Teaching
Conventions
The Editors’ Vocabulary
Teach copy editor’s symbols so students can think and talk like editors - even if they’ll be doing a lot of their editing on the computer. Knowing the symbols opens their eyes to the possibilities.
Practice Often!
Practice editing daily. Let students practice on text that is not their own at first - then transfer skills to their own work.
Keep It Short
Don’t try to catch every error in the world every day. Keep editing practice short so you can do it often.
Keep It Focused
Until students become very skilled, work on one or two kinds of errors at a time - no more: e.g., terminal punctuation, quotation marks, commas in a series, words or letters left out, redundancy. Get VERY GOOD at one skill - then move on.
Team Edit for Practice
Have students work individually at first, so each does as much as he or she can - then check with a partner to see how they’ve done.
Do NOT Rely on Partners When a Grade Hangs in the Balance
Few student editors are truly skilled enough to provide the kind of editing help a student needs when a grade is at stake. Well-meaning student editors may actually offer recommendations that result in more errors. Not fair! When a piece is to be graded, students should be their own editors - with as much skilled help (you, an older student, an aide, a parent volunteer) as you feel is appropriate.
Keep It Manageable
Some people can do a triple twist back flip high dive off a 20-foot platform. Some can edit 20 pages without breathing hard. But for those students who find conventions challenging, keep the task manageable in terms of length or kinds of errors that must be corrected - or both. Otherwise, they will learn to keep it manageable for themselves by writing very short papers that have 5-word sentences and boring, simplistic words.
Make Every Student an Editor
Even the youngest students can check to see if their names are on their papers. That’s the beginning of editing. How much should we expect? Ask yourself, How much can they do without my help? That’s what you should expect.
Save Errors
They’re everywhere: on TV, in books, in the papers, on billboards, in advertisements. You notice them, don’t you? Collect them and put them on overheads. See how quickly your students can spot them. Get them noticing, too.
How Many Errors?
Sometimes - though not always - it’s useful to let students know how many errors they’re hunting for. Guidelines are helpful. Now and then, though, a true editing test - in which you have to track down all errors - is useful, too.
Allow Time
If you allow a
minimum of 72 hours between the time your students write their drafts and the time they attempt to edit them, you’ll see better editing. Prior to that, they’ll tend to skim over misspelling, punctuation flaws, omitted words or letters, etc.
Don't Ask Students to Edit Everything They Write
It isn’t necessary if it isn’t going to be published in some way. It will exhaust and bore the students – and exhaust you, too, if you’re trying to check their work. Keep daily practice focused on the text of others. Then - occasionally, students can edit their own work, using the skills they’ve gained.
Give Them Real Tasks
Do you have a letter or memo to write? Good! Do a hasty job, and set them to work on the clean-up. Everyone likes hunting for someone else’s errors.
Vary the Practice
Occasionally edit a journalistic piece - or a resume, job application letter, memo, brochure, evaluation, menu, advertisement, copy for a catalog, and so on. It’s very boring to do stories and essays all the time, and besides, it gives students no sense of style - layout, that is.
Include Citations
Will your students be doing research pieces? If so, they’ll need to know how to cite sources. Handbooks do NOT all do citations the same way, so settle on one that will be the source, and teach students how to cite sources correctly. Begin with the question, Why do this? (Many students have no idea why they cite sources other than that it’s required.) Now give one example - say a book by one author. Go through it carefully. Now give students five faulty citations - have them work in teams to see which team can correct all five first. Continue this practice till you’ve taught all the kinds of examples students are likely to need -five corrections for each. They still won’t remember it all - but then, neither do we! That’s why we have handbooks.
Use Editorial Terminology
By the end of first grade, most students should know terms like semicolon, colon, ellipses, dash, parentheses, italics, proper name, capital letter-and be able to identify them in text, even if they cannot yet use them correctly in their own writing. With very young students, you can use a kind of treasure hunt approach-e.g., Find a semicolon. Editing begins with the recognition of conventions.
Begin Practice Early
Even the youngest editors can do a simple sentence:
My cat will eat
What’s missing? The period. This is a simple editing task. There’s only one error. But it’s a beginning.