Achieving correct punctuation in their own writing is difficult
for most students.
Almost every word processor has find-and-replace, a function
that writers who know the kinds of errors they make regularly
can use to help them identify and edit errors in their writing.
As an editing tool, text find-and-replace is much more
effective in improving beginning writers' grades than grammar
check because it requires less extensive knowledge of grammar.
Counterintuitive, I know, but that's the way it is.
Flag potential problem points
To make find and replace work for them, students need to flag
every occurrence of a single potential problem in some
cannot-be-missed way. Replacing a comma with $
or COMMA, for example, will
make it stand out. Students will find it much easier to correct
punctuation errors involving commas when those commas don't disappear
into the text.
Once the computer has flagged potential problems, a student can
edit the paper looking only at the sentences that contain that
flag.
If Josh has written an essay with 20 sentences and his find-and-replace
flags four places where he may need to correct punctuation, Josh
has to read only those four sentences carefully to eliminate that
particular writing mechanics error.
Let me show you how easy it is for even your back of the room,
bottom of the class students to correct punctuation using find
and replace as an editing tool.
Example 1: Editing for misused apostrophes
Let's say Caitlin habitually uses apostrophes where she doesn't
need them. She can set her computer to replace every apostrophe
with a red dollar sign, like this:
Then Caitlin must edit her paper by examining each
word in which the red dollar sign appears.
If the apostrophe belongs there, she should change the dollar
sign to an apostrophe again. If it doesn't, she should delete
the red dollar sign, thereby removing the unneeded apostrophe
When Caitlin has finished going through her paper looking for
that one potential error, the paper will have red apostrophes
in places where apostrophes are needed. With a quick "select
all" and a click on "automatic" for the type color,
she is finished editing out that one error.
Example 2: Editing for sentence boundary
errors
Tabi has problems with sentence boundaries. Her work is littered
with comma splices and run-together sentences, as
you can see:
To help her concentrate on one sentence at at time, Tabi replaces
every period with a big blue pound sign and every comma with a
red percent sign, like this:
Tabi reads her work concentrating on the words between two
blue hash signs. If the words between the hash signs contains
a %, she checks the word groups
on either side of the percent sign to see if they are a complete
sentences.
If they are both complete sentences, she puts a period in place
of the # and begins the next
word with a capital letter.
If the material between the #
signs does not contain a red percent, Tabi looks to see if it
is just one sentence or two. If she can't be sure, she can either
As Tabi finishes checking each set of words between pound signs,
she changes the right hand #
back to a period.
When she finishes, Tabi will most likely have eliminated comma
splices and run-together sentences. She can "select all"
and change the color back to automatic.
Isolation makes procedure effective
As we both know, students can select the correct punctuation
on a standardized test question or worksheet. Where they have
trouble is in correcting their own writing.
Students usually know more than you or they think they do. Their
problem is often that their own writing contains so many different
kinds of problems in grammar, punctuation and spelling that students
are overwhelmed.
For students to take advantage
of their computers' help in editing,you must make them aware of
the writing mechanics errors they make regularly. You cannot
get them to fix their errors by this or any other method unless
you help them:
Published 23-Aug-2008; updated 15-Jun-2010
