Revising and editing an essay
Students will learn how to revise and edit an essay. In particular, they will focus on pronoun agreement. This is the third lesson in a series of three based upon LEARN NC's 9th grade writing exemplars.
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Related pages
- Using RAFT to determine how to write an informational essay: Students will use RAFT as a tool to determine how to write an informational essay. They will also design a graphic organizer for the assignment as well as compose a rough draft. This is the second lesson in a series of three based on the LEARN NC 9th grade writing exemplars.
- Conventions: Conventions — grammar, spelling, and the like — are important to good writing, but should be taught only after the other Features of Effective Writing.
- Lesson plans for teaching conventions: A collection of LEARN NC's lesson plans for teaching conventions, the fifth of the five features of effective writing.
Related topics
- Learn more about conventions, language arts, and writing.
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Learning outcomes
Students will know how to revise and edit an essay. In particular, they will focus on pronoun agreement.
Teacher planning
Time required for lesson
50 minutes
Materials/resources
- Highlighters
- Colored pencils
Technology resources
Access to the LEARN NC and NC DPI Writing Exemplars. This lesson will make use of the English I middle performance sample of informational writing.
Pre-activities
Students should have completed Identifying RAFT Elements in Writing Prompts and Assignments and Using RAFT to Determine How to Write an Informational Essay.
Activities
The teacher will model how to revise and edit this paper.
Show a paragraph at the time and lead students in a discussion.
- Paragraph 1: Does the introductory paragraph give a clear central idea? How could the writer make the paragraph sound like a sophisticated ninth grader? At this point help the students decide if they want to use singular (child) or plural (parents) pronouns throughout the paper.
- Paragraph 2: Have students highlight all the pronouns in the paragraph. Note that the writer starts with child and the parents. In sentence 2, what is the pronoun? Is it correct? In sentence 3, what is the pronoun? Is it correct? In sentence 4, what is wrong with “they” and parent?
- Paragraph 3: Correct “they” and “you.” Can you think of any vocabulary words that would strengthen this paragraph?
- Paragraph 4: Is the comma needed after “supporting”? Highlight the pronouns. What about “they” and “you”? What about “girl”?
- Paragraph 5: Note “good parent,” “they.”
- Paragraph 6: Note “you.”
Now have students come up with the conventions rule about consistency of pronouns.
Next have students revise their own papers by highlighting all the pronouns and checking to see if they are in agreement. Give the students a copy of DPI’s publication on the composing features and have them work with the questions, applying them to their papers. Students can then work in pairs for further revising and editing.
Assessment
Teacher should include consistency of pronouns in future rubrics to assess student understanding of singular and plural pronouns.
