Writing mechanics go high tech
Find-and-replace helps students edit

Beginning writers need help to identify and repair errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar that they made when they composed their papers.

By compose, I mean drafting entire paragraphs of content not preparing planning devices like a working thesis, writing skeleton, or even a comprehensive plan for a paper of five or more paragraphs.

I say writers need help to identify errors they made — past tense — because the most efficient expository writers edit their papers . . .

• after completing an entire draft, and

• after revising their draft so it includes all the information they planned.

Correcting writing mechanics errors while composing slows the flow of thoughts. Such corrections should be avoided as much as possible. (The one exception is, naturally, if you write something you cannot read. In that case, immediate repair is needed.)

Correcting and editing are final-stage activities in the writing process.

When it comes to editing for correct writing mechanics, students who write on a computer have a huge advantage over those who can draft by hand. The savvy computer user can have the computer provide English grammar help.

I don't mean just grammar check either.

Short, focused editing works best

Beginning writers and students who have many writing mechanics problems do best if they can edit in several 5- to 15-minute sessions, focusing on one error at a time.

(These directions assume the student has already revised the draft so it matches the plan. It makes no sense to edit information that may need to be deleted or rearranged.)

Find and replace

Writing neophytes should learn to use find and replace to locate potential errors. Find-and-replace is much more effective in improving grades than using grammar check because it requires less extensive knowledge of grammar. Counter-intuitive, I know, but that's the way it is.

Your computer geeks will love this.

Some changes can be done automatically. For example, if a student habitually misspells Beethoven's name as Baytoven, a comprehensive find and replace (i.e., replace all) will fix that quickly.

However, to correct most errors, students need examine them one by one in context.

An example

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. Then she must read her paper through examining each word in which the red dollar sign appears.

If the apostrophe belongs there, she can change the dollar sign to an apostrophe again. If it doesn't, she deletes the red dollar sign.

When she has finished going through her paper looking for that one potential error, the paper will have only red apostrophes in places where apostrophes are needed. With a quick "select all" and a click on "automatic" for the type color, her paper is ready to be examined for a second error.

By concentrating on just one of their personal writing mechanics problems at a time, students can quickly eliminate errors they habitually make.

Personal errors list

In order for students to find their errors on a computer (or anywhere else!) they have to know what errors they habitually make. You help by

• Flagging the errors in their finished drafts

• Requiring students to track and graph/chart their own errors.

It is rare to find someone who makes different errors in every paper. Most students make a few errors routinely.

When those writing mechanics errors are serious enough to hamper readers' understanding, or obvious enough for casual readers to spot, then students need to work at eliminating those errors.

About grammar check

I don't recommend having beginning writers use grammar check for two reasons.

• Grammar check lets students avoid dealing with their errors; the computer does everything for them (or so students think).

• Grammar checkers need to set to look for errors that the user understands.

If you are going to have students use grammar-check, you need to help them set the parameters appropriately. Accepting the default settings may not give the support students need.

On the other hand, checking everything may give students too much to worry about. It is not useful, for example, to have every passive voice sentence flagged if the student has no clue what passive voice means.

If you let students use grammar check, you have to work hard — very hard — to get them to check the work of the grammar checker.

For example, students can avoid misuse of the homophones they're and it's by setting the computer to eliminate contractions. However, students have to be trained to check that when the computer changes they're to they are the resulting sentence makes sense.

Useful checks

Useful computer checks are things like presence or absence of the serial comma and the number of spaces after a period. Those aren't right or wrong, but matters of preference.

Another useful item to have the computer check is sentence length. Rambling sentences are invitations to errors in grammar, punctuation, and usage. Writing shorter sentences often eliminates many writing mechanics errors.

Warning on readability figures

Every so often a student setting grammar parameters discovers readability statistics and decides to write at a higher level. The results are a disaster.

The elements that typically require higher reading ability are often marks of poor writing such as

• overly long sentences.

• unnecesary use of polysyllabic words.

Moreover, reading scores mark the upper level at which a person can read, not the level at which that person read comfortably or with pleasure. People typically read comfortably four or more levels below what they can read under duress.

Writers don't need to use complex syntax and big words even when discussing complex ideas. Nonfiction writing should clear and simple for its audience.

There's a third problem with "writing up" that writing texts don't mention: audience.

A third grader writing at fifth grade reading level has no problem. An eighth grader writing at fifth or even eighth grade reading level has no problem.

However, an eighth grader writing at 12th grade reading level has a problem. That kid has almost nobody for an audience. The people smart enough to read with pleasure at the 12th grade level are too smart to bother reading an eighth grader's insights.

Without a sensitive teacher, that kid could have a rough adolescence.

Low tech students

Students who don't compose at the keyboard can do a low-tech version of find and replace. They need to draft on only one side of their paper and may need a photocopy or two to use as well.

Instead of having the computer search for a word or symbol, students have to manually search for and highlight them.

The trick is to search for one problem at a time, and highlight every occurrence in one color. A second error requires a second color.

Most students can significantly raise their grades by using the find-and-replace strategy on just three errors. Three passes through a document is about all the typical seventh grader can stand anyway.

Your students may think you are nuts when you introduce the one-thing-at-a-time approach. My students think so — until they try it. Most students who have serious writing mechanics issues are converts the first time they try one-thing-at-a-time editing. Maybe yours will be, too.