Students who compose at a computer can access two good revision
tools at the click of a mouse: one is word count, the other the
save feature.
Use word count & calculator
Often the first indication of something wrong with a student's
essay is its length.
When a teacher or workplace supervisor specifies a length, the
expectation is that all that needs to be said on the assigned
topic can be said in that amount of space. For that reason, the
word count suggests areas students should examine carefully.
Puny paper
If a paper is significantly under the word range (for
example, 350 words when the assignment is 550-700) there's a problem
with the evidence. Perhaps the paper doesn't have enough evidence.
Or perhaps writers put in their evidence without preparing readers
for it or without explaining its significance.
Overly long paper
If papers are within 10% above the upper word count figure,
one of two problems is likely. To see which it is, divide
the word count for the introduction by the total essay word count.
The result should be roughly between .1000 and .1500, which is
10 to 15% of the paper's length.
If the introduction is within that 10 to 15% range, the whole
paper is bloated and needs editing. A document within 10%
of a target length can be adjusted by judicious editing.
Overly long introduction
On the other hand, if the result is a figure above .1600 (or
16%), the introduction paragraph is too long. The writer
probably has put evidence in the introduction
where it does not belong.
Not only does this little math exercise show where the paper
needs to be revised, it also indicates one place in the writing
process where changes could have prevented the need to revise
later.
Students would not need to revise to remove evidence from an
introduction if they did not put it there in the first place,
would they?
Needed: record of errors & changes
Computers are wonderful for producing clean copy. However, for
educational purposes, it is often helpful to have a record of
mistakes.
Josh's essay may have a lack of focus that could have been fixed
at the working thesis stage when he had just a single sentence
to rewrite.
The redundant information in Caitlin's essay could have been
prevented if she had eliminated the overlapping points in her
writing skeleton™ when she would have had to rewrite only
two sentences.
Josh and Caitlin will need your help to discover this information,
but you need the record of their work to provide them with that
help.
Keep the tracking system simple
Help students develop a simple system to keep track of their
changes so that they can
-
Track their progress
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Undo something later
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Go back to an earlier draft.
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Document their use of strategies
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Document the writing process they used.
I find the "track changes" feature introduces too many
versions into a page for most beginning writers at the college
level. I doubt middle school students would have much better success.
My trick is to save a copy of work before I start revising,
label it [essayname]1. When I finish revising for one element,
I save a copy as [essayname]2. Each successive revision is saved
with a new version number.
Learn why this tracking trick is
even more useful for editing changes than for true revisions.
And check editing for and
addicts, which shows how computer users can find and fix potential
grammar traps.
See other revision techniques
that work equally well for those who handwrite their compositions.
