : Begin with scholarly databases and academic journals that offer peer-reviewed articles. These sources provide credible, authoritative information that can be crucial for academic writing.
• Use precise keywords : When searching for information, use specific keywords related to your essay topic. Precision here will help find the most relevant articles and studies, reducing time spent on unnecessary reading.
• Evaluate sources : Assess the relevance and reliability of each source. Check the publication date to ensure the information is current and relevant to your topic.
• Take notes efficiently : As you research, jot down important points, quotes, and references. Organize these notes according to the sections in your essay to make writing faster.
• Synthesize information : Combine information from multiple sources to build a strong argument. This will allow you to write comprehensively and with fewer words, as each sentence carries more weight.

5. Improve Your Paragraph Structure

Streamlining paragraphs can make your essay shorter and more digestible for the reader. With a well-structured paragraph, you can focus on a single idea supported by concise statements.

Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that clearly states the main idea. This sentence sets the direction and tone, letting the reader know what to expect. It also helps ensure that every following sentence relates directly to the main idea.

Condense supporting information by merging ideas that logically coexist within a single sentence or phrase. After that, evaluate each sentence for its contribution to the paragraph’s main idea. Remove any information that is repeated or goes into too much detail.

Focus on providing evidence and explanations that directly support the main point. You should also end each paragraph with a sentence that reinforces the main idea and potentially links to the next paragraph. This creates smooth transitions and keeps the essay focused and cohesive.

6. Refine the Introduction and Conclusion

These sections frame your essay and influence how your arguments are perceived. Here are some ways to keep them concise yet effective.

Introduction

The introduction should be engaging and concise, clearly stating the purpose and scope of your essay. Begin with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention, followed by background information that sets the context. Incorporate your thesis statement early on, ideally at the end of the intro.

The conclusion needs to reinforce the thesis. Summarize key points in the essay and show how they support the thesis. Provide a final thought that leaves the reader with something to ponder.

Also, remember to keep it tight – the conclusion isn’t a place for introducing new ideas. It should wrap up the ones you presented and prompt the reader to pose their own questions.

7. Edit and Proofread

Keep your essay concise and error-free by allocating ample time for editing and proofreading. These processes scrutinize your work at different levels, from the overall structure to word choices and punctuation. Here’s how you can go about it:

Start by reading through your entire paper to get a feel for its flow and coherence. Check if all paragraphs support your thesis statement and if section transitions are smooth. This will help you spot areas where the argument might be weak, or wording could be clearer.

Focus next on paragraph structure. Ensure each paragraph sticks to one main idea and that all sentences directly support the idea. Remove any repetitive or irrelevant sentences that don’t add value.

Then, look for clarity and style. Replace complex words with simpler alternatives to maintain readability. Keep your tone consistent throughout the paper. Adjust the sentence length and structure to enhance the flow and make it more engaging.

Proofreading

Proofreading comes after editing. The focus here is catching typing errors, grammatical mistakes, and inconsistent formatting. It’s always best to proofread with fresh eyes, so consider taking a break before this step.

Use tools like spell checkers, but don’t rely solely on them. Read your essay aloud or have someone else review it. Hearing the words can help you catch errors you may have missed.

Lastly, check for punctuation errors and ensure all citations and references are formatted according to the required academic style. This and all of the above are areas in which AI can help get the job done with speed and precision.

Why You Might Need to Shorten Your Essay

Ever heard the expression “less is more”? When it comes to academic writing, it normally is. Keeping your essays concise offers several benefits:

• Enhances clarity : A shorter essay forces you to focus on the main points and critical arguments, reducing the risk of going off-topic. This clarity makes your writing more impactful and easier for the reader to follow.
• Meets word limits : Many academic assignments have a maximum word count. Learning to express your thoughts concisely helps you stay within these limits without sacrificing essential content.
• Saves time : For both the writer and the reader, shorter essays take less time to write, revise, and read. This efficiency is especially valuable in academic settings where time is usually limited.
• Increases engagement : Readers are more likely to stay engaged with a document that gets to the point quickly. Lengthy texts can deter readers, especially if the content has unnecessary words or redundant points.
• Improves writing skills : Shortening essays helps refine your writing skills. You become better at identifying and eliminating fluff, focusing instead on what really adds value to your paper.

Overall, adopting a more succinct writing style helps you meet academic requirements and polish your communication skills.

