Teaching editing

Teaching Editing And Proofreading Skills

Writing is just as much about what’s taken out of a piece of text than the content. Students must improve their writing and proofreading skills in order to be confident and competent writers.

Understanding the different elements of teaching editing and proofreading requires time and lots of practice before you can improve. Students must be advised to proofread and edit their written work on autopilot to get the most practice.

In this post, we’ll examine several of the most important aspects of professional proofreading or editing and look at some exercises you can do in your classroom, to provide your students with the necessary exercise they’ll need.

WORK IN ‘ EDITING ROUNDS’ TO BECOME A GREAT PROOFREADER

In the majority of professional writers, the work they write will be edited by someone else. It is due to the fact that it may be difficult to attain an unbiased perspective needed for identifying our own mistakes.

Our students, however, it’s not always feasible. Most of the time, they’ll need to be editor of their own works.

In order to do this effectively, it’s helpful for students to create an organized and systematic approach for the editing and proofreading procedure.

Most often, editors of professional calibre approach editing as an layered process that is known as a “round”.

In general, three rounds of editing is enough to bring an article of poor writing back into shape.

If you need more information than that, it’s likely to be a major issue that must be addressed by the writer’s or editor’s expertise.

ASPECTS OF PROOFREADING AND EDITING

Every round of editing is concerned with the various aspects of the editing and proofreading procedure.

Sometimes these elements can be addressed during rounds. A round may combine different aspects into the main focus of the round. It is at the decision of the editor or if the case is a student.

A lot of editors find it beneficial to begin with a big photo and move on towards the smaller.

The editor’s job is to deal with the bigger details of the text’s organisation, prior to getting into the more intricate specifics of the text in later rounds.

It may be helpful for students to think about the following elements in sequence the text level, sentence niveau, word level then grammar, punctuation and levels of spelling.

Let’s review of each individually, and then some suggested activities to help students get started with the process of being polished proofreaders as well as effective editor of their personal works.

Text Level

The precise criteria to edit on a textual level will be contingent heavily on the type of writing.

In general, in examining the writing piece in the context of editing it at this stage. Students will look at various aspects of organizational structure in their writing.

In the realm of text, there are two main aspects to be considered the text’s features as well as its structure.

Text Features

Below are a few of the most common elements of text that students should think about. They’re in a general order; they appear in the text. But keep in mind that the order of these features will change in accordance with the style of text being edited.

• Title
• Subheadings and headings
• Table of Contents
• Pictures, photos, illustrations etc
• Captions
• Glossary
• Index

In examining the text elements of their papers, Students should make sure that they’ve included all the necessary features, and they’ve formatted their work in a correct manner.

Text Structures

When this has been completed, the students will then be able to go on more in depth at the structure of the text. A few things to consider at this stage might be:

• Text type (informational or persuasive, poetry letters, etc.)
• Paragraph organization
• Patterns of organization
• Introduction, body, and conclusion

As you can see in the above bullets these patterns of organization are linked to the content of the text. In other words, they are related to the intention for the content. In other words, does the pattern in the text created to contrast and compare? Does it convey an issue and its solution? Effect and cause? Description? Sequence?

Compare as well as Contrast text explores the differences and similarities between two different things.

Problem and Solutions Texts examine the problem and offer some or all of the possible solutions to the issue.

Cause and effect text examines what took place and the reason it occurred.

Descriptionlists the features or characteristics of an idea, topic individual, place or object.

The term “sequence” is a type of text that sets out the events in order or details the steps one must follow in order to create or complete things.

Students must consider is the intent behind the text and determine whether the structure of the text fulfills this goal. If not, the need for restructuring is inevitable.

TOP 10 TIPS FOR TEACHING EDITING SKILLS

In the realm of writing, Editing and proofreading are often the unnoticed heroes who make nuggets gold. These are the skills that learners to develop to create concise and professional writing that resonates with their readers. However, let’s face it; the teaching of these skills is an issue. We have put together the following list to equip readers with the necessary skills and guidelines to enhance your editing capabilities. Using the proper method, we will help students develop their own internal editor and proofreader, and help them take charge of their writing.

• Learn to teach your students how to check their writing to spot grammar and spelling errors as part of the writing procedure and not as the occasional task here and there.
• Make sure your students review their work and recognize awkward sentences or phrasing. It is essential for students who are auditory learners.
• If you are teaching editing skills to students of a certain age, show them how you can use an instructional style guide like or the Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA Handbook in order to guarantee the consistency and precision of the writing they write.
• Instruct your students about the importance in writing with efficiency and also how to remove unnecessary words and phrases.
• Let students use an online thesaurus like this one online version to increase their vocabulary. They can also find precise terms that are in line with their reader’s requirements and desires and are appropriate to the style of text that they write.
• Let students know how to utilize a dictionary, whether online or a hand-held resource, in order to identify what the significance of terms that they may be confused about.
• Make sure your students are aware of the different aspects of writing and utilize the correct tone and style that is appropriate for the intended audience and of the written work.
• Students should be encouraged to receive feedback from their teachers or classmates regarding their writing and the essay or work of art is not complete when someone has looked through it and given constructive comments.
• Teach students who are competent the use of electronic tools, such as grammar checkers as well as citation generators for improving their writing, once they are familiar with the basic rules of writing.
• Inform your students on the importance of revising their work, taking care that you address every aspect of the writing process such as organization, clarity and the development. Instil the notion that many amazing stories or essays have been revised as well as revised several times to bring they to the point where they’re and are now ready for sharing across the globe.

THE TEACHER’S ROLE IN THE STUDENT EDITING PROCESS

While the students need to learn the skills needed in order to edit and proofread their work proficiently, there are a myriad of ways we should help their development to become self-editors.

One of the most crucial aspects is communicating expectations clearly for writing assignments. Written writing assignments that are clear is often re-engineered into a checklist of editing tools by students.

Actually, as you discuss the requirements for the different genres of writing during your classes, you should take your time to emphasize your students that the lists of requirements could be used as tools for editing through which they are able to evaluate the quality of their work.

Additionally, when your pupils learn the fundamentals of writing, make sure to challenge them. Make sure they are always striving to enhance their ability to shape words into written form.

If, for instance, they consistently produce neat and organized documents and free of spelling errors or grammatical mistakes like the consistency of verbs in tense for instance When it’s time to move the emphasis to more delicate aspects of composition for example, employing the active voice instead of the passive voice.

While it’s possible to write technically accurate using”passive voice,” an active voice typically produces stronger writing.

As teacher, you are an editor. Although the goal of the procedure is to make you less redundant than some of the terms in a badly composed text, your pupils are likely to rely upon you as their final and final editor.

Make sure that when you give written feedback for the writing piece that you offer specific advice in areas that they can work on the quality of their writing at the text at sentence level, or words level, or even at level of the principals and nuances levels of punctuation, grammar and spelling.