{"id":140,"date":"2017-09-04T06:34:04","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/?page_id=140"},"modified":"2019-02-14T15:19:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:19:15","slug":"editing-and-evaluating","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/editing-and-evaluating\/","title":{"rendered":"Editing and Evaluating"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2b05 Previous Lesson<\/a>\u00a0Workshop Index<\/a>\u00a0Next Lesson \u27a1<\/a><\/div>\n

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Editing and Evaluating<\/h1>\n

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Objective<\/h4>\n

In this lesson, you will learn general principles and guidelines for editing and evaluating students\u2019 writing.<\/p>\n

Previously Covered:<\/h4>\n
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  • In the previous lesson we discussed elements of essay writing. We learned how to select literature, how to use details from that literature, and how to employ standard formatting of bibliographic entries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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    What Criteria Should I Pay Attention to When I Am Evaluating Student Writing?<\/h3>\n

    Our discussion of the final two stages of the writing process\u2014revising\/editing and proofreading\u2014offers an entry point into a discussion of the pedagogic question of how to best engage with and respond to your students\u2019 written work.<\/p>\n

    Your encounters with your students\u2019 writing need to serve multiple purposes. You need to assess their progress and abilities and evaluate and grade their work. You also must be able to provide feedback and suggestions that enable your students to improve and grow as writers.<\/p>\n

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    The previous lessons on principles of composition focused on how to deploy those elements effectively in your own writing. However, knowing how to write well is no guarantee of knowing how to teach others how to write well.<\/p>\n

    Your suggestions about how students can revise their writing need to explain clearly the specific improvements that students could make to their essays. You can rely on four key elements of good composition to inform and structure your comments.<\/p>\n

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    Organization<\/h4>\n

    Although the term revision<\/em> usually describes changes to an already-written paper, students can and should begin revising their work even in its earliest stages. A teacher\u2019s primary role while students are prewriting and outlining is to help the students articulate, refine, and focus their thoughts and ideas about their selected topic. By the time students start writing their first drafts, they should have a clear thesis statement and an organized approach.<\/p>\n

    When students come to you seeking suggestions during prewriting or outlining, it\u2019s important to center your comments on the ideas they have brought to you and avoid inserting your own opinions and arguments into the discussion. As long as the student has not proposed a topic that is incoherent, irrelevant or inappropriate, you should concentrate on helping the student express his or her ideas in a logical, organized fashion.<\/p>\n

    Students will work harder on a paper over which they feel ownership, and the best way to engender that feeling is to make the student ultimately responsible for the paper\u2019s content.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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    Transitions<\/h3>\n

    Once a student has handed in an initial draft of an essay, you need to expand your assessment beyond the essay\u2019s content and begin suggesting revisions to structural and formal elements.<\/p>\n

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    The revisions you suggest must be concrete. Isolate and discuss specific examples from a student\u2019s essay. Instead of making a general comment at the end of a paper, such as \u201ctransitions are unclear,\u201d you should make notes in the margins near relevant portions of the essay. Your suggestions should make clear exactly what kind of correction the student needs to make without actually making it for him or her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    When you\u2019re reading a student\u2019s essay for the purpose of suggesting revisions, pay particularly close attention to the presence or absence of transition words and phrases. Why? They serve as concrete, easy-to-identify markers of a larger, more abstract quality: the overall organization and coherence of ideas in an essay.<\/p>\n

    An abundance of transition words, phrases, and sentences suggests that the writer took the time and effort to think through the relationships between his or her sentences and ideas. A lack of transitional elements usually belies a hastily constructed essay with insufficient consideration to the progression of its argument.<\/p>\n

    When you\u2019re reading a student essay with the goal of suggesting revisions, make a note in the margin to the effect of \u201ctransition needed\u201d whenever you see consecutive sentences whose relationship is unclear.<\/p>\n

    By attempting to address this simple formal element, students will be compelled to consider larger questions of organization and argument structure. Adding transitional words and phrases also will improve the clarity and continuity of their writing.<\/p>\n

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    Point of View<\/h3>\n

    Most of the elements of composition we have discussed so far have been most relevant to writing nonfiction. However, when suggesting revisions to a student\u2019s work of fiction, attention to point of view is absolutely critical.<\/p>\n

    Point of view<\/strong> is the position or angle a writer takes relative to the subject matter of his or her writing.<\/p>\n

    A fiction writer has a choice of three basic points of view:<\/p>\n