Why Use Smodin To Shorten an Essay

Using AI-powered platforms like Smodin to shorten your essay is both the simplest and the least time-consuming method available. Here’s why you should probably make Smodin your go-to essay shortener:

• Efficiency : Smodin eases the editing process, using advanced algorithms to quickly identify areas where content can be condensed without losing meaning.
• Accuracy : With its powerful AI, Smodin ensures that the essence of your essays stays intact while getting rid of unnecessary words, making your writing more precise.
• Ease of use : Smodin is user-friendly, making it accessible even to those who aren’t the most tech-savvy. Its easy-to-grasp interface allows for seamless navigation and operation.

Smodin’s offerings

• Rewriter : Available in over 50 languages, this tool helps rewrite text to be more concise.
• Article Writer : Assists in drafting articles that are crisp and to the point.
• Plagiarism and Auto Citation : Ensures your essay is original and correctly cited, which is crucial in academic writing.
• Language Detection : Identifies the language of the text, ensuring the right adjustments are made for clarity.

All these tools and more are what make Smodin an excellent choice for academics looking to reduce the length of their essays.

Final Thoughts

Word counts can be a real headache, especially when you need to say a lot with a little. Thankfully, by identifying unnecessary words, tightening your sentences, and using tools like Smodin, you can make your essay concise without losing its meaning. Remember, a shorter essay doesn’t just meet word limits; and it’s clear, more compelling, and more likely to keep your reader engaged.

Keep it short, keep it sweet, and make every word count! Get started for free right now with Smodin.

Letters to the Editor | A must-read editorial for MAGA minions |…

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Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor | a must-read editorial for maga minions | letters to the editor.

Unfortunately, those who should read it the most, the MAGA cult, won’t.

I consider the majority of them gullible and ignorant. That they continue to rally behind Trump, no matter what he does, continues to astound me.

If, and it’s a big if, Trump is somehow elected again and takes control of the country, it will be the end of this country. This I firmly believe, and fear.

Alan B. Wackerling, Plantation

Can’t sink any lower

Just when you think that a newspaper’s editorial board couldn’t sink any lower than the Democratic Party’s last three presidential standard-bearers (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden), who respectively referred to millions of Americans as “bitter clingers,” “deplorables,” “irredeemables” and “semi-fascists,” the editorial board proves you wrong by comparing those same Americans to Kool-Aid-drinking suicidal cultists.

Keep up the good work while Florida turns even redder.

Arnold Ahlert , Boca Raton

Maybe ‘going low’ is better

Former First Lady Michelle Obama famously said, “When they go low, we go high,” referring to Trump’s bullying tactics in the 2016 presidential campaign.

It was a message for Democrats to behave differently than someone who treats others with disdain. Unfortunately, adhering to that maxim in the era of Trump is a recipe for political suicide. To the MAGA minions, including many Republicans in Congress, civil discourse is a thing of the past.

Despite a robust economy, with 15 million new jobs and unemployment rates at record low levels, the electorate, particularly in crucial swing states, seems unimpressed with President Biden’s accomplishments. A record of consequential legislation has done little to offset this lack of enthusiasm.

Is “going low” paying dividends? Trump, aided by the media’s lopsided coverage of his relentless assaults on Biden’s character and policies, is winning the messaging game. The time has come for the Biden camp to launch an overwhelming counteroffensive, replete with highlight reels of Trump’s personal and professional failings — or risk losing in November.

Jim Paladino, Tampa

Hysterical editorial

You can tell Democrats are in trouble after reading the hysterical Sun Sentinel editorial of May 15.

The editors are panicking, using pejorative terms like dictator, wife-cheater, election-denier and cult leader in describing Donald Trump.

No mention was made of the disastrous policies of the Biden administration such as sky-high inflation, a failed migrant policy, rampant crime in major blue cities, a foreign policy in shambles, a president with cognitive issues and a clueless vice president.

Most polls show that Biden’s popularity is in the dumper. Do the people realize that, under Trump, things were much better than they are today?

The Sun Sentinel’s hysterical condemnation of Trump is so much partisan blather. The paper’s animus toward Trump is obvious, as it seems you are blinded to the facts by your liberal ideology. Be prepared for the unthinkable: a Trump victory in November.

Chuck Lehmann , Delray Beach

Another day of infamy?

