PROOFREADING AND REWRITING YOUR TEXT
(taken from The Language Teacher Online, http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/98/mar/south.html
The ProcedureThe first step, of course, is for students to brainstorm and freewrite, getting all their ideas on paper. Then, if they are to correct their own papers, they should be told to set the drafts aside for a day or two, then go back and peruse them for each item on the list. An alternative would be for the teacher to collect the first drafts, keep them for a day or two, then return them with instructions on how to self-edit. In order to make sure students actually use the checklist, the teacher can require the submission of both first and second drafts. Marking CodesAfter the second draft is written, the teacher can focus primarily on content and rhetoric and use codes similar to those recommended by Raimes for errors. Codes combined with the checklist give students more practice in understanding and finding their own mistakes. After the teacher reviews the second draft, the students do another revision. I most often find this draft to be far more comprehensible than the first. The Value to Students and TeachersSelf editing with a checklist gives students information on the nature of their errors: they must read error descriptions, reread their drafts and reflect upon what corrections to make. Conversely, when student errors are just corrected by the teacher, students often pay little attention to them (Lalande). The process described above saves teachers valuable time, helps students understand and correct their own mistakes, and puts responsibility for learning on the students. It also shows the teacher--via a review of the two drafts--which mistakes students are catching and which ones they are not, thereby identifying problems to cover in class. But perhaps the biggest advantage is that if students self-edit properly, the teacher can focus on content and rhetoric. |
