Reflection of Revising and Editing
Reflection of Revising and Editing
It was interesting to learn the difference between revising and editing. Revising is adding
detail to the story or even taking things out of the story that dont belong. Where editing is
correcting spelling errors, punctuation, and grammar. Knowing the difference will make
teachers better for they will be able to teach the difference and enhance writing for the students.
Tatiana With, in Revising for Clarity movie, showed the difference between editing and revising.
How she taught them to revise their stories by asking questions and answering them. This is an
excellent example of teaching students how to write.
In addition to watching the movie, an article was given for us to read, it is called The
Writers Toolbox: Five Tools for active Revision Instruction. This was a good article to go
along with the video. It added more to what Ms. With was teaching and the importance of it of
telling us why. There are five tools that we can follow and add to our teaching of revising and
editing students work. They are:
1) Question: When asking questions to a persons story, dont just ask closed ended questions
like yes or no questions.
2) Snapshots: It focuses on the physical detail of what is happening in the story.
3) Thoughtshots: describing the feelings of characters. There are three basic reflections of
characters: 1) flashbacks, 2) flashfowards, and 3) debating with self.
4) Exploding a moment: allows students to tell the important parts of their stories in slow
motion.
5) Making a scene: A balance of action, dialogue, snapshots, and thoughtshots and evening it
out a bit and not concentrating on just one area. Harper (1997 pgs. 262-274)
With these strategies and putting them to use we can improve the students writing and
help them to create these great elaborate works of art. I used to think that spelling and
punctuation was the most important thing, but there are other factors now that need to be
addressed in addition to spelling. This is what I would add to my classroom, is to add more
revising into teaching, showing how it looks like, and having students be more involved and
taking risks with their stories.
Citing Works
Harper, Laura. (1997). The writers toolbox: five tools for active revision instruction. Language
arts. Pages 193 200