Dates in American history that will live in Infamy: Dec. 7,1941 (Japan bombs Pearl Harbor); Sept. 11, 2001 (Twin Towers and Pentagon are attacked); Jan. 6, 2021, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Remember what retired General John Kelly, one of Trump’s former chiefs of staff, said of him: “The depth of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

We need to keep General Kelly’s remarks in mind when we mark our ballots in the November 5, 2024 presidential election, lest we turn that day into another Day of Infamy in our country.

Donald Kogan , Boca Raton

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Community rallying to help Covina police officer critically injured during crash

COVINA, Calif. (KABC) -- Covina Police Officer Jesse Gutierrez has led a life of service, first as a U.S. Marine and then as a police officer.

On May 6 during a pursuit Gutierrez was critically injured protecting his community.

"I heard a loud bang and we came out and we saw the Covina PD with the K9 got in an accident they were chasing I guess a suspect," said Eduardo Rangel.

Rangel's cafe is across the street from where Gutierrez's patrol car slammed into a cement sign in the early morning hours.

He says firefighters used the jaws of life to get Officer Gutierrez and his K9 partner, Paco, out of the patrol car.

"Because of the head injury they have sedated Officer Gutierrez. He's been in sedation for a week and a half," said Chief David Povero with the Covina Police Department.

Chief Povero said Gutierrez has been with the department for four years. The husband and father of two young boys is also his family's sole provider.

The Police Association of Covina has partnered with the Peace Officers Research Association of California to raise funds to assist and support Gutierrez's family.

"Even though the city of Covina is fully supportive behind Officer Gutierrez and his care will take care of that there is financial gaps the occurs that we are trying to bridge," said Chief Povero.

The fund-a-hero campaign for Gutierrez is up and running here on the Peace Officers Research Association of California website.

"It is just unfortunate that something like that would happen. Hopefully we can help him out," said Rangle.

As for Officer Gutierrez's K-9, Paco:

"Thankfully uninjured. He's gone to a veterinarian and got a clean bill of health," said Lt. Josh Turner with the Covina Police Department

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• LOS ANGELES COUNTY
• OFFICER INJURED

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Election 2024: New, easy-to-read poll tracker plots changes within pollsters

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Election 2024: New poll tracker by Northeastern political scientist plots changes within pollsters

The tracker measures changes in support for Joe Biden and Donald Trump across 10 major pollsters, including YouGov, Ipsos and Emerson College, among others.

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The world of public opinion polling is a noisy one. One week, a pollster might show President Joe Biden up one point, then down two points a week later. Another pollster might show Biden and Donald Trump in a statistical dead heat — a sensible reading, perhaps, given the fierce political divide in the U.S. these past election cycles.

Regardless of what the polls say week to week, questions about the methods and biases of pollsters always crop up: who are they talking to; what states and regions are they sampling; and how are they compiling the data?

Nick Beauchamp , associate professor of political science at Northeastern University, wants to cut through the noise. Motivated by a desire to give a much simpler readout of polling data in the 2024 presidential election, Beauchamp created a new poll aggregator that tracks changes within pollsters over time, plotting changes in graphs he’s published on his website.

The tracker measures changes in support for Biden and Trump across 10 major pollsters, including YouGov, Ipsos and Emerson College, among others. 

Specifically, Beauchamp’s project — which he calls Derivative Polling — looks to answer two questions: How have the polls been changing? How does today’s poll compare to the previous poll by the same pollster?

Graph   by Nick Beauchamp/Northeastern University

Beauchamp spoke to Northeastern Global News about the tracker. His answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tell us about this latest project. What insights does your tracker offer over others?

Every day there are new polls coming out, and every day people are discussing what these polls mean. If you’re in the Biden camp, you might wonder, is this poll good or bad for Biden. Sometimes you’ll hear things like Biden is up one point, or seems to be gaining ground. But then someone else might say, well, is this one of those pollsters that is systematically pro-Biden. In which case, it might not be that he’s actually going up in the polls, but rather the poll is from an outfit that has a different distribution of people they reach.

Indeed, some outfits seem to be a little bit more pro-Democrat, others more pro-Republican. So people ask then, what is the underlying bias of any one pollster?  

That’s a very hard question to answer, and often instead of answering that question, they’ll just say, OK, how did he do in the last poll by this pollster? A lot of times what people are interested in as it pertains to the day-to-day polls is whether a candidate is gaining or losing ground — often in the context of news events, like Trump’s ongoing criminal trial or geopolitical developments abroad. 

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Does aggregating the data in this way help us also gain insight into differences in pollsters’ methodologies?

