Literature Review In examining recent literature on the topic of “editing” in the writing process, three areas appear to be of some concern in dealing with this issue: 1) The true definition of editing and the editing process, 2) The perceived role and responsibilities of the teacher and students, and 3) Effective editing strategies that will increase student learning. In order to truly implement editing strategies that will impact the learner, the first two areas must be addressed.
In the review of the literature, I found that many students and teachers alike had some misconceptions about the true definition of “editing” and the roles that each must play. Often times, the editing process and the revision process were mistakenly mixed, or thought to be one and the same process. Marchisan and Alber (2001) define the revision stage as the time to look for changes in concepts and improvements to the paper in order to help achieve its purpose for the audience. In this stage, the writer becomes a problem solver to improve the concept (idea) of the paper.
The editing stage is on a different scale. It is not used to make changes in the concept of the paper, rather it is to improve and clarify the meaning. Enders (2001) states that in the editing stage, students should check for errors in spelling, usage, and clarity of expression. Too often teachers mix both the revision stage and editing stage, creating confusion with the students in what they are really suppose to do
In his article "Coming to Terms", Joseph Harris takes the opportunity to share his knowledge with his readers and discuss things to keep in mind when drafting, revising, and editing assignments. In this specific chapter, Harris explains the revision process and suggest possible preliminary steps to take when formulating an essay. He emphasizes revision as a knowledge practice, in which there is a consistent set of questions you can ask yourself at any point while working on a draft (page 99). In addition, Harris refers the term "writer's project" throughout the section.
According to Harris, many writers mistake editing for revising and fix small mistakes which is actually the process of editing. He also emphasizes the fact that revising takes time and a writer will never have their work ready in one draft; it will take many drafts which will be revised for clarity and cohesion. The draft itself could evolve into something different than was originally planned and writers should know, that is
Revising a paper literally means to “renew again”, to look for something fresh in critical perspective. Revision is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering the arguments, reviewing the evidence, refining the purpose, reorganizing the presentation, reviving the paper’s perspective. At first, I thought revision was just fixing commas, grammar and spelling, but no, fixing minor errors like grammar, spelling and punctuation are called, proofreading. Proofreading is an important step before turning in a paper, but if the ideas are predictable, the thesis is weak, and the organization of the paper is a mess, then proofreading will just act like a band aid to cover the little scars on the paper. Writing is a process of discovery, and writers don’t always produce the best stuff from the first draft they made. So revision is a chance to look at the paper once again and to analyze critically what a writer has written.
In Nancy Sommers’ article, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”, she addresses how to different groups, students and experienced writers, go about revising their paper. Sommers method of taking the results of her experience could have been much more effective if she would have added details about certain thing. How did the group’s final papers turn out? Where there significant difference in the final papers, and if so what were they. Did both group turn up with nicely written papers? These questions would have helped to understand the importance of revision toward the creation of the paper, then just the revision stage itself. Sommers mention of how most students repeat themselves in their writings by just
I observed Dr. Jenny Crisp’s English 98 class on January 19, 2016. The class began at 12:15 PM and lasted until 1:20 PM. The room that the class met in was on the third floor of the Liberal Arts building, and the room had individual computers for each of the students to work on. The class was divided into two sections on this day because Dr. Crisp had scheduled an introductory visit to the writing lab, which began at 12:45. Prior to the visit to the writing lab, Dr. Crisp guided the class in a discussion on the topic of revision in regards to the first paper that the class had submitted. The stages of revision were discussed and the students were shown where additional help could be found within the book. Dr. Crisp told the students that the reason that their grades on the essays were significantly lower was because the essays were lacking in detail and had Type One errors. She stated that revision is important and that could help bring up the grades on the essays.
Coming into this class, I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course,I expected to be writing a lot but was unsure of the type of writing and the style. I was looking forward to writing challenging pieces that stretching me creatively as a writer. I wanted to explore how to express myself in my writing because it had been a long time since I'd written a creative essay. One of my main hopes for this class was challenging myself to become a better editor of my own papers. I often find it a tedious and laborious process to find and edit the grammatical errors in my papers. However, this is an important skill that I need to develop for my future as a successful writer.
