Lesson plans for multiple text types support every step of the writing process.
Editing Guides
Resources to Help Check Writing Conventions
Writing A-Z provides students with Editing Guides to check writing conventions, such as capitalization,
punctuation, spelling, or sentence structure. Conventions focus young writers on the details that make
their writing ready for publishing and help readers better understand it. Editing Guides apply to any
piece of writing no matter the text type. Separate guides are provided for students at four
developmental writing levels to improve their drafts.
Editing Guides familiarize students with basic, intermediate, and advanced
copyediting marks that are commonly used when editing a writing draft.
Students learn to correct for capitalization, punctuation, spelling,
and word or sentence order in their writing.
Editing marks provided within each guide vary by developmental
writing level, but not by text type. Editing Guides can be used
across any text type because the mechanics that students should
look for at each level do not vary by text type.
How To Use Editing Guides
Traits of good writing directly addressed in the editing guides include
conventions and sentence fluency. Print copies of the Editing Guide
appropriate to your students' levels and ask them to use it to improve
their writing during the editing step of the writing process.
Consider enlarging and displaying a copy of the appropriate Editing
Guide(s) in your classroom as reference for students.
You might also pair up fluent students to use the Editing Guides to
review each other's writing during the editing step of the writing
process.
Showing of resources
Beginning
basic copyediting marks that include: capital letters, periods, and correct spelling
intermediate copyediting marks that include: capital letters, lowercase letters, periods, deletions (letters, spaces, words), correct spelling, insertions (letters, spaces, words), and switching the order of letters and words
advanced copyediting marks that include: capital letters, lowercase letters, periods, deletions (letters, words, spaces), correct spelling, insertions (letters, spaces, words), switching the order of letters and words, indenting paragraphs, and adding apostrophes or quotation marks
