Revising and Editing - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

Revising and Editing - By Amenda Werner

Transcript


00:01	revising and editing . What's the first thing that comes
00:06	to mind when you think about revising a paper ?
00:09	Many students will come up with responses like I hate
00:12	rewriting . I already did the best that I could
00:14	with my first draft , or I wait until the
00:17	last minute to write my paper , so there's never
00:19	time for revision . Even worse , some students see
00:23	revision as a punishment for not doing well on their
00:26	first draft . Well , I'm here to tell you
00:28	that revision is not a punishment at all , but
00:31	a crucial part of writing that shouldn't be dreaded .
00:34	Ernest Hemingway revised the last page of a farewell to
00:37	arms 39 times before he was happy with it 39
00:42	times . That's because most good writers used the process
00:46	of revision to make improvements to their writings . In
00:49	fact , most writers been significantly more time on the
00:53	revision process than on the initial writing process . What
00:57	you see and published textbooks , novels , poetry and
01:00	almost every other type of writing is usually the result
01:04	of not the writers first draft , but of careful
01:07	revision through the adding , deleting , substituting and rearranging
01:11	of material until it suits the writers purpose and audience
01:14	as close to perfectly as possible . This should show
01:18	you two things . One , even great writers air
01:21	capable of bad writing and too great writers keep at
01:26	it until they get it right . Revising can be
01:29	very time consuming process . Writers can spend weeks ,
01:33	months and even years on working on revisions . This
01:36	is often while you'll see multiple editions of works being
01:39	published , many authors continuously find ways to improve their
01:43	writings . I hope that all of you will keep
01:46	this in mind and working on your own revisions this
01:48	week . Try not to see the process is an
01:51	annoying yet mandatory task required by your writing teachers .
01:55	Instead , look at it as a chance to polish
01:58	and perfect your papers . Like the pros , dio
02:03	editing is also an important step of the rewriting process
02:07	. Some students confused these two steps or believe them
02:10	to be the same thing . Keep in mind that
02:12	while revising consists of adding , deleting , substituting and
02:16	rearranging material to better suit , the authors , purpose
02:19	and audience editing is simply the reviewing and fixing of
02:23	grammatical , mechanical and stylistic errors that may have been
02:28	overlooked the first time around . While equally important ,
02:31	editing is typically not , as time consuming are complicated
02:34	as revision . Both revising and editing typically require several
02:39	different cycles . Revising a paper for form clarifying the
02:43	message and reworking to reach a particular audience usually comes
02:48	in the early cycles of rewriting , while the stylistic
02:51	concerns of adding commas , correcting spelling errors and rewording
02:55	through editing come later . Also try to remember that
02:59	both of these stages don't necessarily need to be thought
03:01	of as the steps that come at the end of
03:04	a writing process . Many writers revise and edit as
03:07	they go writing a sentence or paragraph here , then
03:11	returning to revise a previous sentence or paragraph as they
03:14	attempt to mold their writing to suit their purpose and
03:16	audience finding grammatical mechanical errors . Along the way ,
03:20	however , all good writers return back to these steps
03:24	again and again until they're satisfied with the end result
03:28	. Though the rest of your essays in this course
03:30	won't be as closely monitored for revising and editing as
03:33	your first essay , it is important to set aside
03:36	time for these steps and everything you write , whether
03:39	you like to write quickly and heavily revised and edit
03:41	later , or revise and edit as you go ,
03:44	leaving you with less to fix later . So how
03:49	do you complete thes steps ? The suggestions presented and
03:53	the rest of this video can be used to guide
03:55	you through the entire rewriting stage . Keep in mind
03:59	that these do not have to be followed in this
04:00	particular order , but I do suggest at least trying
04:04	it this way for your first attempt in future revisions
04:07	. You may choose to complete some of these tasks
04:09	at the same time , or you may run through
04:12	each of them separately . As you become a more
04:14	experienced rider , you will find the ways that work
04:17	for you . You can choose to print out your
04:19	draft and right revisions directly on the paper , or
04:23	you can use a word processor to make your change
04:25	is the most important parts of revision work to redefine
04:29	in authors purpose and audience . Reassess the message ,
04:33	reshaped the discourse and realign their meaning with linguistic forms
