Revising and editing Week 3

What is the difference between revising and editing? Bell work What is the difference between revising and editing?

revising Adding new information Cutting words and sentences Changing the order in which information appears Replacing weak words with more effective ones Monday

Revising strategies CONTENT Can you summarize your main ideas or events? Do you have enough supporting details? Too many? Will adding or cutting details improve your paper? Do you need more background information? Is everything you have written relevant? Monday

Revising strategies ORGANIZATION Does your introduction grab the reader’s attention? Can you improve your draft by rearranging paragraphs or by moving sentences? Do you present your information in an order that makes sense for your purpose and audience? Do you need to add any transitions? Do you have an effective conclusion? Monday

Revising strategies STYLE Do your sentences read smoothly? Have you varied sentence structure, beginnings, and lengths? Would some sentences work better if they were combined? Is your writing too formal? Too informal? Have you deleted unnecessary words or phrases? Have you used parallel constructions wherever possible? Are you satisfied with how you say what you say? Monday

Revising strategies WORD CHOICE Look for vague nouns, verbs, and modifiers that can be replaced with more precise words. Look for clichés or overused words that can be replaced with fresh ones to enliven your descriptions. Is your choice of vocabulary geared to your intended audience? Should you replace any difficult words with simpler ones? Do you need to define any technical terms? Monday

Use the strategies in today’s notes to revise Journal Entry 1. In-class assignment Use the strategies in today’s notes to revise Journal Entry 1. You must make at least 5 revisions to get credit. Monday

Fixing grammar problems editing Fixing grammar problems Fixing usage problems (like misplaced modifiers or incorrect subject-verb agreement) Wednesday

Editing Strategies COMPLETE SENTENCES Are there any sentence fragments or run-on sentences? Does each sentence begin with a capital letter and end with an appropriate punctuation mark? VERBS Do all present-progressive verbs, present-perfect verbs, and present- progressive verbs agree with their subjects in tense and in number? Are verb tenses consistent and correct? PARALLEL STRUCTURE Are similar grammatical forms used to express similar ideas? Wednesday

Editing Strategies PRONOUNS Do all of your pronouns agree with their antecedents? Are the pronoun references clear? ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS Are your modifiers used correctly, with adjectives modifying nouns and pronouns and with adverbs modifying verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs? Are your comparisons complete? Have you used –er/more and –est/most forms correctly? Wednesday

proofreading Searching for mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization Proofreading Questions Spelling Are all words spelled correctly? Use a dictionary to make corrections. Watch out for words that are spelled correctly but used in the wrong context (like their instead of there or they’re) because spell checkers don’t catch homophones Capitalization Do proper nouns and adjectives begin with capital letters? Are all words that are capitalized supposed to be capitalized? Do all sentences and direct quotations begin with a capital letter? Thursday

Proofreading questions (cont.) Punctuation Have you used commas and other punctuation marks correctly? Is dialogue correctly punctuated? Apostrophes Do contractions and possessive nouns have apostrophes in the right place Do you have apostrophes where they do not belong?

Thursday

Peer reviewing Giving feedback to your classmates Getting help from your classmates on your writing Can be done in pairs or in small groups QUESTIONS FOR PEER REVIEWERS Which parts of the paper do I like the best and the least? Where is the writing most interesting? What are the main ideas, or themes? Has the writer provided enough supporting details? Are any sections of the paper unclear or incomplete? Does the introduction grab me? Is the conclusion effective? Does the word choice “sound like” the writer? Or do the words sound unnatural? What advice can I give about grammar and usage? Tuesday

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT Meet with a partner. Read your partner’s Journal Entry 1. In your partner’s notebook, answer questions 1-7 from the notes on peer reviewing. Use the proofreading marks to edit you partner’s journal entry. When you get your notebook back from your partner, read through your partner’s comments and incorporate the ideas that you feel will improve your writing. Tuesday

Use proofreading marks to correct the paragraph on your handout. Week 3 quiz Use proofreading marks to correct the paragraph on your handout. Friday Week 3 Quiz