Revision and Editing
Revision
“…we can learn to teach revision…as a
way of composing if we consider it
analogous to acts of mind whereby we
make sense of the world.”
--Ann E. Berthoff
Revision is about making (and shaping/
reshaping) meanings.
Four Key Revision Strategies
Reordering
Substitution
Addition
Subtraction
In order to revise, writers need to
distance themselves from their own
words.
The dog ate my homework!
(Tsujimoto’s “memory revison”)
Partner revision
Cut and paste revision
5 W’s, H, and a question mark:
a partner questioning heuristic that
helps students find portions of a text
that need further embellishment.
(Have multiple readers, each reading for
one or two specifics.)
Editing
Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors
found that only TWENTY mistakes
comprise 91.5% of all errors in student
texts.
A Key Principle
• Research shows that if students are not
asked to do something with their
corrected work, there is NO
improvement.
Teaching Self Editing
Pattern Analysis
Repair Strategies
Targeted Attack
Pattern Analysis
• Composition
Folder
• Goof Box Card
• Spelling
Demon List
• Correction IN
CLASS
Repair Strategies
• Remember: INSTRUCTION, not
instruction(s)!
• Mini lessons
– HOW do I identify the problem
– What do I DO to correct it?
• Student Editors
Targeted Attack
• Students CHOOSE one or two
conventions to edit for on next piece of
writing
• “Easy” ones first
Targeted Attack
• One or two
spelling demons
until they have
mastered the
words
• Environmental
sticky notes