There are interesting questions about how the pollsters differ both in their approaches and in terms of what they manage to create. One of the things that is fairly noticeable, for example, is that the pollsters do tend to change in fairly synchronized ways. 

We see this long period where quite a few of them showed rises in Biden; some were showing rises like 48-49, 50-51 and 56-57; but the overall trend was often shared among the pollsters even when their baseline was different. 

Of course, this is what we should expect statistically, but it’s nice to be able to see it visually — and to be able to see both the across pollster differences in their baselines, and the shared trends. One can discern all of this if you go to the aggregator sites and look deeply at their data sets. 

But another reason to do it like this is that, from an aggregator’s point of view, the poll aggregators have gotten very complicated. The way I’ve done it is very transparent; what you see is what you get.

I just try to aggregate those things and trust that whatever the pollster is doing will be consistent from week to week so that, even if there are variations in how they make these decisions, that gets removed in the wash. You try to simplify as much as possible without killing it.

Here, we don’t have to worry about the biases of pollsters; we don’t have to worry about all sorts of complicated questions of forecasting and so forth, so you get this nice clean picture. I thought I could package it in a way that could be automatically updated so that anyone who is afflicted, as I am, with a need to look at the polls can have a quick-glance piece of information about how things are changing and shaping up.

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How do you see the influence that polling has — perhaps specific to this election cycle, but also in general — on the electorate is there a bandwagon effect as people respond to various measures of voter preference.

It’s been interesting as a political scientist watching a segment of the public — mainly the educated, politically engaged, which is a very small segment — become more educated and sophisticated in their understanding and reading of polls over, say, the last decade or so. 

There’s been a huge education in public understanding, again among this fairly self-selected group, starting probably in 2016 when there was this shock to the system after Trump was elected [In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, most polls predicted that Hillary Clinton would win]. Then you had kind of an interesting public discourse about what polls are for and how much we should trust them, etc. 

And these days — now that we’re almost a decade past that shock — I think people are more sophisticated in their understanding of how these things work. They don’t trust them too much, and they don’t entirely dismiss them either. 

What you want is for people to have a moderate amount of poll interest and trust — not so much that you have this huge feedback loop where it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and not too little where people just ignore it altogether and have no response to public opinion. 

You have to have a functional relationship between what the nation is feeling and what the politicians are doing, and a lot of that is mediated by pollsters. Despite their flaws, pollsters try to get to the heart of that relationship as best they can. Tools like this can help with that — though don’t take the daily fluctuations too seriously!

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Premiere Pro feature summary (May 2024 release)

Now in Premiere Pro, AI-powered audio workflow improvements including automatic tagging, interactive fade handles, and new badges. Plus with improvements to Text-Based Editing, new clip colors, and improved hardware acceleration, it's the perfect time to update.

Learn about  best practices for updating Premiere Pro.

Major audio workflow updates

New audio workflow updates make it faster and easier to edit and mix directly in Premiere Pro. Whether you’re an experienced pro, a newcomer to editing, or working on your audio skills, our new audio workflow will put the right tools for the job at your fingertips so you can focus on storytelling. 

Interactive fade handles

Now add fades and transitions faster. When hovering over an audio clip in the timeline, click on the small squares that appear in the corners of the clip. Drag these squares to quickly create a fade-in, fade-out, or crossfade. While dragging, move up and down to adjust the slope of the fade.

Hold the  option  key while dragging to constrain the adjustment to only one axis — up-down for slope or left-right for duration.

You can hold the shift key to change one side for the crossfade effect. Or you can also hold the  option  key and drag it left or right to change the curve or the duration.

Audio tagging and badges

The power of AI automatically recognizes if clips are Dialogue , Music , SFX , or Ambiance and adds a new interactive badge . Just click for instant access to the most relevant tools for that audio type in the  Essential Sound  panel.

Redesigned FX Clip Badges

An updated badge makes it easier for you to see which clips have effects added to them. New effects can be added by right-clicking the badge, and a single click opens the Effect Control panel for even more adjustment without changing the workspace or searching for the panel.

Modern, intelligent waveforms and clips

Waveforms now dynamically resize when you change the track height, and improved clip colors make it easier for you to see and work with audio on the timeline.

Text-Based Editing updates

Bulk delete speakers for faster cleanup.

You can now select all dialogue by a particular speaker in the transcript and choose to quickly bulk delete it from the video. It facilitates the removal of any irrelevant dialogue from your timeline, such as interviewers or other off-camera conversations in unscripted content.

