The Writing Process: Editing

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Editing is a very important part of the writing process.

If you have not yet completed or wish to review the previous Related Lessons in The Writing Process series, you can find them in the right-hand sidebar.

When you edit, you fix the grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation mistakes in your writing.

Take notes on the definition of editing as well as the questions you should ask yourself during each editing step as you watch Editing Writing for Kids! |First and Second Grade| from Teaching Without Frills:

Let’s recap what you just watched.

Use the questions from the video to edit this paragraph:

First, check the grammar. Look at the sentences and ask these questions:

• Do my sentences sound right?
• Did I use nouns and verbs correctly?

Look at the sentence, “Last summer we goed on one with our frends?”

• Is goed the correct verb?

No, it is not the correct verb.

• What word should you use instead of goed?

Yes! The correct verb is went!

The next sentence that has a grammar problem is, “we eats chiken and had wallermelon two!” There are two problems in the sentence.

• Do you see them?

First, you should use ate not eats.

• Did you catch that one?

Then, the last word two is a number and not the correct word to use. It should be the word too.

Another sentence with grammar problems is, “We plays Games with our frends til dark.” The word plays is not the correct verb.

• What should it be?

Terrific! It should be played.

One last sentence has a grammar problem. The sentence says, “Then we goed home.”

• Is goed the correct word?

No! Just like in the first sentence reviewed, it should be the verb went.

Now, rewrite the paragraph to see the changes made so far:

The next step is to check the spelling in the paragraph. Use these questions:

• Did I spell sight words correctly?
• Did I use word chunks I know?
• Did I stretch out every word?

Look at the sight words first.

• Are there any sight words that are misspelled?

In the second sentence, the word gong should be going. Also, in the fifth sentence, the word til should be until.

• What about other misspelled words?
• Are there any in the first sentence?

Yes, picnick should be spelled picnic. That word is also misspelled in the second sentence.

• Are there any misspelled words in the third sentence?
• What about the word frends? Is that spelled correctly?

No, it should be spelled friends. The same word is misspelled in the fifth sentence.

In the fourth sentence, there are two misspelled words.

• Do you see them?

They are chiken and wallermelon. Chicken is spelled with a ck not just a k. Wallermelon actually has the t sound, so it should be spelled watermelon.

• Is that all the misspelled words?

It is, so rewrite the paragraph with the new corrections:

It is starting to look better! Next, check the capitalization using the questions:

• Did I capitalize the first word of every sentence?
• Did I capitalize the names of people and places?
• Did I capitalize the word I?
• Did I make all the other letters lowercase?

Look at the paragraph.

• Do all the sentences start with a capital letter?

No!

• Which sentences need a capital letter?

Yes, the first one needs a capital D. The fourth sentence also needs a capital letter. It needs a capital W. All of the other sentences begin with a capital letter.

• Next, are the names of people and places capitalized?

There aren’t any special names of people or places in this paragraph.

• Is the word I capitalized in the paragraph?

Yes it is!

• Lastly, are all the other letters lowercase?

No! The word Games should not be capitalized.

Take a look at the new paragraph now:

The last thing to check is punctuation.

• Is there a punctuation mark at the end of every sentence?
• Where does it need end punctuation?

“I love going on a picnic” needs a period after picnic. There should also be one at the end of the last sentence, “Then we went home.”

• Do the other punctuation marks match the type of sentences written?

That's right! The first and the third sentences are not correct.

The first sentence should end with a question mark because "Do you like to go on a picnic" is a question. The third sentence should end in a period because "Last summer we went on one with our friends" is not a question.

The final paragraph should look like this:

• Do you think the edited paragraph is an improvement?
• Why do you think so?

Now that you have made some edits, move on to the Got It? section to practice what you have learned.