04:41	. Since getting your message across is the most important
04:44	part of writing a paper , I suggest starting with
04:46	finding the purpose first . One piece of advice I
04:49	like to give my students regarding rewriting is to not
04:52	try to do it all at once . Instead ,
04:55	I suggest doing a little revising here and there and
04:58	then returning back to your work a day or two
05:00	later and reading it over again . Oftentimes , you
05:03	will be able to find further ways to clarify your
05:06	message every time you come back to it . Another
05:09	piece of advice is one I've been stressing all semester
05:12	long . Have someone else read over your paper to
05:14	check for clarity . Check to see if the message
05:17	that they receive from your writing lines up with the
05:20	message that you intended to get across . If not
05:23	, ask what parts through them . Off course again
05:26	, though this past week we had the benefit of
05:28	a more formal peer review to get you started in
05:31	this direction , you won't have this advantage with every
05:34	piece you write . I highly suggest requesting your classmates
05:37	or friends reviews on all of your future writings .
05:40	Ah , point that you tried to make that you
05:43	may have thought to be obvious , for example ,
05:45	may have been missed completely by your reader . Defining
05:50	your audience is also important . First , think about
05:53	who you are writing your paper for , then look
05:56	over your paper again to get a feel for the
05:58	tone that you use . Ah , paper used for
06:01	entertainment purposes may sound light and cheery and may even
06:04	use humor to keep its audience engaged . Ah ,
06:07	professional scholarly paper typically has above average readers as its
06:11	audience . Here , the author is likelier to use
06:14	, ah , higher level of vocabulary and diction .
06:17	Whatever your audience , maybe it's important to use the
06:20	tone appropriate to them and to stay consistent throughout .
06:23	Here's some questions to use as the checklist when revising
06:27	for your purpose and audience . What's the most important
06:30	thing I want to say about my subject ? Who
06:33	am I writing this paper for ? What would my
06:35	reader want to know about the subject ? What does
06:37	my reader already know about it ? Why do I
06:40	think the subject is worth writing about ? Will my
06:43	reader think the paper was worth reading ? What verb
06:46	explains what I'm trying to do in this paper ?
06:49	For example , tell a story . Compare X ,
06:51	and why describe Z etcetera after you've done your best
06:58	to clarify your purpose and audience work towards reshaping your
07:01	paper in a way that makes the most sense and
07:04	get your message across to the reader as clearly as
07:06	possible . Make an outline of your paper and check
07:10	to see if the organization is still conducive to your
07:13	overall purpose . Sometimes , even if you make an
07:16	outline prior to writing your paper , you may find
07:18	that your original structure didn't work as well as you
07:21	thought it would . This step of revising consists of
07:24	adding , subtracting , substituting or rearranging whole chunks of
07:29	material until you come as close to perfect as you
07:31	can , with the ultimate goal of getting your message
07:34	across to the reader as clearly as possible concerning overall
07:39	organization . Ask yourself the following questions . How Maney
07:43	specific points did I make about my subject ? Did
07:46	I overlap or repeat any points ? Did I leave
07:49	any points out or add some that aren't relevant to
07:52	the main idea ? How many paragraphs did I used
07:55	to talk about each point ? Why did I talk
07:58	about them in this order ? Should the order be
08:00	changed ? How did I get from one point to
08:03	the next ? What sign posts did I give the
08:05	reader after you've done your best to correct the overall
08:11	structure of your paper , do the same thing for
08:13	each individual paragraph you can improve paragraphs by one .
08:18	Adjusting the topic sentence to adding , deleting , substituting
08:23	or rearranging supporting details . Three . Improving transitions for
08:28	clarity or four reorganizing sentences to change where the emphasis
08:33	lies . Think back to our previous lesson on paragraph
08:37	ing and make sure each sentence is somehow related to
08:40	the others . Delete any material that isn't for every
08:45	paragraph . Ask yourself these questions . What job is
08:49	this paragraph supposed to dio ? How does it relate
08:51	to the paragraph before and after it ? What's the
08:54	topic idea ? Will my reader have trouble finding it
08:58	? How many sentences did it take to develop the
09:00	topic idea ? Can I substitute better examples , reasons
09:04	or details ? How well does the paragraph hold together
09:08	? How maney levels of generality does it have ?
09:10	Are the sentences different lengths and types ? Do I
09:14	need transitions ? When I read the paragraph out loud
09:17	? Does it flow smoothly ? Finally , work on