Add markers in the Text panel

Now you can use markers in the Text panel to leave notes and place markers in your transcript. Add notes, change colors, or add spanned markers to highlight sections of text. Your markers will also be visible in the sequence.

Faster plug-in loading time

Premiere Pro will now load faster on macOS after the initial launch because plugins don’t need to be loaded on subsequent launches. Instead of Premiere Pro loading plugins into memory on every launch, the plugins will be cached on the Mac, so the application load time will be much faster.

Automatic iPhone ProRes log video support

Apple iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max include a new ProRes log video recording option, enabling you to record in a high-quality, 10-bit format that retains the maximum latitude and detail. Premiere Pro not only supports it via the existing LUT-based workflow but also offers a dynamic, LUT-free automated solution using our color management system.

Enable  Auto Detect Log Video Color Space  and drop an iPhone ProRes log original camera media clip into a Rec 709 timeline.  Lumetri Settings  will show that the clip’s  Media Color Space  is set to  Apple Log/ Rec 2020 , and an automatic tone map will be applied.

Hardware acceleration for more video formats

Premiere Pro now includes hardware acceleration for playback of video formats including:

• AVC LongGOP in MXF
• HEVC LongGOP in MXF
• HEVC Intra in MXF

The following vendors of AVC Long GOP, HEVC-Intra, and HEVC-L benefit from this:

• Sony (XAVC-L, XAVC H-I, XAVC H-L)
• Canon (XF-AVC L, XF-HEVC L)
• Panasonic (AVC LongG)

Learn more about  supported file formats  in Premiere Pro.

Additional updates

• You can now set Text and Shape layer preferences in the Graphics section of the Preferences panel.
• Color Management is now supported for import of MXF files utilizing HEVC Intra and Long GOP codecs.
• You can now override the default media color space for all formats (except for RAW formats).
• Project templates are now available in localized languages.
• You can now smoothly zoom into the Monitor using your mouse's scroll wheel and quickly pan around the Monitor by holding the middle mouse button and dragging.
• Embedded captions are now supported while using proxies.
• Select View > Display Mode  and view each color channel separately in the Program Monitor .

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Middle East Crisis U.N. Lowers Count of Women and Children Killed, Citing Incomplete Information

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• Palestinians search for survivors inside a destroyed building in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Reuters
• Palestinian citizens of Israel marching near Haifa, Israel, to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, when roughly 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in what became the state of Israel, during the wars surrounding its creation. Ammar Awad/Reuters
• Near the site of a strike in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
• A march in the southern Israel city of Sderot calling for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip once the war is over. Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press
• Displaced Palestinians clean rubble from a damaged school in Khan Younis to use as shelter. Associated Press
• Employees of UNRWA inspect a destroyed United Nations school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock
• Watching the recovery effort from a balcony in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
• Searching for casualties at the site of the strike in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
• An Israeli military helicopter firing toward Gaza. Amir Levy/Getty Images
• Israeli police arrest an Ultra-Orthodox Jew during a protest against Israel's Independence Day in Jerusalem. Atef Safadi/EPA, via Shutterstock
• Palestinians wait to receive food rations in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. -/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

How many of Gaza’s dead are women and children? For 10,000, the data is incomplete.

The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory.

As recently as May 6, the U.N’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its regularly updated online report that at least 9,500 women and 14,500 children were among the dead, out of an overall death toll of 34,735.

Two days later, the U.N. said in another online update that 4,959 women, 7,797 children and 10,006 men had been killed. While the total number of deaths remained roughly the same, a U.N. official said that it was awaiting more identifying information from officials in Gaza for about 10,000 of the dead, so they were not included in the new breakdown of women, men and children.

The change in the U.N.’s numbers — and the confusion over the discrepancy — has added fuel to a debate over the credibility of the Gazan authorities’ tallies of fatalities in the war. The deaths of women and children are seen as an important, if incomplete, indication of how many civilians have been killed, a question that lies at the heart of the criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war.

The change came because the United Nations switched to citing a more conservative source for its numbers — the Gazan Ministry of Health — rather than using Gaza’s Government Media Office, as it had in recent weeks. Both offices are part of the Hamas-run government in the enclave.

Many international officials and experts familiar with the way the health ministry verifies deaths in Gaza — drawing from morgues and hospitals across the territory — say its numbers are generally reliable.

