"A teacher has two roles as a reader of student work: one, to hear what the writer is communicating, to listen well, to consider and respond to the thinking in the piece; and two, to help the writer communicate it with as much grace as possible, which might mean to correct and suggest and model the conventions of the genre." Penny Kittle Write Beside Them
Kittle reminds teachers that sometimes we get so caught up in grading that we forget the first role and end up only focusing on the second. Muriel and I have been talking about revision and editing in our last few entries, and we have conveyed the difference between the two. Revision is of utmost importance - does the piece say what the writer wants to communicate? Kittle talks of teachers "kidnapping" the piece and just focusing on how they would say something or maybe just focus on misspellings or missing punctuation.
We need to listen to our students and really hear what they are trying to communicate - if we take the time to talk about the writer's intent and guide them through revision, helping them say what they want to say, we can enter the editing process confidently. Luckily, we now have computer software that eliminates much of our mechanical editing. I have found students are not the best to judge each other's mechanics. They are great, however, at looking for concrete problems that need solving before the piece is finished.
Nancie Atwell, in Lessons that Change Writers, gives some great examples of what needs to be edited out of final manuscripts...concepts that students can point out in each other's papers.
1. Everyday conversational words that are overused:
absolutely just so all kind of sort of (a) big (a) little totally completely quite
very definitely really would
2. Too long or too short paragraphs
Atwell suggests students look for connections between and within paragraphs. Can two paragraphs
that are on the same topic be combined? Does one long paragraph need to be split? What feels
comfortable to the reader?
3. Should "I" be used?
Sometimes we explicitly tell students not to use "I" in their writing, but in reality, there are times
"I" makes a lot of sense - in retelling a personal experience, for example.
4. Passive sentences
Use the active voice in writing of any kind.
5. Exclamation Points
Avoid exclamation points except in dialogue.
6. "Hopefully" and a few other issues
Be confident - Use "I hope" instead of "Hopefully..." Also, pay attention to "a lot," "alright,"
"gonna," "gotta," "wanna" ( going to, got to, want to)
"would of," "should of," "could of" (would have, should have, could have or would've, should've,
could've)
7, Stories that end "The End."
Writing should come to a conclusion that is evident to the reader.
Editing is the final step but by no means is a writing ever finished. We can always go back to previous writings and add new ideas, take out sections and rearrange thoughts. We can repurpose our writing and transform it into a different genre or just put it aside until some future date. Classrooms are artificial writing situations where students learn the process while not creating perfect products. What is important is that they have a chance to see new possibilities as they work on their classroom pieces. Reading each other's pieces and helping each other edit, helps both students grow as writers.
Our next topics will focus on writing tips for specific genres. Let us know what you are working on!
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