09:22	correcting any sentence problems that you may come across .
09:25	First check to make sure each sentence could be considered
09:28	a complete sentence . Oftentimes , and experienced riders may
09:32	accidentally right sentence fragments , run ons or common spices
09:36	that might not be caught without a re reading at
09:39	this point , you can also go ahead and check
09:41	for sentence variety . If every sentence has written in
09:44	the same way , you might bore your reader writing
09:47	that uses sentence Variety is likelier to come off as
09:51	more professional , and your reader will know that you
09:53	worked hard and spent time organizing your writing in the
09:56	clearest way possible . Instead of just quickly jotting down
09:59	your ideas of the last minute . As you're doing
10:02	this , go ahead and check for repetition as well
10:05	. You don't want to use the same words over
10:07	and over again , or it will look like you
10:09	didn't put any effort into your writing . Consider using
10:12	a thesaurus is necessary , right ? Clicking on a
10:15	word in Microsoft Word gives you the option of finding
10:19	synonyms for it , which makes this step rather easy
10:22	. Another method to consider is cutting out the lard
10:25	, a term that scholar Richard Lin um uses to
10:28	refer to extra words and phrases that are unnecessary and
10:32	may obscure the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph
10:35	. Here's an example from his book Revising pros original
10:41	. I think that all I can usefully say on
10:43	this point is that in the normal course of their
10:46	professional activities . Social anthropologists are usually concerned with the
10:50	third of these alternatives , while the other two levels
10:53	air treated as raw data for analysis . And here's
10:57	the revision . Social anthropologists usually concentrate on the third
11:01	alternative , treating the other two as raw data .
11:06	This one is 15 words instead of 44 giving it
11:09	a large factor of 66% . Ask these questions of
11:15	every sentence which sentences in my paper . Do I
11:18	like the most the least ? Can my readers see
11:21	what I'm saying ? Does the sentence contain lard that
11:25	needs to be cut out ? Can I combine these
11:28	sentences with another one ? Can I add adjectives and
11:31	adverbs or find a more lively verb ? By now
11:37	you have completed several different cycles of revision , each
11:40	with a separate reading of your draft . First you
11:43	read it to evaluate your overall message and the relationships
11:46	established among the reader , writer and subject . Next
11:50	, you read to test the overall organization of your
11:53	paper and another reading you examined paragraph structure and another
11:58	sentence construction in diction . The final step is to
12:02	clean up the surface features such as punctuation , mechanics
12:06	and spelling , though most of you have a pretty
12:09	firm grasp on these concepts . Some of you might
12:12	benefit from a trip to the writing center . You
12:15	can also try reading your paper backwards to spot the
12:17	more obvious mistakes . Such a spelling errors . Ask
12:21	yourself the following questions after you at it . Did
12:24	I check spelling and punctuation ? What kinds of words
12:28	do I usually misspell ? What kind of punctuation problems
12:31	do I usually have ? How does my paper end
12:34	? Did I keep the promises I made to the
12:36	reader at the beginning of the paper when I read
12:39	the assignment again , did I miss anything ? What
12:42	do I like best about this paper ? And how
12:44	can I improve my next paper this week ? Your
12:49	main task will be to revise and edit your papers
12:52	. I hope to see some significant revisions in your
12:54	final drafts , which is due by the end of
12:57	the week . At this point , you will have
12:59	practiced all of the steps of the writing process for
13:01	this essay , including pre writing , outlining , drafting
13:05	, revising and editing . Okay , though we won't
13:08	spend as much time on each of these steps on
13:10	future essays , you should make sure to continue following
13:14	these guidelines on your own . Now that you've got
13:16	a better understanding of the writing process , though ,
13:18	you're welcome to use the whatever board to work with
13:21	your classmates on reviews . I hope that your confidence
13:24	in your writing is starting to rise . At this
13:26	point . Get ready to celebrate the completion of your
13:28	first essay and have a great week .

Summarizer

DESCRIPTION:

In this video students learn the difference between revising and editing.

OVERVIEW:

Revising and Editing is a free educational video by Amenda Werner.It helps students in grades 2 practice the following standards W.2.5.

This page not only allows students and teachers view Revising and Editing but also find engaging Sample Questions, Apps, Pins, Worksheets, Books related to the following topics.

1. W.2.5 : With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.