TIME TO EDIT

 “. . . the last act of the writing must be to become one’s own reader. It is, I suppose, a schizophrenic process.  To begin passionately and to end critically, to begin hot and to end cold; and, more important, to try to be passion-hot and critic-cold at the same time.”                         – John Ciardi

 

As you move toward the final draft, take the opportunity to clarify your writing even more. 

1.  Read your work out loud.  

• Do you like how it sounds?
• What parts do you like the best?
• What parts are you unhappy with?

2.  Consider purpose/audience.

• What have you done to catch the reader’s attention?
• Do you share enough information for the reader to truly understand your work?
• What else does your reader need to know?

3.  Re-think your work carefully.

• Is it organized clearly?  Could you regroup your ideas in a more effective way?
• Find places you could add/change/delete to make your work better.

4.  Look carefully at your ideas.

• Are all of them complete?
• Do they clearly express your thoughts?

5.  What words could you change to improve the work?

• Interesting, descriptive/picture words
• Stronger verbs

6.  Have you checked your work for correctness?

• Spelling
• Capital letters
• Punctuation

 Finally, editing!

In the November 4, 2020 entry to our blog, Micki shared information on using RAG (Read Around Groups) as an effective way for students to receive feedback when drafting.  This activity also works extremely well as your writers are moving into the editing stage. 

On the first read, have students mark spelling. On the second, have them mark punctuation, etc. Again, do one topic (for instance, spelling) per group rather than per student so that you have several students looking for mistakes. 

Another option is to create a peer editing checklist.  Discuss with your students what components to include in the checklist (depending upon grade level, etc.) and how to evaluate (excellent, acceptable, errors noted, etc. -- or yes, no). 

Finally, try this fun activity adapted from Jeff Anderson’sMechanically Inclinedthat works nicely when checking for grammatical problems:

1.    Each student needs a writing draft 

2.    Remind students how express lane works at store

3.    Use similar routine as a way to reread writing

4.    Check out important items in writing

5.    Make a “shopping list” of items to “Check Out”

6.    Students create a box containing Items to “Check Out”

·     Include details (brief rule, etc.) about each item

7.    Students create a box with “Receipt”

·     Show changes made and give reason for change for each item in “Check Out”

8.    If no mistake is found, student writes – I found no errors after reading the writing three times – followed by student’s signature

 Here are a couple of resources to check out:  Grammarly (grammarly.com) and writingfix.com