The health ministry says its count of women and children killed is based on the total number of people whose identities it can fully verify — 24,840 individuals in all as of May 13.

More than 10,000 other people have also been killed, the health ministry says, but it does not have their full names, official ID numbers or other information it needs to be certain of their identities. That is why they are not included in the breakdown of women and children killed that is now being cited by the U.N., officials said.

“There’s about another 10,000-plus bodies who still have to be fully identified,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the U.N., said on Monday. He added: “The details of those — which of those are children, which of those are women — that will be reestablished once the full identification process is complete.”

Mr. Haq said the United Nations was relying on the data coming out of the health ministry, as it has “in all previous conflicts.”

He added that the U.N. had started using figures from Gaza’s media office because there had been a pause in reporting from the health ministry. But now that the ministry’s casualty reporting was back on line, he said, the U.N. had returned to using its information.

What do Israel and other critics say?

Israeli officials say they are suspicious of the Gazan health ministry’s count. A spokesman for the Israeli military, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, noted that the health ministry does not distinguish in its numbers between combatants and civilians. He also said that Israel sees every civilian death as a tragedy.

After the United Nations issued a lower documented death toll for women and children, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, called the new numbers “the miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza,” saying the United Nations had relied on “fake data from a terrorist organization.”

Elliott Abrams, a veteran American conservative, said in an article for the Council on Foreign Relations on Sunday that it has become “increasingly clear that these numbers represent Hamas propaganda.”

But figures cited by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are not drastically different from those used by the United Nations. He said last week that Israeli forces had killed about 14,000 Hamas combatants and 16,000 civilians, for a total of around 30,000, without elaborating on the source for those numbers.

Are the new casualty numbers viewed as credible?

In a sign that the U.S. government views casualty figures supplied by the Gaza health authorities as reliable, President Biden cited their overall death toll in his State of the Union speech in March. The United Nations publishes the health ministry’s figures on a website and U.N. leaders refer to them frequently.

A few weeks ago, the health ministry released its latest list detailing the identities of the dead that it had fully documented. It has also released a series of detailed reports explaining how it compiles casualty figures.

Early in the war, when its figures were called into question, the health ministry released a list of names, ages and identification numbers of the dead. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analyzed that data, in a report published in November in The Lancet , and found “no obvious reason to doubt the validity of the data.”

Airwars, a British organization that assesses claims of civilian harm in conflicts, has matched the names of those reported killed with lists of names released by the health ministry. The vast majority of names match up, said Emily Tripp, the group’s director. Airwars also analyzed a ministry of health list of names issued earlier in the conflict and found that the proportion of children, women and men reported by the ministry roughly aligned with its own data collection, she said.

Neta Crawford, a professor of political science at Oxford University and the founder of the Costs of War project, which examines the consequences of the post 9/11 wars, argued that the figures appeared to have been produced to professional standards.

How are casualty numbers compiled?

International experts who have worked with health officials in Gaza during this and other wars say that hospitals and morgues in the enclave gather and report the names, ID numbers and other details of people who have been killed in the territory.

The detailed count excludes thousands of people reported at hospitals as missing but believed to be buried under rubble ; they are counted as dead only when their bodies are found.

The Gaza media office has consistently provided an overall death toll similar to the one given by the ministry of health, but different and often higher figures for the number of women and children killed.

Ismail Al Thawabateh, the office’s director general, said in an interview that the health ministry listed and categorized an individual as dead only when all of their details had been documented and verified by a next of kin. He did not explain why his office used a breakdown of women and children based on the overall death toll.

“The remaining 10,000 are bodies that have entered the hospitals but until this moment, the next of kin have not been reached yet to verify how they were martyred and completing their information,” he said.

When reached, Ashraf al-Qudra, the Gaza health ministry’s spokesman referred questions to the Ministry of Health’s latest report from May 13.

Patrick Kingsley and Ameera Harouda contributed reporting.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg ,  Lauren Leatherby and Abu Bakr Bashir

Key Developments

Qatar says cease-fire talks are nearing an impasse, and other news.

Negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza are at “almost a stalemate,” and the talks have been set back by Israel’s military offensive in Rafah , Qatar’s prime minister said Tuesday. The prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, was asked about the state of the talks at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Qatar and Egypt have been acting as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas.

