Revising and Editing

Black and white photo of a person with curly hair, wearing glasses, sitting at a desk with a lamp, writing or studying. The desk is cluttered with books and papers. In the background, framed photos and artwork are visible on a mantel.
Art, Books, and Creativity
Grade Level
3 to 5 6 to 8 9 to 12
Subject Area
English/Language Arts Visual Art
Download Lesson 12

Lesson 12

Two or three 45-minute periods. Students will revise text they selected from previous writings to make sure it clearly says what they want it to say. Then, students will edit their writing to correct standard rules of language.

Key Connections

Visual Arts

  • Artists critique and rework their art before they consider it complete.
  • Critique is a process of observing, analyzing, and interpreting works of art.
  • Critique can help artists shape ideas and clarify the meaning of their work.

Writing

  • Writers revise and edit their writing before they consider it finished.
  • Revision and editing are two different processes.
  • Revision is a process of reworking the parts of writing such as detail, voice, word choice, and fluency.
  • Editing is checking a text for standard rules, such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
  • Revision can help shape ideas and clarify the meaning of the text.
  • Editing can make written texts easier to read.

Instructional Objectives

Writing

  • Students will revise a written text.
  • Students will edit a written text.

Instructional Plan

Observe

Explain to students that revision is a way to expand their ideas and help others understand what they mean to say. Revision does not mean they need to completely rewrite their texts; it means that they can choose a part of their writing, such as details, voice, word choice, or fluency, to emphasize or to rework. To edit is to check that spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are correct so the reader knows how to read the writing. Writers use these rules to clarify and emphasize what they have to say. They will need to observe their own writing carefully to revise and edit effectively.

A Closer Look

Pair students with a partner and tell each student to read their partner’s text twice: first for fun and then more slowly, paying attention to parts of writing such as voice, word choice, etc. Have each student complete these sentence stems about their partner’s text:

  • While reading your text, I noticed…
  • You caught my attention when…
  • I would like to know more about…
  • I think your text is about….

Students can either write their answers or talk with their partners about their responses. Have partners discuss how they can use each other’s comments to revise their writing.

A pink eraser with black text that says "ERASE DISCRIMINATION" and "GUERRILLA GIRLS." The eraser features an illustration of a gorilla face. The eraser is positioned at an angle on a plain, off-white surface.
Guerrilla Girls, Erase Discrimination, 1999; Pink rubber with ink screenprint, 1 1/8 x 2 1/2 x 1/4 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay; © Guerrilla Girls; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Create: Revise and Edit

Supplies

  • Student journals
  • Text selected from previous lessons
  • Computer for typing text (optional)

Activity

Revise

Choose from the following writing activities to help students revise their writing. These activities can be done individually or in groups of two or three.

Ideas are what the text is about, the message of your writing:

  • Read your text all the way through. Find a part of your writing you think is really important, such as a phrase, description, or detail that captures or expresses your idea well. Why is this part so important? What more can you say about it?
  • What do you want the reader to understand or to learn? Find a detail that perfectly expresses your meaning. What can you add to other details to make them as strong as this one? Choose one detail to revise.
  • What are you trying to say with this writing? Write one short sentence describing what your piece is about. What parts of your writing support your idea? What more can you add to these parts?

Voice is what makes the text yours. It is your feelings, personality, and opinions expressed through words:

  • Read through your text, then reread the parts where your voice stands out, places where your individuality and personality shine through. What did you do to express your voice? Find a place where your voice is not as clear and revise it.
  • Are you writing about something that is important to you? Mark a place that expresses something important to you. Then mark a place that doesn’t seem as important. Rewrite the less important part or ask yourself if you need that part at all.

Word choice refers to your use of expressive, specific words that create visual images in the reader’s mind:

  • Underline three of your juiciest words. Then underline two of the most boring words and think of more remarkable words you can use to replace them. For example, “boring” could be replaced with the words “mind-numbing,” “tedious,” “dreary,” or “irksome.”
  • Underline a word or phrase that creates a vivid image in your mind. Then find another sentence in which you could create a rich image. For example, “the sky was blue” could become “the sky glimmered with indigo and gold.”
  • Find two places in your writing where you could include at least one of the five senses. Describe how something feels, sounds, tastes, smells, or looks.

For organization and sentence fluency, check out the comprehensive PDF lesson plan.

Editing

Divide the class into four or five expert groups; each group will learn and be responsible for a particular editing skill (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, subject-verb agreement). When using expert groups, all student texts are reviewed by each expert group and then returned to the individual writers.

Review some principal editing standards:

Spelling: Correct the spelling of grade-level words, including roots, affixes, inflections, and syllable constructions.

Capitalization: Capitalize the first word in sentences and quotations; proper nouns; organizations; works of art; titles of books, movies, and music; and names of magazines and newspapers.

Punctuation: Use correct ending punctuation, commas in direct quotations and in a series, and apostrophes.

Subject-verb agreement: Make sure the verb always agrees with its subject.

Reflect

  • Have students respond to one of the following prompts in their journals.
  • What is getting easier for me in the writing process?
  • What I like about my text is….
  • I chose to write about this idea because….

Go Deeper

Check out related visual arts objectives, lesson extensions, and more in the comprehensive PDF lesson plan.

Vocabulary

Revision

Revision is a process of reworking the parts of writing such as ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and fluency.

Editing

Editing is a process of preparing a text for presentation by correcting standard rules of language such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Traits of writing

Traits of writing are the building blocks for creating literary works. The traits include ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency.