Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Editing Tips and Spelling Mistakes
As I was searching for a good video on why writing mistakes are a good part of learning and to how to become a better writer, I was surprised to find nothing. I did however find this video, which explains five important points to pay attention to when you edit your paper. The first suggestion she makes is that when you edit your paper you should really pay attention to the spelling, regardless of what spell check might say, for you never know what spell check might miss. Also, look at your punctuation, capital letters, and really check your sentence structure and word usage. While she provides some important tips that are good for adult writers to pay attention too, it had me question what young students should be thinking about and questioning as they are learning to write. Should teachers strive to emphasize these tips in the classroom? What do you think? In our new book “Teaching Grammar in Context,” Weaver talks about how errors are a way for a writer to grow. And when teachers read students' papers, they should not go on an error hunt but instead try to understand what the child is writing about. Do you agree or disagree with this?
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I also tried to search for interesting videos about editing and grammar, but was surprised there was nothing really interesting out there! I remember seeing this video though. Although it laid out the basics, I don’t think it is the best video for editing a paper. It is super basic; we all know about spelling, capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure and word usage. They are all things we check for and pay attention to naturally, without realization; they are not necessarily the main focus of concern. I think to make writing engaging and more enjoyable for students teachers need to focus on content. This same idea was encouraged by Routman as well. Totally tearing apart a child’s paper with marks of spelling and punctuation errors may just intimidate the writer and stop them from taking risks. Teachers should be inspiring children to write and focus on their progress. As a teacher it is your job to make sure they realize that there may be a spelling error or grammar error, but there is no need to take apart a paper piece by piece. The “whole” idea of the paper should be the focus, not “parts”.
ReplyDeleteThis video is very interesting because it is shows an easy way to review things before you send them off or print them to turn in. All five tips are very valid to look for because a lot of students even adults do not check for these essential erroes that can be made. To me it is embarressing when you make mistakes in these five areas because it should be somethign that comes to us naturally. I have probably made erros in my own response right now! I agree with what Weaver says, that errors are a way for writing to grow, it is the only way that we can learna and we all no that no one is perfect, so there is always room for improvement. To answer the question I feel that it is important to do both when looking at a students writing. They can grow as a writer when a teacher makes corrections in both areas. It is like hitting two birds with one stone kind of idea. It is never fun to get a paper back with red marks all over it because it makes you feel like a terrible writer. Teachers need to be careful on how they go about editing students work. If they are not it can discourage students to work on their writing skills. Like Jenica says, it is a teachers job to teach spelling and grammer but we have to look at what Routman says about teaching students about the "whole" not just the "parts" of writing.
ReplyDeleteBY: WILLIAM BURNS
So when watching this short clip on editing, I started to see what we were talking about in the previous blog. Technology is taking over our world today. Even though it is making things easier for us, we still have to be careful with our work because it does not catch our every mistake. We cannot rely on technology for everything. If we do this then our language and grammar will suffer. It is very important to go back and check for spelling, punctuation, capital letters, sentence structure, and word usage. As writers we need to be extra careful to look over things before we turn in the final paper. There is not way for the computer to check everything, We have to take it upon ourselves as teachers to emphasize going back and revising papers. If we get students in the habit of doing that, then they will be able to catch their own mistakes and learn that editing on their own is just as or if not more important as the computer editing our work as well.
ReplyDeleteI have always had problems editing my papers. Even when I feel I have corrected everything, there is always one mistake. This video highlights the basic and useful tips on editing your own paper. We as teachers need to take Routman’s advice about searching for the meaning first and then focus on the LOC’s. We cannot ignore those grammatical mistakes because students need to learn how to successfully develop a paper. I agree that editing should not be the first thing we look at when we first read a students work. I wonder why we always go for editing first? It has been interesting tutoring writing because I am really exercising the fact that I need to look for meaning first and not edit right away. I enjoyed our discussion in class about showing the importance of editing papers and not just depend on spell check. I depend on spell check and since we are moving to a more technological society, our students will too. Showing the importance of editing through modeling and practice with help our students to self edit their papers.
ReplyDeleteThis again brings up the point of context before correctness. I think that this should always stand true in writing. If an author has a completely correct paper but no opinion or voice as a writer, a writer's skills are lost in the translation of a paper. It will become a blur or correctness, but have no actual substance. I think that correctness is important to emphasize at a certain point in the writing process. I think that once it is clear that the students have found this voice as an author, then they can focus on the correctness of the paper. Also, with more papers being done using Microsoft Word and other word document programs, students begin to rely on the Spelling and Grammar check of the program. Again, this goes back to some of the negative effects of technology. Students can not rely solely on this application to correct their papers and I think it should be a requirement for students to have a hard copy of their papers to correct before turning in their final draft. This is not pertinent to handwritten papers in younger grades, but I think that editing and revisions should be done once the paper has a purpose. I think that modeling revision as well as practicing editing is important so that students can become reliant on their own editing skills rather than those of a computer.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when teachers are reading students papers that the first thing they should not be looking for are technical errors. This goes back to the main concept that Routman stresses which is content coming before anything else in writing. As we discussed in class, I think that the only grammatical mistakes that should be corrected should be those that interfere with the reader's understanding of what the author is trying to say. It is important that students understand the basics of proper grammar, but if they are weighed down every time by all the red marks of grammatical mistakes on their paper they will begin to perceive themselves a incompetent writers. This is not a good perception to give students about themselves because a student may be a good writer in terms of structure and content, but may just need to work harder on the technical editing aspects of writing.
ReplyDeleteI believe that teachers do need to concentrate more on the content of the paper rather than the grammar or grammar mistakes, especially at the younger ages. I think, however, that if teachers choose one mistake that may occur continuously throughout a student’s paper then the student can learn how to fix that part. Grammar needs to be taught in parts and not just thrown to students as a whole section with many rules. Mini-lessons are a great way to present grammar rules because they can be done one or two at a time. For students to stop making mistakes though it would be really helpful I believe if teachers concentrate on one issue at a time so the student can slowly work through it. Once that one is mastered then move on to the next. Teachers just need to remember that content is the most important aspect at first, grammar can gradually be fixed along the way.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the posts :)
ReplyDeleteGreat comments! Lots of relevant and timely issues are raised. It's great to see so many people getting involved in this discussion.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, everyone!
Gerri
I agree that the things the video mentions are important. For example, as a teacher, I would being to get frustrated with a students paper if he or she had a lot of spelling errors. Having this poor lower order can definitely take away from the high order of voice or meaning. In the end, I agree with Routman in first being concerned with the higher order and then continue focus to lower order. No matter how grammatically correct and how little spelling errors there are, a writing with no meaning cannot be understood. A paper that cannot be understood is therefore useless because the reader is not getting his or her message or point across.
ReplyDeleteI still remember laughing when Professor McNenny caught the misspelling in the video. Her first point is that spelling errors should be correct in order to be professional. Misspelling capital as "captIal" kind of lessens Keri's point. I'm on the fence about whether or not spelling should be corrected first. When reading someone's paper I do notice the misspellings first so I guess it is important that the words are spelled correctly. Even without proper grammar though, you can get the gist of what someone is saying if their higher order concerns are in tact, albeit difficult to read. Although lower order concerns are mainly grammar and spelling, I feel that higher and lower order concerns should be taken into consideration and be fixed/worked on.
ReplyDelete