The two words fell under the category of proof reading papers. This course helped me to recognize the differences between revising and editing. Revision is changes made at the macro level that include deleting words and phrases, moving paragraphs and sentences and add clarifying information Editing is done at the sentence level, including grammar. During my first draft, my paper was unorganized and jumped from pros and cons to causes and effects. I had to sit and restructure my paper to create a sense of flow and organization. Next, I looked into my individual sentence structure in which I had to reword some awkward phrasing and add punctuation that I had skipped. The entire process was aided by reviews. Allowing others to read my works, tremendously improved my paper. Getting feedback allowed me to understand my reader’s point of view. For my final portfolio, I did one last revision and editing. I reread all the comments my instructor and peers had written on my papers and ended up removing an entire paragraph and replacing it with information that was more relevant and crucial to my
The three ways I edited my paper to improve it between the first draft and the final draft. First, I changed my paper from present tense to past tense. Next, I removed a sentence in paragraph four because it was similar to another sentence. Then I added transitions at the beginning of the
One goal for conferencing with my students is to teach them one strategy that they could use to improve their writing and not look at editing. Lucy Calkins stated “We are teaching the writer and not the writing. Our decisions much be guided by ‘what might help this writer’ rather than ‘what might help this writing.” (Calkins, 1994) With this being said I will need to keep this in mind when working with my students
Both proofreading and revising are techniques used when editing drafts of writing. Proofreading is used to note and mark any errors in grammar, punctuation, or other smaller scale mistakes. Revising is the process of looking over an entire essay for clarity and reader understanding. When you revise a piece of writing, it mainly involves removing or adding pieces of information to better reach an audience.
I saw how simple errors can vastly adjust a person’s opinion about a topic, therefore I will work harder to catch these errors before I turn in a draft. I also learned how crucial thoroughly explaining the aspects that I bring up in my paper are. I have not seen the final copies of our class’s papers, however I heard from the conferences that we missed some items that needed to be better explained. We thought that since some of the drafts did not have enough pictures, that the pictures they would add would help the reader to understand what they were trying to say. Similarly to my last reflection, I still believe that people learn to be exceptional writers by learning the mechanics, reading eloquent works, and revising their own papers. I will continue to develop my papers and hope that the editing process has helped with
In the editing stage,the impact of my sentences, eliminating needless of my writing, spelling, proper fromat,phrase,enhancing the style and clarity of my writing, spelling, pagination,margins is what I have to get down,right, and a lot of work on. I feel that the reasons I will keep on making these types of errors are until I get it down and know what I am doing . I have to understand this. I will be the first person to tell you when I don't know anything. My editing style is to reread it more than once over again until I learn it. That go for my editing and proofreading. If there is another way or style. I have not learn it yet. but, I will. The steps I need to take to improve my editing and proofreading is keep on trying it again and again
Editing is what you begin doing as soon as you finish your first draft. The process writers use to catch errors usal to their own writing. It’s hard to edit or proofread a paper that you’ve just finished writing. It’s still too familiar, and you tend to skip over a lot of errors. Try creating a brief outline of your paper to ensure the organization is reasonable. Review your paper to ensure that your tone is appropriate for your audience and consistent throughout your paper. Determine areas where you could add, delete, or move text to make your content more effective. If you try to identify and revise too many things at once, you risk losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. Editing and proofreading are two different stages
Editing my work can improve my writing assignments in many ways. For instance, to achieve better grade, become better writer, and to verify whether your paper is well organized. Editing is very essential to improve our skills and knowledge while we are working in our paper work.
When students write papers they think it is the best work they have written at that moment. Usually, this is without prewriting, proofreading or editing. Thus, the work is either mediocre or terrible and has to be redone anyway. Another way to recreate an argument written months ago is to create an evaluation paper of the previous paper; this means that the writer will evaluate his or her own work and revise accordingly. However, this responsibility can lead to bias thinking or the belief that one’s own paper is already great as is. With this type of thinking no growth is made as a writer and the revision stays at the level from which it was created.