Editing
I have been committed to studying writing instruction for the last eight years. During that time, I have identified the six primary components of it and the order in which they should be taught: spelling, grammar, editing, paragraph construction, vocabulary, essay construction, and in turn, I have developed my classes according to that understanding.
As I stated in my October 2021 “The Importance of Word Choice” blog post, the emphasis placed on each major writing component must be equal. However, if I had to choose one component to put slightly more emphasis on, it would without question be editing: all writers need to be able to properly edit their work so that that job is not assigned to their readers.
I am such a strong believer in the power of editing that I created four discounted 25-minute time slots for editing instruction. Also, all my writing students are enrolled in editing classes or have "graduated" from them.
When new students first start working with me, almost all of them have editing skills that are below their current grade. However, with regular weekly practice, most of them not only catch up to their current grade level but also pass it.
One student who has done an exceptional job of achieving this is my fifth-grade student Liam. When he started working on editing with me a year ago last month, he was doing so at a second-grade level. Together, with his hard work, dedication (at times doubling up on his weekly editing homework), and desire to understand punctuation rules, he has progressed to eighth-grade editing work and is receiving outstanding scores on it weekly! His work with editing is truly phenomenal and worth recognizing, as is his advancement through all seven grade levels of editing in such a short period of time, which was no small feat.
Editing is a skill that requires regular practice, but the time and effort spent on developing it is worthwhile because editing creates polished writing—it truly makes writing shine and the readers of that writing appreciative that they don't need to edit it while reading it!
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