The International Court of Justice said it would hold hearings on Thursday and Friday on South Africa’s request for additional emergency measures to constrain Israel’s operation in Rafah. Last week, South Africa, which has filed a case at the court in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, asked the judges to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah , calling it “the last refuge” for Palestinians in the territory. Israel has strongly denied South Africa’s accusations at the court, which has no means of enforcing its orders.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that gunfire that hit the back of a U.N.-marked car in Rafah on Monday and killed a U.N. staff member came from a tank . A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said that the United Nations has yet to determine who was responsible, though he added that the Israeli military is the only force known to have deployed tanks in Gaza. The staff member who was killed was Col. Waibhav Anil Kale, an Indian citizen who worked for the U.N. Department of Safety and Security, Mr. Haq said. A Jordanian woman who worked for the same agency was wounded and is recovering in a hospital, he said.

Thousands of Israelis attended a far-right Independence Day march on Tuesday in the southern city of Sderot, where Israeli lawmakers, including the country’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, called for the resettlement of Gaza by Israelis.

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said attacks on aid trucks bound for Gaza were “appalling” and called for Israel to hold perpetrators to account. His statement on social media Tuesday came a day after a convoy of relief trucks was blocked and vandalized for hours, according to a right-wing Israeli group that planned the blockage. The Israeli police said that suspects had been arrested and that they were investigating.

Israel strikes on a home and a school building kill dozens of people, as fighting rages across Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes overnight killed dozens of people at a family home and a school in the central Gaza Strip, local residents and a hospital spokesman said on Tuesday, as fighting intensified across the territory, with Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battling in the south, while Israeli jets and tanks pounded the north and center.

Witnesses said an Israeli bomb on Monday night destroyed the home of the Karaja family in the town of Nuseirat, where workers spent hours digging through rubble, pulling out both survivors and the dead. Dr. Khalil Degran, a spokesman for Aqsa hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, said in an interview that 30 people were killed at the house; a rescue worker, Hazem Abu Takyia, told the Reuters news agency that he knew of 15 deaths.

The Israeli military declined to comment on that attack, but confirmed that it had struck a school building early Tuesday in Nuseirat, killing 15 militants, including 10 Hamas fighters, some of whom it accused of participating in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. In a statement, the military said the school had been used to plan attacks on Israeli soldiers in Gaza, and that some of those killed in the strike were from Hamas’s highly trained Nukhba brigade.

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the primary U.N. aid agency in Gaza, said it could not confirm Israel’s claims.

Dr. Degran, the Aqsa hospital spokesman, said that 12 people were killed at the school and that he did not know their backgrounds.

Reuters and The Associated Press reported that the building, like many of Gaza’s schools, was being used as a shelter for displaced civilians.

In a video report on Tuesday, a U.N. employee, Abu Abdullah Zuhair Abu Rahma, told Reuters that people “came to the school to be safe.”

“The school was hit without any warning,” he said.

Classes were canceled across Gaza when the war broke out, and many schools became shelters for displaced Gazans fleeing from the fighting. A recent study by the Education Cluster, a research group that works with the United Nations, based on satellite imagery, found that well over 80 percent of the schools across the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or severely damaged since the war began, including all of its universities. More than 200 schools have suffered direct hits from missiles, bombs or artillery.

Last November , an Israeli strike on a U.N. school sheltering displaced people killed 24.

Over the weekend, Israel said its forces would return to areas of northern Gaza where it had routed Hamas months ago, because of “intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble.” The scale of the fighting on Tuesday suggests how far those efforts to regroup may have gone.

The Israeli military said its troops were carrying out operations in Jabaliya and Zeitoun in the north, both communities where Israel had claimed to have defeated Hamas earlier in the war.

The Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that 82 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Fighting also continued in Rafah, a southern city that Israeli forces entered last week, and where more than one million Palestinians had sought safety from months of Israeli bombardment in other parts of the enclave. The United Nations said Tuesday that in a little over a week, about 450,000 people had fled Rafah.

Israel said its forces killed members of “several armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters” near the Rafah crossing with Egypt, a vital entry point for humanitarian aid, which has been closed since Israeli forces seized control of it last week. Israeli and Egyptian officials have blamed each other for the closure.

On Tuesday, Hamas said it destroyed an Israeli troop carrier in eastern Rafah, killing and injuring several soldiers who were evacuated by helicopter. The Israeli military declined to comment specifically on this attack.

— Liam Stack and Nader Ibrahim Liam Stack reported from Tel Aviv and Nader Ibrahim reported from London.

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